IMMIGRATION. 169 



the undesirable classes excluded under previous laws, we find in this 

 act that epileptics, and 'anarchists or persons who believe in or advo- 

 cate the overthrow, by force or violence, of the Government of the 

 United States, or of all Government, or of all forms of law, or the 

 assassination of public officials' are excluded. 



The utter disregard shown by the steamship companies for United 

 States laws in permitting diseased persons to take passage for America, 

 when their diseased condition must have been apparent, was responsible 

 for the imposition of a penalty of one hundred dollars for bringing to 

 our ports any alien suffering from a loathsome or dangerous contagious 

 disease, which might have been detected by means of a competent med- 

 ical examination, at the time of embarkation. 



It will be noted from the foregoing summary of immigration legisla- 

 tion that nearly all the laws have been passed since 1880. It is a sig- 

 nificant fact that previous to that time immigration came chiefly from 

 Great Britain and Ireland, Germany and the Scandinavian countries. 

 With the rapid and progressive increase of immigration from Eussia, 

 Austria- Hungary, Italy, and other countries of southern and eastern 

 Europe, deterioration in the quality of immigration was sufficiently 

 marked to indicate the necessity for more thorough regulation and 

 restriction. The favorite method of evasion of our immigration laws 

 was to send the questionable immigrant by way of Canada. By the 

 courtesy of the Canadian government and by virtue of an agreement 

 with the transportation companies our officers are permitted to ex- 

 amine, at Canadian ports, immigrants destined to the United States 

 through Canada, but defective immigrants evaded this inspection by 

 being manifested as destined to Canada. The Canadian law was for- 

 merly much less exacting than our own, and these people after landing 

 and remaining in Canada a short time, could slip over the border with- 

 out inspection. An effective system of border inspection was instituted 

 by the United States immigration authorities, to prevent the smuggling 

 of these immigrants across the Canadian border. The difficulty of 

 guarding over three thousand miles of frontier can be appreciated, how- 

 ever, and the passage of a Canadian law (1902), at least approaching 

 our own standard, has been welcomed as an addition to our defenses. 



The provision made for excluding anarchists and persons of like 

 tendencies has already been applied to some of these disturbers, and 

 promises to be very effective in this direction. 



Our contract labor laws have been materially strengthened by 

 the act of 1903. There is no longer ground for misapprehension as to 

 whether the laws were to apply to unskilled labor alone — or to both 

 skilled and unskilled. 



