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termed a one year total exclusion bill. 
The measure, known as the Johnson 
bill, does not suspend immigration. It 
would limit it, for a period of one year 
after enactment, to the near blood- 
relations of naturalized citizens of 
foreign birth, and of aliens who apply 
for naturalization. What the num- 
bers of these relatives may be, no one 
can tell, but it is perfectly safe to say 
that several hundreds of thousands of 
immigrants could be admitted if the 
bill became law. Further, there are 
provisions for the admission of un- 
skilled laborers, and of domestic ser- 
vants, and for the suspension of the 
illiteracy test in certain cases. The 
measure, then, while giving us more 
restriction than we have at present, is 
in no way drastic, and by no means 
meets the emergency. The Senate has, 
at present writing, taken no action. 
That additional legislation is needed, 
and needed at once, is the conviction 
of every competent and unprejudiced 
student of our immigration problems. 
Among the many suggestions which 
have been made is the proposal which 
rests on the conviction that one of the 
best evidences that our different groups 
of foreigners have been assimilated is 
that they have become naturalized. 
The plan is to limit the number of new 
alien arrivals who shall be admitted 
from a country in any one year to a 
certain percentage of our previous im- 
migrants from that country who have 
since become naturalized in the United 
States. According to the provisions of 
some of these bills, the exact percentage, 
within certain fixed limits, is to be deter- 
mined by the Secretary of Labor, or bya 
commission, with reference to the labor 
conditions which may exist at the time. 
Such a plan has the merit of being more 
than a temporary measure; of being 
simple, direct and logical, and also of 
being sufficiently elastic to respond to 
varying economic conditions. 
There is no subject before Congress 
of equal importance to that of immi- 
gration, which touches our National 
life in so many ways. Immigration has 
far-reaching economic and _ political 
effects, but its effects upon the char- 
The Journal of Heredity 
acter of the race are the most important 
of all. Congress will act, and act wisely 
and quickly, if the will of the great mass 
of our people who believe in restriction 
makes itself felt. But if we do not 
bestir ourselves, the steamship com- 
panies, and the large employers of 
“cheap labor,’ and the societies of 
foreign-born hyphenates will carry the 
day, as they have so often done in the 
past. 
The economic aspects of immigration 
are those which are still given the most 
prominence, and which attract most 
public attention. Those of us who are 
concerned chiefly with problems of 
heredity and who demand a far more 
careful selection of the incoming aliens 
on the basis of their mental and physi- 
cal condition, are, however, entirely in 
accord with those who ask for a further 
numerical restriction for economic rea- 
sons. Two things are absolutely essen- 
tial. The first is a rigid and impartial 
enforcement of the existing law regard- 
ing the exclusion of mentally and physi- 
cally undesirable aliens. The second is 
a radical reduction in the numbers of 
aliens who shall be admitted to the 
United States in any year. It cannot 
be too often or too strongly empha- 
sized that, as Dr. T. W. Salmon pointed 
out several years ago, any measure 
which checks the flow of immigration 
in general must necessarily result in the 
admission of fewer mentally and physi- 
cally undesirable immigrants. Further, 
with a reduction in the numbers, medi- 
cal and general inspection can always 
be far more effective, and the aliens with 
mental and physical defects which 
render them highly undesirable as 
contributors to the blood of the 
American stock can be more often 
detected and debarred. Thus those 
who are primarily concerned about the 
character of the future American people 
have every reason for uniting with 
those who are chiefly interested in the 
purely economic aspects of alien immi- 
gration in demanding (1) a strict en- 
forcement of existing law, and (2) a 
radical reduction of the numbers of 
aliens who shall be permitted to enter 
the United States. Jan, 1, 19206 
