322 



The Journal of Heredity 



The percentage bill was before 

 Congress, in one form or another, dur- 

 ing most of last winter. There never 

 was any doubt that it would become 

 law before simimer. Although the 

 exact number of aliens of each nation- 

 alit\' could not be ofticialK' determined 

 at the moment of the enactment of 

 the measure, the steamship companies 

 had ample time to make plans to meet 

 the new conditions. The\- were in no 

 sense "caught," as one editor has 

 expressed it. The logical, and the 

 himiane, policy on their part would 

 have been to refuse i)assage to all 

 aliens who might, when the exact 

 percentages of admissible immigrants 

 were annoimced, be refused permission 

 to land. But these companies accep- 

 ted as steerage passengers several thous- 

 ands of aliens who would, beyond a 

 doubt, be excludable. There is little 

 doubt that these excess aliens were 

 shipped with the conviction that the 

 sympathies of "sentimentalists" and 

 of certain Congressmen who are inter- 

 ested in the "foreign vote" would be so 

 aroused that some special provision 

 would be made for the landing of the 

 excess numbers. The steamship 

 companies deserve absolutely no s>'m- 

 pathy. They accepted the passage 

 money of thousands of aliens who 

 should never have been allowed to 

 embark. They have no interest in 

 their steerage passengers beyond the 

 receipt of their passage money. The 

 Commissioner-(ieneral of Immigration 

 said in Washington on Jime 10 last that 

 there were then more than 10, 000 

 immigrants in excess of the June quota 

 already on their way to the United 

 States, and all zvere accepted for passai^e 

 after the yunv law had ^one into effect! 



The monthly "iiumigrant Derbx," 

 when, during the last few minutes of 

 each month, incoming steamships race 

 from beyond the three-mile limit to 

 quarantine in the efTort to land their 

 steerage passengers in time to ha\e 

 them come within the fjuota, and the 

 numerous cases of har(lshi|) when the 

 excess aliens have to be debarred, 

 could be a\(>i(lefl if all the steamship 

 companies were honesth' cndeaNoring 



to live up to the law. The trans- 

 Atlantic steamship lines have a system 

 of daily exchange of information as to 

 the numbers of alien passengers who 

 are embarking on their several ships. 

 No excess over the allotted quota need 

 therefore be starte 1 on the voyage. 



Although practicalK- all of the diffi- 

 culties, and the hardships to debarred 

 aliens, were due to the flagrant disre- 

 gard of the law on the part of the 

 steamship companies, the Administra- 

 tion \ery properly felt that everything 

 possible should be done to save 

 needless suffering of perfectly innocent 

 aliens. Hence, about mid-September, 

 the .State Department sent instructions 

 to American consular officers abroad 

 not to \ise passports from any country 

 whose annual admission quota to the 

 United States is approaching exhaus- 

 tion, or has already been exhausted. 

 This should do a great deal to reduce 

 the number of cases of hardship and of 

 disappointment for which, be it reiter- 

 ated, the steamship companies, not the 

 laws, are chiefly responsible. 



PROPAGANDA AGAINST THE NEW LAW 



K\en before the new law w-ent into 

 effect, a very active press campaign 

 against it was begun. The law has been 

 subjected to an organized attack by 

 "interested" indi\iduals, alien racial 

 groups and luphenated societies, and 

 certain inthkulial newspapers. All of 

 these are bent on making any perceni- 

 age limitation scheme appear unrea- 

 sonable, unjust and inhimiane. All of 

 them are. fundamently, opposed to 

 any action on the part of the American 

 Ciovernment to protect our country 

 against practicalK- imrestricted and 

 tmselected immigration. In the case 

 of induential newspapers which are 

 incessantly attacking the new law it 

 may incidently be noted that they all 

 carry heavy steamship advertising. In 

 the case of other papers also, the motive 

 is plainly that of the pocket-book. 

 Thus, the Bulletin of the Associated 

 (ieneral Contractors has said that the 

 effect of the law will be to "prevent the 

 inuiiigration to this country of the most 

 useful class of immigrants the com- 



