126 ALLAN MC LAUGHLIN 



sible, all undesirable immigrants. A jealous regard for the 

 public weal may demand measures and standards which seem 

 to the humanitarian and philanthropist selfish and inhuman; 

 but charity begins at home, and it is the right of Americans to 

 exclude the undesirable and to employ whatever measures and 

 set whatever standards may seem necessary to exclude any 

 class which menaces the social or physical welfare of the coun- 

 try. 



If we debar any undesirable class of immigrants under 

 the law, we should endeavor to make the law as nearly perfect 

 as possible and debar all undesirable classes. We debar the 

 immigrant with trachoma, syphilis, leprosy or favus; also the 

 insane, the epileptic and the idiotic, but we admit the immi- 

 grant with poor physique, unless it is so marked as to make 

 him imdeniably a public charge. 



There should be but one standard of physique for the 

 immigrant, no matter whether his destination be the Penn- 

 sylvania mines or the New York sweat shops. The skilled 

 laborer should be expected to possess the same rugged physique 

 as is now expected of the unskilled laborer. The standard 

 should be fixed by law by comparison with other well recog- 

 nized standards of physique, and should be sufficiently high 

 to exclude all who could not beyond doubt make a living at 

 hard manual labor. The wording of the law should be definite 

 enough to make the medical certificate of poor physique equiv- 

 alent to deportation. 



This requirement of a definite physical standard in immi- 

 grants could be exacted without undue hardship of all mimar- 

 ried male immigrants within certain age limits, for instance 

 eighteen to forty five. In regard to families, comprising 

 women, children and old men, in addition to males between 

 the ages of eighteen and forty-five, each family should be re- 

 quired to have at least one member constituting its chief sup- 

 port who could comply with the physical requirements of the 

 law. The law need not apply to parents coming here to join 

 their children, provided the children had established a home 

 here and presented evidence of ability to care properly for 

 their parents. 



If the thousands of recruits for the sweat shop army which 



