The Character of Our Immigration 13 



cruel, and unnecessarily severe to the 

 immigrants. 



The alien contract- labor law, which 

 was passed for the protection of the 

 American workmen, to prevent the in- 

 troduction of alien laborers to take the 

 place of native labor on strike, is so 

 well known in Europe that those de- 

 siring can violate this law with impu- 

 nity, inasmuch as the only means of 

 detecting such violations is the immi- 

 grant's own confession. 



A system has grown up whereby 

 aliens are brought to this country to 

 work under contract, and the place of 

 employment, the name of the employer, 

 and all the essential facts which, if in 

 the knowledge of the alien and ad- 

 mitted by him to the inspecting officer, 

 might convict him are withheld from 

 him until after his arrival here. This 

 system, which has been in active opera- 

 tion for several years, is responsible for 

 the open and flagrant violation of this 

 law. The law needs to be strengthened ; 

 the real danger to the American work- 

 man, however, does not come from the 

 aliens coming under contract, but from 

 the class so well described in the Presi- 

 dent's annual message as " below a cer- 

 tain standard of economic fitness to 

 enter our industrial fields as competi- 

 tors with American labor. ' ' 



There is more danger from a dozen 

 aliens who are thrown on the streets of 

 New York penniless and friendless, and 

 compelled to take any situations that 

 they can get, without regard to wages 

 or conditions, or starve, than from dou- 

 ble or treble the number of contract 

 laborers. 



The first means the lowering of all 

 standards of living, and is beyond com- 

 petition ; the latter at its worst can be 

 partially kept under control, even with 

 our present defective laws and adverse 

 court decisions. 



The intending traveler is schooled to 

 pass every question long before sailing, 

 and when a new scheme to evade the 



law is discovered and provided against, 

 it only takes about a month for the 

 immigrant arriving to know all about 

 the new regulation. 



Anarchists and criminals are not boast- 

 ing of their record before inspection, 

 and while the proportion of immigrants 

 who actually possess criminal records at 

 home is comparatively small, those that 

 have criminal proclivities constitute a 

 larger proportion. Many of the former 

 class, and most of the latter, will be 

 able to evade any form of inspection 

 that may be devised. Their undesira- 

 bility can only be demonstrated by their 

 careers after landing in this country. 

 It is perfectly proper to adopt any meas- 

 ures to prevent the coming of such peo- 

 ple. But however well such an inspec- 

 tion service be organized and conducted, 

 it must, to accomplish to any extent the 

 desired object, be supplemented by some 

 provision for apprehending and deport- 

 ing those who gain admission to the 

 country from lack of evidence at the 

 time of examination to show that they 

 are not entitled to land. 



THE EXAMINATION OF IMMIGRANTS 



Immigration inspection, in the sense of 

 sifting the desirable from the undesira- 

 ble and deporting those not coming up 

 to a certain standard, has only been in 

 operation since 1890. Prior to 1857 in- 

 coming aliens landed at the docks. In 

 that year, mostly for health reasons, 

 Castle Garden was opened as an immi- 

 grant landing station, continuing as such 

 until 1890. 



Secretary Windom in that year took 

 the service under federal control and 

 moved the station to the Barge Office in 

 New York. The building of a new 

 wooden station at Ellis Island caused the 

 removal there in 1892; in 1897 this was 

 burned down, necessitating again going 

 to the Barge Office for over three years. 

 The new immigrant buildings on Ellis 

 Island are especially constructed for the 

 work of receiving, examining, detaining, 



