In the Senate the bill was amended by the insertion of a literacy test which provided for the exclusion from the United States of "all persons over 16 years of age and physically capable of reading, who can not read the English language or some other language; but an admissible immigrant or a person now in or hereinafter admitted to this country may bring in or send for his wife, his children under 18 years of age, and his parents or grandparents over 50 years of age, if they are otherwise admissible, whether they are able to read or not." The bill as amended passed the Senate May 23, 1906, and in the House was referred to the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization. This committee recommended the substitution of a House bill which, however, did not differ materially from that of the Senate. The head tax provision was the same, and the additions to the excluded classes practically so, and the House bill included a literacy test similar to that of the Senate. The bill as originally reported by the House committee also provided for the exclusion of every adult male who had not $25 in his possession, and every female alien and every male alien under 16 years of age not possest of $15, provided that $50 in the possession of the head of the family would be considered a sufficient amount for all members of such family, except grown sons.

In a subsequent bill and report, presented June 11, 1906, however, the money qualification feature was omitted. The reports of the House committee were accompanied by a minority report, signed by two members of the committee, Mr. Bennet and Mr. Ruppert, both of New York, in which the increased head tax and the educational test provisions were disagreed to. In the House of Representatives the bill was

amended by striking out the increased head-tax provision and the provision for a literacy test, by inserting a section creating the Immigration Commission, and by adopting the so-called Littauer amendment which provided as follows:

That an immigrant who proves that he is seeking admission to this country solely to avoid prosecution or punishment on religious or political grounds, for an offense of a political character, or prosecution involving danger of punishment, or danger to life or limb on account of religious belief, shall not be deported because of want of means or the probability of his being unable to earn a livelihood.

In conference the Senate receded from its provision relative to a literacy test; the House receded from the Littauer amendment; the head-tax provision was compromised by making it $4, instead of $5 as provided by the Senate, and $2 as provided by the House; the House amendment creating the Immigration Commission was agreed to with an amendment, which provided that the Commission should consist of three Senators, three members of the House of Representatives, and three persons to be appointed by the President of the United States, instead of two Senators, three members of the House, and two citizen members, as was provided in the House amendment. The Commission was directed to make a complete investigation and to report its findings to Congress. The President was also authorized at his discretion to call an international conference for the purpose of regulating immigration.

The conferees also added a new section (Sec. 42) to the bill amending Section I of the passenger act of 1882 relative to air space allotted steerage passen

gers, and amended Section 1 of the immigration bill under consideration by inserting the following provision:

That whenever the President shall be satisfied that passports issued by any foreign government to its citizens to go to any country other than the United States, or to any insular possession of the United States, or to the Canal Zone, are being used for the purpose of enabling the holders to come to the continental territory of the United States to the detriment of labor conditions therein, the President may refuse to permit such citizens of the country issuing such passports to enter the continental territory of the United States from any other country or from such insular possessions or from the Canal Zone.

Later this provision of the law was utilized for the purpose of excluding Japanese and Korean laborers from the United States. This bill was approved February 20, 1907, and is the present law on the subject of immigration.

Legislation for the Suppression of the White-Slave Traffic

By the act of March 26, 1910, sections two and three of the immigration law of February 20, 1907, were amended to prevent more effectively the importation of women and girls for immoral purposes and their control by importers and others after their admission to the United States, following recommendations of the Immigration Commission on that subject.

By the act of March 26th the following were added to the classes excluded by Section 2 of the Immigration Act: "Persons who are supported by or

receive in full or in part the proceeds of prostitution.” Under the terms of the act of 1907 "women or girls coming into the United States for the purpose of prostitution or for any other immoral purpose," were specifically excluded from the United States. Under that law, however, there was no specific provision for the exclusion of that particularly reprehensible class of persons referred to in the act of March 26, 1910. By the amendment of Section 3 of the law of 1907, additional means were provided for the punishment and deportation of aliens who in any way profited by or derived benefit from the proceeds of prostitution. The agitation regarding the white-slave traffic also resulted in the enactment of a law prohibiting the transportation of persons from one State to another for the purposes of prostitution, providing for drastic punishment of those engaged in this awful traffic.

The Dillingham-Burnett Bill

After the report of the Immigration Commission, recommending emphatically restriction of immigration with the purpose of maintaining among wage-earners in the United States a high standard of living, and indicating the literacy test as the most feasible method of restriction, bills were introduced into Congress by Senator Dillingham and Congressman Burnett, both of whom had been members of the Commission. The separate bills passed the two Houses and in conference committee the form of the literacy test proposed in the Burnett bill was incorporated into the Dillingham bill, which included also detailed provisions for the administration of the immigration service, and in that form was finally adopted by both Houses. President

Taft, after much consideration, acting on the advice of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, Mr. Nagel, vetoed the bill. It was promptly repassed by more than the needed two-thirds vote in the Senate, but by five votes failed to receive in the House the necessary two-thirds majority. The sole reason for this veto given by the President was the literacy test which, in his judgment and that of the Secretary, was contrary to the principles of American institutions. It is fair to say that this test was urged by the Immigration Commission not primarily for the sake of excluding illiterates as such, but because the illiterate immigrants are, in the main, men from southern and eastern Europe who come to this country without their families often with the intention of returning to their home country after only a brief period of residence. These classes are the most dangerous competitors of American workingmen and it is they, primarily, who threaten the American standard of living↓ On that account it was thought the literacy test would prove to be the best practical method of restriction. Moreover, it seemed to be the one method that would certainly receive the approval of Congress.

The Second Dillingham Bill

After the failure of the Dillingham-Burnett bill further study of the question led Senator Dillingham to suggest a new method of restriction of immigration which should not be open to the objections to the literacy test raised by President Taft. He, therefore, on June 2, 1913, introduced a bill regarding which he made the following statement explaining its method, purpose and probable results:*

The Bill in full will be found printed in Appendix A.