ALIENS DEBARRED AT UNITED STATES PORTS, 1892 TO 1910.

The first United States immigration law to specifically exclude any classes of aliens from the country was the act of March 3, 1875. By the terms of that act criminals and women imported for the purpose of prostitution were denied admission at United States ports. The law of 1875, however, was enacted chiefly for the purpose of controlling Chinese immigration to the Pacific coast and, particularly at Atlantic ports, was indiferently enforced. The immigration act of August 3, 1882, which was the first serious attempt on the part of the Federal Government to control the immigration movement, prohibited the landing at United States ports of convicts, lunatics, idiots, and persons unable to care for themselves without becoming public charges. The administration of this law was delegated to the various States at whose ports immigrants entered and the number debarred for the causes specified was not large. The first contractlabor law was approved February 26, 1885, and under its terms aliens under contract to labor in this country were added to the class of excluded immigrants.

The first really comprehensive immigration law, however, was the act of March 3, 1891.6 This provided for the direct control of immigration by the Federal Government rather than through the agency of the States. A careful inspection of immigrants at United States ports was inaugurated and the following classes were excluded from the United States: Idiots, insane persons, paupers, or persons likely to become a public charge, persons suffering from a loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease, criminals, polygamists, and certain classes of assisted immigrants. The act of 1891 further provided that rejected immigrants should, if practicable, be immediately sent back on the vessel bringing them, the cost of their maintenance while awaiting deportation and the expense of their return to be borne by the owners of the vessel. This legislation marked the real beginning of the systematic examination of immigrants at United States ports, and the statistics of rejections shown in the table which follows date from the time the act of 1891 became effective. The various immigration laws enacted since 1891 have contained many additions to the excluded classes above enumerated, and with increased immigration and a stricter interpretation and enforcement of the law the number of debarments has multiplied in recent years.

It will be noted by the table which follows that the number of rejections on account of loathsome or dangerous contagious diseases increased greatly following the year 1897. This increase was due to the fact that in that year trachoma was classed by the United States Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service as a dangerous contagious disease within the meaning of the immigration law of 1891. By far the greater part of rejections under the head of "loathsome or dangerous contagious diseases" since 1898 have been on account of trachoma. Moreover, this decision of the Public Health and MarineHospital Service resulted in a more careful medical inspection of intending emigrants at foreign ports of embarkation and a consequent rejection of many thousands at such ports annually.

a See Vol. II, p. 569.

b See Vol. II, p. 571.

Granulation of the conjunctiva of the eyelids, attended by inflammation.Webster.

d See pp. 199 and 200.