affairs of immigration within such State. This law provided that foreign convicts (excepting those convicted of political offenses), lunatics, idiots, and persons likely to become public charges, should not be permitted to land.

On February 26, 1885, the first act of Congress forbidding the importation of contract labor was approved. This law was defective in that it did not provide for inspection, nor was any arrangement made for the general execution of the provisions of the law, or for the deportation of the contract laborer himself. It was amended by the act of February 23, 1887, and again by that of October 9, 1888, the Secretary of the Treasury being given the authority to deport within the year any immigrant landed contrary to this law. From 1882 to 1888, aside from the enactment of the contract labor laws referred to, there was little attempt at other immigrant legislation. Numerous bills in amendment of the laws of 1882 were introduced in Congress, but no action was taken upon them.

The subject of immigration continued to be a matter of interest, however, and in 1889 a standing Committee on Immigration in the Senate and a Select Committee on Immigration and Naturalization in the House were established. In 1890, these committees were authorized jointly to make an inquiry relative to immigration, and to investigate the workings of the various laws of the United States, and of the several States relative to immigration. A number of reports were submitted, the conclusion of the committee being that a radical change in the immigration laws was not advisable, altho it had been found that throughout the country there existed a demand for a stricter enforce

ment of the immigration laws. During 1890 one or more political parties in 23 States had demanded additional regulation of immigration, and further legislation was passed by Congress and approved by the President on March 3, 1891.

This act, as in the case of that of 1882, provided for a head tax of 50 cents, merely to defray the expenses of securing a proper administration of the law. Persons suffering from a loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease, and polygamists, were added to the classes excluded by the act of 1882, and it was also provided that "assisted persons, unless affirmatively shown that they did not belong to any excluded class," should be debarred. The contract labor law was strengthened by prohibiting the encouragement of immigration by promises of employment through advertisements published in any foreign country, and transportation companies were forbidden to solicit or encourage immigration.

Under the law of 1891 the office of Superintendent of Immigration was authorized, and for the first time Federal control of immigration was completely and definitely established, United States officials exercising the functions which, under the law of 1882, had been delegated to the States. It now became the duty of the commanding officer of every vessel carrying aliens to report to the proper inspection officials the name, nationality, last residence and destination of all such immigrants; all decisions of the inspection officials refusing any alien the right to land were final, unless appeal was taken to the Secretary of the Treasury; the medical examinations of immigrants at United States ports were to be made by surgeons of the United States Marine-Hospital Service; and for the

first time an inspection of immigrants on the borders of Canada and Mexico was established. Another provision not found in the law of 1882 was that which allowed the return within a year after arrival of any alien who was found to have entered the United States in violation of law, such return being at the expense of the transportation company or person bringing such alien into the country.

The Investigations of 1892

Notwithstanding the new law, however, the question of immigration continued to receive attention in Congress, and was extensively agitated throughout the country, a strong movement for restriction being developed, owing to the industrial depression, 18901896, and the general curtailment of employment. Extensive investigations were also conducted by joint committees of Congress and by the Industrial Commission, but with the exception of an amendment to an appropriation act in 1894, raising the head tax on immigrants from 50 cents to $1.00, no immigration legislation was enacted until 1903. The agitation of the subject in Congress was continuous, however, and the period is interesting chiefly because of the adoption by both houses of Congress of a bill providing for an educational test for immigrants and the veto of the bill by President Cleveland.

The final report of the Industrial Commission, containing recommendations relative to immigration legislation, was submitted to Congress on February 20, 1902, and shortly afterward a bill was introduced in the House which was substantially in accord with the recommendations made. The principal object of the

bill was to codify in concise form all immigration legislation previously enacted, from the act of March 3, 1875, to the act of 1894, and to arrange the legislation in regular order and sequence according to the specific subjects dealt with in the bill.

When the Industrial Commission bill was before the House, an amendment was added providing for the exclusion of all persons over 15 who were unable to read the English language or some other language, excepting the wives, children under 18 years of age, and parents and grandparents of admissible immigrants. The amendment was adopted in the House by a vote of 86 to 7, and the bill thus amended passed the House on May 27, 1902. The Senate did not act upon it until the following session. Besides eliminating the educational test, and raising the head tax from $1 to $2, the Senate also added provisions making it unlawful for any person to assist in the unlawful entry or naturalization of alien anarchists, all of which amendments were accepted by the House. Before the final passage of the bill a provision was added providing that no alien, even if belonging to the excluded classes, should be deported if liable to execution for a religious offense in the country from which he came, but this provision was eliminated in conference. The bill was approved by the President, March 3, 1903.

From the act just mentioned until the act of February 20, 1907. Congress did not enact any laws of general importance affecting immigration. On February 14, 1903, the Department of Commerce and Labor was established, and the CommissionerGeneral of Immigration was placed under the jurisdiction and supervision of that department. By the

law of June 29, 1906, providing for a uniform rule for the naturalization of aliens, the designation of the Bureau of Immigration was changed to the "Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization," and it was charged with the administration of the new naturalization law.

The Immigration Law of 1907

Following the popular demand for further regulation of alien immigration there were introduced in the first session of the Fifty-ninth Congress several bills relating to this subject, and bills were passed in both branches of Congress, but no law was finally enacted until the second session of that Congress. A bill introduced by Senator Dillingham of Vermont, which provided for some important administrative changes in the immigration act of 1903, was reported from the Senate committee, March 29, 1906. The bill, as reported, proposed several changes in the law. The head tax on immigrants was now to be $5 instead of $2, as formerly; imbeciles, feeble-minded persons, unaccompanied children under 17 years of age, and persons "who are found to be and are certified by the examining surgeon as being mentally or physically defective, such mental or physical defect being of such a nature as may affect the ability of such aliens to earn a living," were added to the excluded classes; the provision of the existing law excluding prostitutes was amended to include "women or girls coming into the United States for the purpose of prostitution, or for any other immoral purpose"; steamship companies were required to furnish lists of outgoing passengers; and the creation of a division of distribution in the Bureau of Immigration was authorized.