pointment of a Commissioner of Immigration; the levying of a head tax of $1 on each immigrant passenger landed in lieu of a head tax imposed by States; and the exclusion of criminals. The bill in question did not pass, but in 1875 a law was enacted which provided for the exclusion of prostitutes. The law in which this provision was contained, however, was designed chiefly to regulate Chinese immigration. The messages of President Grant and the debates in Congress evidently indicated a strong sentiment in favor of national control of immigration, and in 1876 a decision of the Supreme Court practically left no alternative.

STATE CONTROL DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

Before the decision of 1876 above referred to various questions relating to the subject of immigration had been considered by the Supreme Court of the United States. The first of these cases was that of the State of New York v. Miln." This case tested the constitutionality of a law passed by the legislature of New York State in 1824, requiring all masters of vessels arriving at the port of New York to make a report in writing and give the name, age, and the last legal residence of every person on board during the voyage, and stating whether any of his passengers had gone on board any other vessel or had been landed at any place with a view to proceeding to New York. Another section of the law made it lawful for the mayor of the city to require a bond from every master of a vessel to indemnify the mayor and the overseer of the poor from any expense incurred for passengers brought in and not reported. The United States Supreme Court held that the New York act was not a regulation of commerce, but of police; and, being so, it was in exercise of a power which rightfully belonged to the State.

Justice Story dissented from the decision of the court, declared the law unconstitutional, and said, in part:

The result of the whole reasoning is that whatever restrains or prevents the introduction or importation of passengers or goods into the country authorized or allowed by Congress, whether in the shape of a tax or other charge, or whether before or after their arrival in port, interferes with the exclusive right to regulate commerce.

This law being held to be constitutional, New York, in 1829, in providing for the support of the marine and quarantine hospital established on Staten Island, ordered that the health commissioner should collect from the master of every vessel arriving from a foreign port $1.50 for every cabin passenger; $1 for every steerage passenger, mate, sailor, or marine; and 25 cents for every person arriving on coasting vessels. The money so collected, after deducting 2 per cent, was all to be used for the benefit of the above-named hospital.

In 1837 Massachusetts enacted a law which provided for an inspection of arriving alien passengers and required a bond from the owner of the vessel bringing such aliens as security that such of these passengers, incompetent in the eyes of the inspectors to earn a living, should not become a public charge within ten years. It also provided that $2 be paid for each passenger landed, the money so collected to be used for the support of foreign paupers.

In 1849 these two legislative acts were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, in what are known as the "Passenger Cases."

11 Peters, U. S., 102.

b7 Howard, U. S., 283.

Immediately after the decision of the Supreme Court the New York statute was modified with a view to avoiding the constitutional objection. As modified the law provided that the master or owner of every vessel landing passengers from a foreign port was bound to make a report similar to the one recited in the statute declared to be valid in the case of New York v. Miln, in which report the mayor was to indorse a demand upon the owner or master that he give a bond for every passenger landed in the city to indemnify the commissioners of immigration, and every county, city, and town in the State against any expense for the relief or support of the person named in the bond for four years thereafter; but the owner could commute for such bond and be released from giving it by paying $1.50 for each passenger landed.

In several other States similar laws were in force. Cases were brought up to the Supreme Court from New York, California, and Louisiana, and the laws were declared unconstitutional." Mr. Justice Miller, who delivered the opinion, said in part:

It is a law in its purpose and effect imposing a tax on the owner of the vessel for the privilege of landing in New York from foreign countries * * *. A law or rule emanating from any lawful authority which prescribes terms or conditions on which alone the vessel can discharge its passengers is a regulation of commerce; and in the case of vessels and passengers coming from foreign ports is a regulation of foreign commerce.

The most interesting part of this decision, however, was that in which the court recommended that Congress exercise full authority over immigration, saying:

We are of the opinion that this whole subject has been confided to Congress by the Constitution; that Congress can more appropriately and with more acceptance exercise it than any other body known to our law, state or national; that by providing a system of laws in these matters applicable to all ports and to all vessels, a serious question which has long been a matter of contest and complaint may be effectively and satisfactorily settled.

THE MOVEMENT FOR NATIONAL CONTROL.

By the above decision the States were left without the means, except by taxing their own citizens, of providing suitable inspection of immigrants or of caring for the destitute among those admitted. The only alternative was the recommendation of the Supreme Court that Congress assume control of immigration legislation, and New York representatives in Congress immediately endeavored to secure the passage of a general immigration law. The above-quoted case was decided by the Supreme Court March 20, 1876, and on July 6 following Senator Conkling and Representative Cox, of New York, introduced bills for the national regulation of immigration.

These bills provided for a manifest of all alien passengers; a head tax of $2; the exclusion and deportation of convicts, insane persons, and paupers, and the reimbursement to the States of all money paid out by them for the support and maintenance of any immigrants within four years after their arrival. These bills were not given favorable consideration, the principal opposition coming from the commercial organizations of the country. New York Senators and Representatives, however, continued to introduce bills of like nature, but a national immigration law was not enacted until 1882.

@ 92 U. S., 259.

THE IMMIGRATION LAW OF 1882.

In his message of December 6, 1881, President Arthur called attention to the subject of immigration control and recommended legislation regarding the supervision and transitory care of the immigrants at ports of debarkation.

In that session of Congress immigration legislation was given consideration, and on August 3, 1882, the first general immigration law was approved. This law provided that a head tax of 50 cents should be levied on all aliens landed at United States ports, the money thus collected to be used to defray the expenses of regulating immigration and for the care of immigrants after landing, no more being expended at any port than was collected at such port. The Secretary of the Treasury was charged with executing the provisions of the act, and for that purpose he was given power to enter into contracts with such state officers as might be designated by the governor of any State to take charge of the local affairs of immigration within such State. The law provided that foreign convicts (except those convicted of political offenses), lunatics, idiots, and persons likely to become public charges, should not be permitted to land.

THE FIRST CONTRACT-LABOR LAW.

On February 26, 1885, the first law forbidding the importation of contract labor was approved. This law was defective, in that no inspection was provided for, nor was any arrangement made for the general execution of the provisions of the law or for the deportation of the contract laborer himself. This law was amended by the act of February 23, 1887, and by this amendment the Secretary of the Treasury was given the same power to exclude and deport contract laborers that he had been given under the act of 1882 over criminals, paupers, idiots, and lunatics. The act of 1885 was again amended on October 9, 1888, by which amendment the Secretary of the Treasury was given power to return 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 immigration legislation. Numerous bills in amendment of the laws of 1882 were introduced in Congress, but no action was taken upon them.

INVESTIGATIONS OF THE FORD COMMITTEE.

During this period, however, there was considerable agitation for the further restriction or regulation of immigration, and in 1888 the House of Representatives passed a resolution, in which note was taken of the charges of prominent journals that the laws prohibiting the importation of contract laborers, convicts, and paupers were being extensively evaded, owing to the lack of machinery to enforce them, and this resolution authorized the appointment of a select committee to investigate the matter. This select committee, which was known as the "Ford committee." reported at the following session

18 Stat., pt. 5, p. 477. 82401-VOL 2-11-37

23 Stat., p. 332.

of Congress. The report alleged that each year there were thousands of alien paupers, insane persons, and idiots landed in this country who became a burden upon the States where they happened to gain a settlement; that many of these were assisted to emigrate by the officials of the. country from which they came; that the number of persons not lawfully entitled to land in the United States who came in by the way of the Canadian frontier was large, and was becoming a serious danger, the testimony showing that in many instances immigrants coming by steamer to Quebec had within forty-eight hours after their arrival there been applicants for shelter in the almshouses of the State of New York. This was probably the first time that serious attention was called to the matter of overland immigration. The committee also declared that the law of 1882, as regards the excluding of convicts, had been and was being repeatedly violated to such an extent that it demanded remedial legislation, and that the contract-labor law was easy to violate and convictions under it hard to secure. To remedy these defects the committee recommended that the enforcement of all acts relating to the regulation of immigration be intrusted solely to the Federal Government rather than to state authorities, as was provided under the law of 1882. The committee praised the immigrant of the past, but said that it could not praise the immigrant then coming. The idea of selection was emphasized, and it was asserted that "the time had come to draw the line and to select the good from the bad, because the country could not properly assimilate them."

Besides excluding idiots, paupers, lunatics, and convicts, the bill proposed by the Ford committee added to the excluded classes polygamists, anarchists, and persons afflicted with a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease. The provisions of the contract-labor law were also incorporated in the bill, and it was provided that any person found in the United States having come contrary to law should be deported within two years at the expense of the transportation company bringing him. All aliens were also required to bring a consular certificate of emigration, showing that they were not among the classes excluded by the United States law. Congress, however, did not act upon the recommendations of the Ford committee.

IMMIGRATION COMMITTEES ESTABLISHED.

The subject of immigration continued to be a matter of interest, 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.

Various reports were submitted, and the conclusion of the committee was that a radical change in the immigration laws was not advisable, although it had been found that throughout the country

a H. Rept. No. 3792, 50th Cong., 2d sess.

S. Repts. Nos. 936 and 1095, and H. Rept. No. 4048, 51st Cong., 1st sess.; S. Rept. No. 2165, S. Mis. Doc. No 88, and H. Repts. Nos. 3472, 3807, and 3857, 51st Cong., 2d sess.

"

there existed a demand for a stricter enforcement of the immigration laws. During 1890 one or more political parties in 23 States had demanded additional regulations of immigration.

The investigation of the joint committee showed that large numbers of immigrants were being landed every year in violation of the law of 1882, the chief cause of which was the divided authority provided for the execution of the immigration act. The contract-labor law was found to be generally evaded. The bill presented by the committee aimed to correct faults in existing law. As it was presented it received rather general favor, the only opposition to it being on the part of ultra-restrictionists, who tried to have substituted a bill which raised the head tax from 50 cents to $1 and provided for a thorough consular examination. The substitute bill was defeated by a vote of 207 to 41. The bill of the committee passed the House by a vote of 125 to 48, and after being adopted by the Senate without discussion it was approved on March 3, 1891.

THE IMMIGRATION LAW OF 1891.

This law provided for a head tax of 50 cents, as was also provided in the law of 1882, the head tax being considered merely as a means of raising money for the 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 bringing alien immigrants to report to the proper inspection officials the name, nationality, last residence, and destination of all such aliens; 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 examination of immigrants at United States ports was 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 provided for. Another provision not found in the law of 1882 was that which allowed the return within a year after arrival of any alien who had come into 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. This law was approved

26 Stat., p. 1084.