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The Commoner
FEBRUARY, 1915
President Vetoes the
Immigration Bill
Undtfr a Washington date of January 28, a
stall correspondent of the Chicago Herald sends
the following:
President Wilson today sent to the house of
representatives a veto of the literacy test restric
tive immigration bill. In a special message he
based his veto on opposition to an educational
test for alien immigrants and the destruction of
the "right of asylum" in this country of the op
pressed of other nations.
TEXT OF MESSAGE
President Wilson's message was as follows:
"It is with" unaffected regret that I find myself
constrained by clear conviction to return this
bill (H. R. 6060, an act to regulate the immigra
tion of aliens to and the residence of aliens in
the United States), without my signature.
"Not only do I feel it to be a serious matter to
exercise the power of veto in any case, because it
involves opposing the single judgment of the
president to the judgment of a majority of both
houses of the congress, a step which no man, who
realizes his own ability to error, can take with
out great hesitation, but also because this par
ticular bill is in so many important respects ad
mirable, well conceived and desirable.
"Its enactment into law would undoubtedly
enhance the efficiency and improve the methods
of handling the important branch of the public
service to which it relates. But candor and a
sense of duty with regard to the responsibility
so clearly imposed upon me by the constitution
in matters of legislation, leave me no choice but
to dissent.
CLOSES GATES OF ASYLUM
"In two particulars of vital consequence, this
bill embodies a radical departure from the tra
ditional and long established policy of this coun
try, a policy in which our people have conceived
the very character of their government to be ex
pressed, the very mission and spirit of the nation
in respect of its relations to the peoples of the
world, outside their borders. It seeks to all but
close entirely the gates of asylum which have
always been open to ihose who could find no
where else the right and opportunity of constitu
tional agitation for what they conceived to be
the natural and inalienable rights of men; and
it excludes those to whom the opportunities of
elementary education have been denied without
regard to their character, their purposes, or their
natural capacity.
"Restrictions like these adopted earlier in our
history as a nation would very materially have
altered the course and cooled the humane ar
dors of our politics. The right of political asylum
has brought to this country many a man of noble
character and elovated purpose who was marked
as an outlaw In his own less fortunate land, and
who has yet become an ornament to our citizen
ship and to our public councils.
RADICAL-CHANGE IN POLICY
"The children and the compatriots of these
illustrious Americans must stand amazed to see
the representatives of their nation now resolved,
in the fullness of our national strength and at
the maturity of our great institutions, to risk
turning such men back, from our shores without
test of quality or purpose. It is difficult for men
to believe that the full effect of this feature of
the bill was realized when it was framed and
adopted, and it is impossible for men. to assent
to it in the form in which it is here cast.
"The literacy test and the tests and restrictions
which accompany it constitute ..n even more rad
ical change dn the policy of the nation. Hither
to we have generously kept c ur doors open to
all who were not unfitted by reason of disease or
incapacity for self-support or such personal rec
ords and antecedents as were likely to make
them a menace to our peace and order or to the
wholesome and essential relationships of life. ,
In this bill it is proposed to turn away from tests
of character and of quality and to impose tests
which exclude and restrict, for the new tests here
embodied are not tests of quality or of character -or
of personal fitness, but tests of opportunity.
Those who come seeking opportunity are not- to
be admitted unless they have had one
of the chief opportunities they seek the oppor
tunity of education. The object of such provi
sions iff restriction, not selection.
"If the neonlo of this country have made up
their minds to limit the number of immigrants
by arbitrary tests and so rcverso the policy of all
the generations of Amoricans that havo gone
before them, it is their right to do so. I am
their servant and havo no liconso to stand In
their way. But I do not believe that they havo.
I respectfully submit that no one can quoto their
mandate to that ofTect.
"Has any political party over avowed a policy
of restriction in this fundamental matter, gone
to the country on It and been commissioned to
control its legislation? Does this bill rest upon
the conscious and universal assent and desire of
the American peoplo? I doubt It. It Is becauso
I doubt it that I make bold to dissent from it. I
am willing to abide by the verdict, but not until
it has been rendered. Let the platforms of par
ties speak out upon this policy and tho peoplo
pronounce their wish. Tho matter Is too funda
mental to bo settled otherwise.
"I have no pride of opinion on this question.
I am not foolish enough to profess to know tho
wishes and Ideals of America bettor than the
body of her chosen representatives know thorn.
I only want instruction direct from those whoso
fortunes with ours and all men's are involved."
REQUIRES ABILITY TO READ
The much disputed literacy test would provide
that "all aliens over 16 years of ago, physically
capable of reading, who can not read tho English
language or some other language or dialect, in
cluding Hebrew or Yiddish, shall bo excluded
from the United States."
Exempted, however, are those who prove they
emigrated to escape religiouB persecution, and
any admissible alien might bring in his father or
grandfather over 55, his wife, mother, grand
mother or unmarried or widowed daughter, who
can not read.
Aside from various other restrictions tho bill
proposes that any immigrant who advocates
destruction of property or resistance to law and
order in short, revolutionary tendencies
might bo barred or deported within five years of
his admission. To that feature, opposition no
less determined than that to the litoracy test,
was conducted by those who contended it would
bar men who struggled to throw off tho yoke of
despotic governments.
THE MICHIGAN TEMPERANCE CLUB
The December number bf The Commoner gave
a report of the Ann Arbor me. ting at which Mr.
Bryan presented a total abstinence pledge and
asked the young men present to sign with him.
The boys who attended the meeting havo been
circulating tho pledge, and up to February 8th
ten thousand signers had been secured. It is
hoped that the book of pledges, when forwarded
to Mr. Bryan, will contain many more signers.
What an army of boys! A grand army It will
be; and what a power for good in Michigan.
Why not have a similar army in every state?
The Commoner has already a great many enroll
ed 6n its books, and the plan has been taken up
by the Lincoln Y. M. C. A. for use in Nebraska.
The value of the pledge is illustrated by tho
letter of one of the Michigan boys, who in send
ing In his list, wrote:
"I am returning the pledge sheet. One of the
fellows who signed this sheet last month told
me that two or three times since he bas been
kept from drinking wine because he signed It. He
wasn't very anxious to sign it at first, but now he
says that he is glad that he did."
Let tho good work go on.
W. J. BRYAN.
Secretaries McAdoo and RedfieU gave to the
senate a statement of facts relating to the extor
tion being practiced by the owners of ocean
freighters. This showed that rates had been
advanced from 50 to 900 per cent. The answer
of the republicans to the effort of the democrats
to relievo this situation by providing an effective
competition at the hands of the government was
a filibuster. This was equivalent to saying, we
have no plan of our own, but we don't like yours.
Henry Ford told the New York reporters who
interviewed him the other day that- he is a re
publican because his father was one. Mr. Ford
has overcome so many natural obstacles in hia
career that he should not find It a difficult task
to leap this one...
jfc
The preponderance of distinctively foreign
names among the Hats of those wounded in riots
in industrial strikes is fair testimony as to the
manner in which protection to American labor
works out under the republican theory of tariff-making.
TAFT OPPOSED TO CURR ON EXPORTS
A press dispatch to tho Washington Poit from
Now Haven, Conn., dated Fob. 0, nayst William
Howard Taft mado public today a letter ho wrote
on January 26 to Prof. Edmund von Mach, of
Harvard University, in which tho former pres
ident opposes tho enactment of a law forbidding
tho supply of munitions of war from this coun
try to tho bolllgeront nations.
Tho letter nvas in answer to a roquent from
Prof, von Mach, asking Mr. Taft to write a lottor,
to bo read at a "neutrality mooting," favoring
passage of tho bill Introduced by Senator Hitch
cock, providing for such interdiction.
Tho lotter, which was not read at tho meeting,
Mr. Taft says, follows:
"My Dear Prof, von Mach: I have yours of
January 24. I can not wrlto to a neutrality meet
ing such a lottor as you would wish. I think
that to interdict tho supply of ammunition and.
arms from this country to tho bolligorcntn in the
war would bo to adopt a policy that would se
riously interforo with our own welfare, should
wo over bo drawn Into a war against our will by
tho unjust Invasion of some power who was fully
prepared, and who would always find us unpre
pared. "Such a policy as that you Indicate would
mean that tho power who is armed cap-a-pie
would always havo at a disadvantage thoso
countries that wcro not In such a state of prepar
ation. It would, therefore, lead to even greater
pressure upon all tho countries of tho world, than
that wo have seen In tho last two decades, to in
crease their armaments, a result which we would
all deplore.
"For this reason, I can not think that it would
bo wise to pass a law changing all the rulea of
international law heretofore prevailing with ,ro
spnet to the sale of ammunition and arras to.
belligerents by neutral countries. Nor do I
think that in tho present exigency It would be
an act of neutrality to do so, because it would
inure only to the boneflt of o'nc of the belliger
ents. Sincerely yours, WILLIAM H. TAFT." .
ENDORSING PRESIDENT WrLSOX
In tho lower house of tho Texas legislature,
Mr. Boner offered tho following resolution, which,
was adopted:
Bo it resolved by tho house of the thirty-fourth'
legislature of tho state of Texas, that wo hearts
ily endorse the administration of President Wil
son and commend him for the statesmanlike
manner in which he has conducted the affairs of,
this nation; bo it further -t
Resolved, That we commend him for the wis
dom shown in his policy adopted concerning
Mexico, and for the strict neutrality maintained
with the belligerent nations of the eastern con
tinent; bo it further
Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be;
sent to President Wilson. '
IF LINCOLN WERE PRESIDENT
If Lincoln were president during this Euro
pean war, could anybody doubt ho would confine
himself strictly to the proper rights and unde
niable duties of tho United States? Would ho
not again bo tactful, patient, just? Would he
not be cold to agitators of all. nations, and es
pecially to agitators of American birth or natur
alization, and to newspapers and politicians whe
urge departures planned to obtain partisan sup
port? How can thoso who trust the genius oi
Abraham Lincoln best celebrate his birthday?
Not better than by dedicating their support to
the foreign policy that since last July the Amer
ican government has pursued. Harper's Weekly,
The perennial attempt to lead the people back
into the convention system of making nominar
tions is being made In various state legislatures
under tho guise of strengthening the primary by
making it easier for1 the voters to choose be
tween candidates whose worth is guaranteed by
a convention. The plan might have a greater
appeal if there was anyone to guarantee the in
dependence of the convention from secret control.
Many people who pride themselves on being
progressive are really only possessed of an im
pressionable mind which absorbs every new Idea
without any thought of its value. Such pcola
would throw away all of the past accumulation
of knowledge just because it is old, and would
accept all the new just because it is novel.-
Roger W. Babson.
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