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THE UNITED AMERICAN
NOVEMBER 1925
“The Aliens’ Club of America”
An Editorial Reaction to the Proposed Alien Registration Plan which will be Presented in the Next Congress by
Able Proponents, who will Request Immediate Legislative Action
T F NO BETTER plan of registering the aliens in their wares with a Fifth Avenue assurance — he would
America has been suggested than the one appearing never dare enter for fear that these ancient “brickpiles” I
from press reports to have been endorsed recently by would collapse. Were it not for the political pull of s
Secretary of Labor Davis, in a speech delivered before the Americans who own the tenement shacks and brick- I
the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, then there is room houses, which are revenue producing only as long as |
there are browbeaten immigrants willing to take a
for a lot of wholesome suggestions.
Why force the suggestion, already in extreme dis chance on their lives, on the East Side,, they would have
favor in public opinion, of anything like an alien organi been condemned by any decent municipality as unsafe '
zation, connecting up the unnaturalized immigrants in and insanitary for the health of a common variety of
America in a vast “fraternal club” of which every alien a less particular kind of domesticated animals.
The East Side resembles a great immigrant depot, i
must become a member, and be able at all times to show
his membership card when called upon to do so? Such spreading out over a vast area from the old Bowery. I
an institution would in itself hold unpleasant possibili The old Bowery itself has changed since the closing of
ties. By the aid of shrewd alien manipulators it could the American saloon, but “the misery that likes com
become a rather unwieldy institution, though Uncle pany” is not difficult to find in its immediate neighbor- ■
Sam would stand charged with responsibility for its hood. Not five per cent of the houses that are rented i
existence. By the aid of a little alien enlargement and for human habitation in the entire immigrant city of
elaboration such an organization might become the dis the “East Side” could stand inspection on the point of
pensary of unwholesome propaganda inimical to the construction safety, ventilation and plumbing. No ,
best interests of America and the aliens alike. As an American citizen, native or foreign born, from the out
organization, though its “fraternity” scope might never side, would live in any East Side house as an alter
go beyond the nominal stage, its titular status would native to imprisonment. The downtrodden immigrant
invite suspicion and subject the individual alien to a from Russia, Poland, Italy and the Balkan states, of
contumely that could draw upon the old state of intoler course, he finds much in the East Side that is in
ance for every shade of verbal flavoring. The reaction common with the poor people’s quarters in the country
would be a contumacious state of mind among all aliens from which he came, so he tarries on the “East Side”
that might develop great possibilities for serious because he understands the problem of finding life’s
sustenance among the East Siders, and they under
mischief.
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stand him. Yet talk to a policeman with a human
The press report from New York on which this heart action, who has been on an East Side “beat” for
article is based contains the information that Secretary many, many years, and he will tell you something of
of Labor, James Davis, and Congressman Albert John the human values that find hiding places over night in
son, appeared on the program, both declaring that bills the cellars, garrets or ill-smelling hovels on the “East
for an alien registration system will be introduced in Side” and you begin to wonder if with all that pathos
the next session of Congress on the basis suggested at the “East Side” is not a human diamond in the rough
that meeting. Just what is to go into the registration -—rough because the America beyond, doesn’t care.
bill may be gleaned from the following two paragraphs There are criminals in the “East Side”, but there are
some very good reasons for the cultivation and nurtur
of the news item reporting the meeting:
Declaring that there are nearly 7,000,000 aliens in the ing of criminal predilections in this cosmopolitan- sec
United States who would come under the planned registration, tion of the great city of New York, yet, the Secretary
Secretary of Labor Davis claimed that among these aliens of Labor may not know it, the members of the Brook
there are many criminals and bootleggers. “Take the New York lyn Chamber of Commerce may not know it, but the
East Side as an instance,” he stated. “It is full of criminal “East Side” is not full of criminal elements.
elements.”
For the purpose of knowing something at first
The Secretary- of Labor outlined the plan of the registra
tion which is “to be conducted on the basis of a ‘fraternal hand of the present conditions of the “East Side,” the
club.’ Every registered alien will receive a card which will editor of The United American spent some little time
show his ‘membership’ in the ‘aliens’ club of America.’ .He will “down” in that section this last July and is, for that
have to produce this card every year to the local authorities, reason, less prejudiced against the “East Side” dwell
just as one comes to the annual meeting of his club. After
five years he will become a citizen and will no longer be a ers, but more against those who are individually and
‘club member.’ And just as every club covers its own expenses collectively to blame for the very things that are
.through membership dues, the aliens ought to cover the ex wrong with the “East Side.” It would not hurt official
penses of the registration thru ‘membership dues’,” he stated. Washington to spend less time on prejudiced reports
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and a little more time in personal investigation.
The New York East Side is just what rotten New
The plan offered that a registration fee be charged
York politicians have made of it. Nothing contributes as a sort of club membership dues, instead of handling
more to make the East Side a breeding place for crime the thing as a straight departmental matter of busi
than the ramshackle dwellings and horrible filthy old ness, is as inadvisable as the setting up of the “club”
tenement houses that appear so forbidding to an out itself.
sider that except for the smiles and the laughter of
The matter of carrying out an intent in govern
the street urchin at play and the cheerful and animated ment in America under cover of a subterfuge, should
faces of the innumerable curbstone merchants, backing
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