The united American : a magazine of good citizenchip., June 01, 1926, Page 10, Image 10

Page Ten
THE UNITED AMERICAN
EDITORIAL
I
L
WHERE THE IMMIGRANT PROBLEMS MULTI­
PLY AND CAUSE GRIEF
T N A LETTER to one of his Ohio constituents who
1
submitted an inquiry regarding certain proposed
modifications or changes in the present two per cent
quota immigration law, Congressman Theodore
Burton recently wrote that “the House Immigration
Committee is now working on some plan to give the
Secretary of Labor discretionary power to admit
members of families of those who already have been
admitted to America and have taken out their natural­
ization papers.”
Supose that is done- How much good will that
do so long as the Naturalization Bureau, through its
examiners, working under instructions of the Secre­
tary of Labor, refuse to admit to citizenship an appli­
cant whose family is in the old country, because of
that circumstance.
This ruling may not apply everywhere in the
United States, but it is certainly applied most un­
compromisingly by the naturalization examiners in
some sections of the country.
Whatever one might read out of such decisions,
certainly they do not show a kindly feeling by those
who made them for certain kinds of immigrant people
who are innocent of any wrong, save and except their
different racial shades and religious inclinations.
It is an old institution in the immigration move­
ment that the breadwinner, because of limited funds,
leaves his family behind in the old country and goes
to America to lay the foundation for a new home.
When he has saved up enough money he sends
tickets to his loved ones in the old country so that
they may join him in the new homeland. Before
the quota immigration law was passed there were no
bars blocking the realization of these dreams of in­
dustrious and thrifty immigrants. When the quota
law was passed there were thousands upon thousands
of immigrants, previously admitted, who were work­
ing industriously and saving up ticket money for their
families waiting in the old country. In the passing
of the quota law no consideration was given this class
of admitted immigrants, whose status, or that of
their families, to that extent was changed without
due process. The implied agreement with these im­
migrants that they could bring their families here
when proper arrangements for their care and keeping
had been made was repudiated, and they found their
dreams shattered and the road blocked under the
new arrangement. Promptly these immigrants were
told that by becoming naturalized they could obtain
non-quota immigration permits for their families.
However, when they had qualified to take the examin­
ation for citizenship, they were in turn told by the
Naturalization Bureau officials that their petitions
could not be heard before they had brought their
families, at any rate their wives, to America.
Should their families remain in line for quota ad­
mission the outlook for most of them was such as to
preclude the possibility of ever seeing their loved
June 1926
ones before old age and the grim reaper should over­
take them. And in answer to their pleadings for ad­
mission to citizenship they are constantly being told:
“First, bring your family over here, then we will
give you a hearing on your pétition.” To the
interpolation: “but I can’t get my wife and children
over unless I can ask for their admission as an Ameri­
can citizen,” he obtains this equally indifferent reply
from the authorities in the Naturalization Bureau:
“that is a matter which we cannot remedy for you.”
What inconsistency and mockery of justice!
When the immigrant in answer to his heart rend­
ering appeal meets evasiveness and unkindly attitude
on the part of the government representatives, his
feeling for America takes a slump and far and near
his relatives and friends, citizens and citizens in the
making, come to share his feelings.
The man who came to America in good faith, with
these well-known intentions, before the quota law
went into effect, who is now denied citizenship be­
cause he is unable to bring his family here under the
quota — which has practically stopped emigration
from his native country — is unjustly dealt with by
those who for the time being are holding the reins
of government in America, and they should be held
accountable for such conduct.
We shall never be able to make injustice look like
justice by any sleight of hand performance, by plaus­
ible simulation or by setting up an interrelation of
oneness of the two.
In the hearts of men there shall always be a cleat’
distinction between right and wrong and no one shall
ever succeed in permanently keeping injustice on the
throne of justice by dressing it up in the garb of right.
The American public may not as yet be sufficiently
familiar with the facts to make proper distinction, but
the bright light of American reasoning power will
ere long bring these legislative and administrative
acts into full view and the prejudicial enactments as
well as the prejudicial decisions, rendered by men un­
worthy of positions of broad discretionary power,
will stand repudiated and the finer spirit of America
will call for a new deal all around.
America has a right to limit immigration, oven
stop all immigration if the circumstances should
warrant the taking of such measures for the common
good of the people of America, but the immigrants
we have previously admitted should obtain the full
benefits of whatever rules and understandings existed
at the time of their admission which are not pro­
scribed by constitutional provisions.
Repudiation of understandings and agreements
are un-American and should be avoided. American
citizens by adoption, whether in high or low station,
as American citizens, should never violate this funda­
mental American principle lest they invite the justifi­
able suspicion that they are using an American office
to satisfy some specific foreign interest for which
they have retained a secret allegiance.
GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL RECOMMENDS MODI
FICATIONS IN PRESENT IMMIGRATION LAW
SOME OF THE provoking situations developed by
the workings of the quota Immigration Law
have eventually become so acute that even the govern-