The united American : a magazine of good citizenchip., June 01, 1926, Page 18, Image 18

Page Eighteen
THE UNITED AMERICAN
June 1926
/—
A Question and Answer Page for Foreign-Born
Questions on Americanization, Naturalization, Citizenship, Civil Rights and all matters of importance
in regard to the necessary adjustments for foreign-bom who have come here for the purpose of
remaining permanently, will be answered promptly and as fully as possible, By Judge J. A. Buchanan,
President Astoria Americanization Council in Astoria, and by H. J. Langoe, Editor The United Amer­
ican. Anyone asking a question may request that it be published under such pseudonym as he desires
but the questioner must in all instances sign his correct name and address to the letter that
accompanies the question. Anonymous questions will not be published or answered in this forum.
People who are living in Astoria and vicinity may address their questions directly to Judge Buchanan.
...... .
Q.—Why is it that so many illiterate
and ignorant Mexicans can come into
the United States—almost in every
border community and state you can
find them as thick as flies—when the
literacy test law keeps all illiterate
Europeans out of America?—Vittorio M.
A.— That is a question, perhaps,
which none but a congressional “Investi­
gation Committee” will ever answer
correctly. Your statement regarding
illiterate Mexicans coming into the
United States, in open violation of the
literacy law, is correct, according to the
best and most reliable information on the
subject. Somewhere is the responsible
culprit or culprits who wink at the
violations of the literacy law on the
Mexican border and use the micro­
scope at Ellis Island where there is an
open season on the illiteracy of the
European emigrant. Our laws should
be enforced with impartiality if there is
to be respect for the law. Our method
of law enforcement today, however, is
the direct cause of the greatest number
of the violations of our laws, a subject
giving us no end of grief and expense
as well as serious concern. The Mexican
peons are about the poorest type of im­
migrants we could tabulate in America,
but they are a servile lot with a low
living standard, and, though they are
lazy, they fit into the scheme of low
wages, poor living quarters and skimp
food, which some of our American em­
ployers cannot become educated ■ away
from, no matter what our standards
call for, This is, perhaps, more than
anything else the reason for the illiterate
Mexicans coming here in droves with­
out any semblance of interference. It
is clear that not all the public officials,
federal and state, who draw their known
pay from the public coffers, are serving
the public with the zeal which they dis­
play in serving special vested interests.
But it is doubtful that a congressional
committee, at the present time, would in­
vestigate these common outrages on our
border lines with any better result than
if you had a congressional committee of
the present personel of that body on
the job of investigating the trusts and
open combinations in restraint of free
trade that are now flourishing almost un­
noticed and equally unhampered.—H.J.L.
Q.—We' have had several discussions
and arguments over the American im­
migration law which makes provision
for a good-sized emigration from Eng­
land and Germany to America and
nearly cuts off the other countries, par­
ticularly Poland, Russia and all the
countries in Southern Europe. Some of
my friends claim it is because the
Place Your Orders
Americans don’t want anybody else but and nationality discussions, on basis of
comparative values, are now the most
Englishmen and some Germans in this
country; others claim that the people agitating subjects before the American
from the last mentioned countries are people. If immigration restriction was
a necessity at the close of the war, be­
not wanted in America because they are
mostly Catholics and Jews. Which is cause we were overstocked with immi­
right? What other information can you grants who were so foreign to American
give regarding this immigration law institutions that we needed a respite in
which seems to be favoring some people order to Americanize them before ad­
more than others? Certainly some of mitting more, then the logical thing
the people who are closed out have done would have been to stop all immigration.
more to farm the land, build the high­ While settling our problems at home, we
should carefully have avoided any show­
ways, the railroads and the buildings
ing of preference for any foreign na­
of the cities, dig the coal and iron from
the dangerous traps they call mines, tion knocking at our door in behalf of
than the people who are favored under its emigrants. Here it was clearly a
case of stupidity, unless there is margin
the new immigration law. Why is that?
—Peter Z. for the contention of many Americans
say that it was a bold and
A.—It would be impossible to answer who
successful
attempt to involve America in
fully your query on this page. Certain
racial
controversies
that have weakened
actuating motives for the present quota
her position as a pattern nation in the
immigration law and its various work­ world
and hopelessly divided her people
ings have almost constantly been the
within. The non-Nordic immigrant has
subjects of editorial discussion in the brought to America fully as many fine
United American as well as in the press
qualities as the Nordic im­
of the country in general. Note these immigrant
migrant
ever
possessed. These contri­
discussions carefully in the future. Yes,
butions
compose
the finest chapters in
there is no question that the religious the history of America
’s struggle for
and race-conscious elements in America
liberty, the preservation of the Union
are in part responsible for the “elimina­ and the principle of Democracy through­
tions” that have been worked into the
out the world. No term of scorn or asper­
law, expressing preference for the sion,,
written into a mean piece of modern
Nordic type, as against air others. Only day American
legislation, will ever mar
a very small percentage of the immi­ the luster of the names of the non­
grants from these countries are Jews
Nordic immigrants who gave their all
and Catholics, hence, the alleged partial­ for America.
—H.J.L.
ity in America is undeniably well repre­
sented in the present immigration law.
Pert analysis.—Landlady: “Isn’t this
The problem how to state its position in
the least offensive language undoubted­ a good chicken?”
ly gave the Immigration Committee of
Boarder: “It may have been, morally,
the House of Representatives in Con­ but physically it’s a wreck.”
—Pitt Panther.
gress, considerable anxiety until it was
discovered that inasmuch as the people
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from the countries whose emigrants
were not wanted, did not begin coming
Columbia River
to America in any great number before
Packers Association
1890, their exclusion could best be ac­
complished by admitting our future im­
Pakers of Choice
migrants on the basis of 2 % of the
number of each nationality immigrant
Columbia River and Alaska Salmon f
body in America at that time. Fair Amer­
Astoria, Oregon «
icans contend that it would have been
better to close the doors of America en­
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tirely to all immigration, for such a
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to assimilate and Americanize the im­
migrants already here, than to put the !
Union Fishermen’s
official stamp of approval on some and
a stamp of disapproval on others. This I Cooperative Packing Co.
was accomplished by the quota law,
but through it we have plainly committed i Packers of Columbia River Canned
America as approving only one type of
and Mild Cured Salmon
immigrants—the Nordics. By doing I '
this we invited a critical sectionaliza- I 440 Taylor St.,
Astoria, Oregon
tion of our own people, immigrants and
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