The united American : a magazine of good citizenchip., January 01, 1927, Page 6, Image 6

Page Six
THE UNITED AMERICAN
inquires for remedy, among the “hired hands” in the
multitudenous bureau offices. How is he to know that,
on the whole, America is sound? How is he to know
that he is only the victim of the temporary sweep
of prejudice, which hit America after the war ?
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The flood of prejudice has been at the high water
mark, and the murkey waters are beginning to recede.
There is a noticeable protest abroad in public opinion
and the makers of these drastic restrictions are be­
ginning to smart under the sting of public criticism
for their far reaching devices and uncalled for “re­
strictions,” which have caused so much trouble for
Uncle Sam and created no end of domestic friction.
Very serious foreign complications have also set in,
and, in some cases, have interfered with important
arteries of trade and commercial good will. The
makers of the law will now almost unanimously con­
cede as much. Some of them never miss an oppor­
tunity to give interviews on the subject in order to
set the agitated public mind at rest. In some of
these interviews they have broadly hinted that they
will have the immigration law amended and revised
in this very session of Congress. Particular stress
has been laid upon the need of adjusting the law as
it effects the families of immigrants. If this was
done, the families of admitted immigrants would re­
ceive special permission, outside of the quota, to come
to America to join waiting husbands and fathers.
There is so much merit for such an amendment that
there is hardly any question of its being speedily ap­
proved and satisfactorily adjusted, provided the forces
of intolerance have lost their grip at Washington.
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There are many logical reasons why a man should
not obtain American citizenship while he has his
family in Europe, but there is no reason why an im­
migrant who has made himself acceptable for citi­
zenship here should not be able, though not natural­
ized, to bring his family here and subsequently obtain
his citizenship. Wives and children of immigrants,
though still residing in a foreign country, enjoy a
certain protection from America so long as the family
provider is denied citizenship while his family resides
abroad as subjects of a foreign country. If a man
could obtain citizenship while his family is still in
the old country, many family ties would automatically
be sundered. Most of them would, no doubt, on the
strength of their citizenship bring their families here,
but many would foreswear allegiance to a waiting wife
and children by the same oath they are required
to take in substantiation of their citizenship pledge,
a pledge wherein the applicant severs all ties to the
country he left behind.
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Late press dispatches from Washington reveal
that there is grave doubt as to the possibility of ef­
fecting the outlined modification at this time. The
only change to relieve the situation for separated
families that may be made, as things are now in Con­
gress, is the change proposed by Congressman Albert
Johnson, the chairman of the House Committee on
Immigration, who suggests that the law be altered
January 1927
to read that “when applications for visas exceed sixty
per cent, of the quota for each nationality, the prefer­
ence of one half of the quota now given to agricul­
turists shall be. suspended for the rest of the year
and during this period preference shall be given to
the wives and unmarried children under twenty-one
of aliens lawfully admitted to the United States.”
This resolution would also raise the age limit
under which dependent children of citizens or declar­
ants are admitted as non-quota immigrants from
eighteen to twenty-one. Another amendment would
allow aliens born in the United States or its terri­
tories who have lost their right to citizenship by
marriage or voluntary expatriation, to re-enter the
country as non-quota immigrants.
It is estimated that this modification, favoring
separated families, might bring three thousand addi­
tional immigrants into the United States.
KEEPING THE FAITH.
By Louis I. Newman.
HE Sesquicentennial International Exposition held at
Philadelphia during the year that just closed, held a
challenge to every American citizen.
One hundred and fifty years of American independence
have spelled prosperity and progress for the United States,
but the ideals of the founders of the republic are not yet
fulfilled. The test of America’s greatness is not in her wealth
and power but in her adherence to the principles which gave
birth to the Nation and by which it has become the light of
mankind.
The open door, the open mind and the open heart have
characterized the America of the last century and a half. This
land was populated because our portals were open to the
deserving newcomers. Michael Pupin and Oscar Straus would
have been refused admittance had the quota law of 1926
been in force a half century ago.
Our American forefathers believed in the freedom of con­
science, and made this principle a fundamental guarantee of
the Constitution. Within the last decade we have witnessed
an almost revolutionary departure from this pristine American
ideal of liberty of belief in matters religious. By political
persecution, by propaganda, by threats, temporary majorities
have endeavored to enslave and straitjacket the human intellect.
They who seek to enforce by the ballot box a partisan religious
view upon the electorate are false to basic American principles.
When a sectarian propagandist recently affirmed that any
candidate for the next legislature who opposed a certain
religious education bill would be attacked by denominational
groups in California, he was running counter to every instinct
and precept of American democracy. In the United States
we must judge our political officers not by their personal
religious opinions, but by their character and their capacity.
The 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration
of Independence must place before every American the ques­
tions: “Have we been worthy of the liberty which our fathers
won for us?” “How have we used our freedom?” America
was built by explorer, colonist, pioneer and immigrant; it was
enriched and ennobled by every race, creed and family.
Catholic, Protestant, Jew and freethinker have contributed to
American values. The anniversary year should serve as a
reminder that we return to a scrutiny of bona fide Ame­
ricanism; we should reconsecrate ourselves to the doctrine of
Jefferson and Washington, of Henry and of Franklin, so that
America may have the vision without which the. people will
perish.
T
Taxes in the United States today are $15 a year for each
person, as compared with $75 in Great Britain, $35 in France
and $26 in Germany.
• “Memory like the ivy clings to olden times and ways
and things.”