2 
THE IMMIGRATION PROBLEM 
Immigration of foreigners into the United States 
has been long recognized as one of our important 
social and political problems. Perhaps no other ques 
tion has aroused more bitter feelings at times, or has 
called out more lofty sentiments of altruistic purpose. 
On the one hand, our Government has been besought 
to protect our people from the “degrading influence” 
of the immigrant. On the other, it has been declared 
that our doors should never be closed against those 
suffering from religious or political persecution. Gen 
erally speaking, there has been little difference of opin 
ion regarding the latter sentiment. There has been 
great difference of opinion, however, relative to the 
effects, economic, social and moral, of immigration 
upon American standards of living. Usually the 
question, especially the effect of immigration upon 
industrial conditions, has been discust with very little 
real knowledge. 
Of late years American wage-earners generally have 
considered immigration injurious to their interests. 
The employers of labor, viewing the question from a 
different standpoint, have often urged the scarcity of 
labor and the need of immigration to develop properly 
our country’s resources. Still others have felt that, 
regardless of the industrial effect, the ideals of our 
country as the home of the opprest ought not to be 
lowered. 
On February 20, 1907, a general Immigration Act 
passed by Congress became law. In the discussions 
before Congress no change in the general immigra 
tion policy of the Government was at first proposed. 
Later an amendment was passed by the Senate, insert 
ing a literacy test for the immigrant, which provided 
for the exclusion of “all persons over sixteen years of