LEGISLATION AND ADMINISTRATION 367 
pediency of revising the naturalization laws so as to 
require a longer term of residence in the United 
States, and also provide greater security against 
frauds in the process of obtaining naturalization; and 
(2) the propriety and expediency of providing by 
law against the introduction into the United States 
of vagabonds and paupers deported from for 
eign countries. This resolution was referred to a 
select committee of seven members, and its report was 
the first resulting from a Congressional investigation 
of any question bearing upon immigration. Four 
members of the committee were from New York and 
Massachusetts, which States were then the chief cen 
ters of the anti-foreign movement. Its majority re 
port recommended immediate legislative action, not 
only by Congress, but also by many of the States, so 
that the alleged evils could be remedied and impending 
calamities averted. Two Southern members of the 
committee and the member from Ohio did not concur 
in the report. A recommendation to this committee by 
the native American Association of Washington urged 
that a system of consular inspection be instituted, a 
plan that in recent years has been repeatedly recom 
mended to Congress. The plan was to make the im 
migrant, upon receiving his passport from the consul, 
Pay a tax of $20, but this latter provision was omitted 
from the bill when introduced. 
The bill as presented upon the recommendation of 
the committee provided that any master taking on 
hoard his vessel, with the intention of transporting to 
the United States, any alien passenger who was an 
idiot, lunatic, maniac, or one afflicted with any incur 
able disease, or any one convicted of an infamous 
crime, should be fined $1,000, or be imprisoned not