Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
We can not have too much immigration of the right kind, and we should
have none at all of the wrong kind. The need is to devise some system
by which undesirable immigrants shall be kept out entirely, while
desirable immigrants are properly distributed throughout the country.
At present some districts which need immigrants have none; and in
others, where the population is already congested, immigrants come in
such numbers as to depress the conditions of life for those already
there. During the last two years the immigration service at New York
has been greatly improved, and the corruption and inefficiency which
formerly obtained there have been eradicated. This service has just
been investigated by a committee of New York citizens of high standing,
Messrs. Arthur V. Briesen, Lee K. Frankel, Eugene A. Philbin, Thomas W.
Hynes, and Ralph Trautman. Their report deals with the whole situation
at length, and concludes with certain recommendations for
administrative and legislative action. It is now receiving the
attention of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor.
The special investigation of the subject of naturalization under the
direction of the Attorney-General, and the consequent prosecutions
reveal a condition of affairs calling for the immediate attention of
the Congress. Forgeries and perjuries of shameless and flagrant
character have been perpetrated, not only in the dense centers of
population, but throughout the country; and it is established beyond
doubt that very many so-called citizens of the United States have no
title whatever to that right, and are asserting and enjoying the
benefits of the same through the grossest frauds. It is never to be
forgotten that citizenship is, to quote the words recently used by the
Supreme Court of the United States, an "inestimable heritage," whether
it proceeds from birth within the country or is obtained by
naturalization; and we poison the sources of our national character and
strength at the fountain, if the privilege is claimed and exercised
without right, and by means of fraud and corruption. The body politic
can not be sound and healthy if many of its constituent members claim
their standing through the prostitution of the high right and calling
of citizenship. It should mean something to become a citizen of the
United States; and in the process no loophole whatever should be left
open to fraud.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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