the physical
standards that should be required to entitle them to admission, the
number certified by the surgeons is much less than this. Yet nine-tenths
of even that smaller number are admitted, since the law excludes them
only if other grounds of exclusion appear. That the physical test is
practicable is shown by the following description of the qualities taken
into account by the medical examiners at the immigrant stations;
qualities which would be made even more definite if they were authorized
to be acted upon:[151]--

"A certificate of this nature implies that the alien concerned is
afflicted with a body not only but illy adapted to the work necessary to
earn his bread, but also but poorly able to withstand the onslaught of
disease. It means that he is undersized, poorly developed, with feeble
heart action, arteries below the standard size; that he is physically
degenerate, and as such not only unlikely to become a desirable citizen,
but also very likely to transmit his undesirable qualities to his
offspring should he, unfortunately for the country in which he is
domiciled, have any.

"Of all causes for rejection, outside of those for dangerous,
contagious, or loathsome diseases, or for mental disease, that of 'poor
physique' should receive the most weight, for in admitting such aliens
not only do we increase the number of public charges by their inability
to gain their bread through their physical inaptitude and their low
resistance to disease, but we admit likewise progenitors to this country
whose offspring will reproduce, often in an exaggerated degree, the
physical degeneracy of their parents."

The history of the illiteracy test in Congress is a curious comment on
lobbying. First introduced in 1895, it passed the House by a vote of 195
to 26, and the Senate in another form by a vote of 52 to 10. Referred to
a conference committee, an identical bill again passed both Houses by
reduced majorities. But irrelevant amendments had been tacked on and the
President vetoed it. The House passed it over his veto by 193 to 37, but
it was too late in the session to reach a vote in the Senate. Introduced
again in 1898, it passed the Senate by 45 to 28, but pressure of the
Spanish War prevented a vote in the House. The bill came up in
subsequent Congresses but did not reach a vote.[152] The lobby is
directed by the steamship companies, supported by railway companies, the
Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association, and other g