mit a hundred thousand immigrants who, though unable to
read and write, seek among us only a home and opportunity to work than
to admit one of those unruly agitators and enemies of governmental
control who can not only read and write, but delights in arousing by
inflammatory speech the illiterate and peacefully inclined to discontent
and tumult. Violence and disorder do not originate with illiterate
laborers. They are, rather, the victims of the educated agitator. The
ability to read and write, as required in this bill, in and of itself
affords, in my opinion, a misleading test of contented industry and
supplies unsatisfactory evidence of desirable citizenship or a proper
apprehension of the benefits of our institutions. If any particular
element of our illiterate immigration is to be feared for other causes
than illiteracy, these causes should be dealt with directly, instead of
making illiteracy the pretext for exclusion, to the detriment of other
illiterate immigrants against whom the real cause of complaint can not
be alleged.

The provisions intended to rid that part of the proposed legislation
already referred to from obvious hardship appears to me to be indefinite
and inadequate.

A parent, grandparent, wife, or minor child of a qualified immigrant,
though unable to read and write, may accompany the immigrant or be sent
for to join his family, provided the immigrant is capable of supporting
such relative. These exceptions to the general rule of exclusion
contained in the bill were made to prevent the separation of families,
and yet neither brothers nor sisters are provided for. In order that
relatives who are provided for may be reunited, those still in foreign
lands must be sent for to join the immigrant here. What formality is
necessary to constitute this prerequisite, and how are the facts of
relationship and that the relative is sent for to be established?
Are the illiterate relatives of immigrants who have come here under
prior laws entitled to the advantage of these exceptions? A husband who
can read and write and who determines to abandon his illiterate wife
abroad will find here under this law an absolutely safe retreat. The
illiterate relatives mentioned must not only be sent for, but such
immigrant must be capable of supporting them when they arrive. This
requirement proceeds upon the assumption that the foreign relatives
coming here are in every case, by reason of poverty, liable to become
a public ch