annels there is an abnormal immigration movement so vast
as "to override and all but reduce to a mere joke our whole restrictive
system. That an appalling number of aliens who are on the verge of
dependency, defectiveness, and delinquency do somehow contrive to get
into the country every year is a fact too well known to call for
verification here. Nobody undertakes to deny it." There is plain
necessity, therefore, that some means of redeeming the situation should
be found.

_II. Proposed Legislation_

[Sidenote: Three Recommendations]

The Commissioner-General of Immigration, in his report for 1905, devotes
much space to new or amendatory legislation, which he regards as a
necessity.[33] To bring the steamship companies to stricter regard for
law, he would raise the penalty for carrying diseased persons from $100
to $500. He favors the debarring of illiterates, and as a special
recommendation proposes an international conference of immigration
experts, with a view to secure by treaty or convention the cooeperation
of foreign countries from which aliens migrate hither, both in reducing
the number of immigrants and preventing the inadmissible and undesirable
classes from leaving their own homes.

[Sidenote: Value of International Conference]

Such a conference would certainly be conducive to a good understanding
between nations, would doubtless secure an effective restraint of the
transportation agencies, and throw such light upon the attitude of
foreign governments toward our present system of immigration restriction
as would enable Congress to decide intelligently what additional
measures are necessary to protect this country from the dangers of an
increasing influx of aliens. This is an admirable recommendation. As Mr.
Whelpley says, it is a question of emigration as well as immigration,
and since two countries are interested in the migrants, the whole matter
is properly one for international conference and action.

[Sidenote: Immigration Bills in Congress]

The interest taken by Congress in immigration is indicated by the
introduction in the House during the session of 1906 of nineteen bills
to regulate or restrict immigration, while a number were introduced in
the Senate also. The House Committee on Immigration, of which Mr.
Gardner, of Massachusetts, is chairman, took all the bills into
consideration and reported a comprehensive Bill to Regulate the
Immigration of Aliens into the United States. This propos