ed law advances
considerably beyond the Act of 1903, which it is designed to replace. It
raises the head tax from $2 to $5, introduces the reading test,[34] and
practically creates a money test also, by requiring every male immigrant
to have $25 in hand at the time of examination.[35] The money from the
head tax is to constitute a permanent immigration fund, to defray not
only the cost of the Immigration Bureau, but also that of maintaining an
information bureau, to save immigrants from being deceived and show them
where they are most wanted and likely to succeed.[36]

[Sidenote: The Reading Test Pro and Con]

The section in this proposed legislation that has caused most
discussion and dissension is the illiteracy test. This measure has been
pressed upon Congress by the Immigration Restrictive League ever since
the organization of that Society in 1894. Senator Lodge fathered it and
it was passed once and vetoed by President Cleveland. President
Roosevelt recommended it in his message of December 3, 1901, and it has
received the endorsement of many boards of charities and many leading
men. The strongest argument in favor of it is contained in a resolution
passed by the Associated Charities of Boston, although the same argument
applies broadly to the question of restriction. The reading test was
discussed by speakers at the National Immigration Conference, but that
meeting did not include it in the resolutions adopted. The Jewish
influence is thrown strongly against it, since the Russian Jews who are
fleeing from oppression are among the most illiterate of the present
immigration. This is due to lack of school facilities, however, for the
Jews naturally take to education and the Jewish children in the public
schools and high schools are carrying off the prizes. "Not long ago I
saw a Jewish girl in a New England academy win the prize in
constitutional history over the heads of the boys and girls from
American families, though her father was an illiterate Russian
Jew."[37]

[Sidenote: In Favor of Illiterates]

That is not by any means an unusual testimony. Another fact worthy of
note is that many of those who have worked most closely among the
immigrants do not favor the reading test. Mr. Brandenburg, for example,
suggests that the illiterates often prove less opinionated and more
easily assimilable than others of the same race who can read and write,
and says that so far as his experience goes the great proportion of t