be denied admission, no matter what country they hailed from.  A notable immigration conference which was called by the National Civic Federation in December, 1905, and which represented all manner of public bodies, recommended the “exclusion of persons of enfeebled vitality” and proposed “a preliminary inspection of intending immigrants before they embark.”  President Roosevelt laid the whole matter before Congress in several vigorous messages in 1906 and 1907.  He pointed to the fact that

In the year ending June 30, 1905, there came to the United States 1,026,000 alien immigrants.  In other words, in the single year ... there came ... a greater number of people than came here during the one hundred and sixty-nine years of our colonial life. ...  It is clearly shown in the report of the Commissioner General of Immigration that, while much of this enormous immigration is undoubtedly healthy and natural ... a considerable proportion of it, probably a very large proportion, including most of the undesirable class, does not come here of its own initiative but because of the activity of the agents of the great transportation companies....  The prime need is to keep out all immigrants who will not make good American citizens.

In consonance with this spirit, the law of 1907 was passed.  It increased the head tax to four dollars and provided rigid scrutiny over the transportation companies.  The excluded classes of immigrants were minutely defined, and the powers and duties of the Commissioner General of Immigration were very considerably enlarged.  The act also created the Immigration Commission, consisting of three Senators, three members of the House, and three persons appointed by the President, for making “full inquiry, examination, and investigation ... into the subject of immigration.”  Endowed with plenary power, this commission made a comprehensive investigation of the whole question.  The President was authorized to “send special commissioners to any foreign country for the purpose of regulating by international agreement ... the immigration of aliens to the United States.”

Here at last is congressional recognition of the fact that immigration is no longer merely a domestic question, but that it has, through modern economic conditions, become one of serious international import.  No treaties have been perfected under this authority.  The question, however, received serious attention in 1909 when Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino of the New York police was murdered in Sicily by banditti, whither he had pursued a Black Hand criminal from the East Side.

In the meantime many measures for restricting immigration were suggested in Congress.  Of these, the literacy test met with the most favor.  Three times in recent years Congress enacted it into law, and each time it was returned with executive disapproval:  President Taft vetoed the provision in 1913, and President Wilson vetoed the acts of 1915 and 1917.  In his last veto message on January 29, 1917, President Wilson said that “the literacy test ... is not a test of character, of quality, or of personal fitness, but would operate in most cases merely as a penalty for lack of opportunity in the country from which the alien seeking admission came.”