Two Per Cent

A BILL. The House of Representatives passed the Johnson Immigration Bill (TIME, Oct. 8, Feb. 25), introduced by Representative Albert Johnson, Republican of Washington, by a non-partisan vote of 322 to 71.

The features of the Bill, which will admit 161,990 persons a year instead of 357,801 under the present Bill, are:

1) Changes the quota base from the census of 1910 to the census of 1890, thus giving practical preference to west and north European stocks;

2) Excludes Japanese immigrants (see below);

3) Reduces the percentage from 3 to 2, plus a small basic quota for each country;

4) Provides for preliminary examination of immigrants overseas, at a probable cost ot $2,000,000 per annum;

5) Counts certificates, not persons, Preventing arbitrary separation of members of the same family;

6) Exempts wives, children under 18, and parents over 55, of American citizens;

7) Preserves the basic immigration law of 1917, providing for deportation of certain specified persons considered physically, or morally undesirable (prostitutes, anarchists, imbeciles, defectives, etc.);

8) Contains principle of numerical limitation as inaugurated in the Act of May 19, 1921 (3% of number of aliens resident in country according to census of 1910);

9) Reduces classes of exempted aliens (students, officials, business men, professional men);

10) Meets situation with reference to admission of persons ineligible to citizenship;

11) Carries numerous sections to lessen hardships of immigrants;

12) Puts burden of proof for non-deportation on the alien.

Friends. The bill is generally supported by the West and South, admittedly with the backing of the Ku Klux Klan; by organized labor which desires to lessen competition with cheap European labor; and by those portions of the conservative press which see American institutions menaced by "hordes" of Italian, Jewish, Polish and southwestern European races, difficult to assimilate due to radical divergences of creed, tradition, root language and standards of living.

Foes. The bill is opposed by "liberals" who are disgusted with the Ku Klux and claptrap Nordic propaganda; by professional "friends of every country but their own"; by the foreign language press; by the big transatlantic shipping companies with a heavy immigrant trade; by large Eastern employers of labor; by immigrant lobbies in New York and Washington; and by many members of the Roman Catholic faith, who are alarmed by Ku Klux linking of "Nordic supremacy" with the Protestant religion or are influenced by the consideration that the immigrant races most affected (Poles and Italians) are Catholics.

Significance. Economically, the measure amounts to a high tariff on foreign labor. Its first effect would be to raise the commodity value of labor throughout the country. Eventually, it might increase the birthrate of the dwindling American-born population, by providing superior economic opportunities for the presumptive heirs of the national estate.

Debaters. Feeling in Congress ran high over the measure. Representative Burton,* of Ohio, was the only Administration spokesman to denounce the Japanese exclusion feature of the bill. Representatives Dickstein, Jacobstein, La Guardia, Sabath and Rosenbloom -- whose names are indicative of their disinterestedness -- made desperate last-minute efforts to amend the measure to modify the quota basis so as to favor the Italian, Jewish and eastern European stocks. The debate ended with winged words from Representative Tincher of Kansas: "The issue" is fairly well drawn. On the one side-- is beer, Bolshevism, unassimiating settlements, and many flags. On the other side, is constitutional government, one flag, the Stars and Stripes and American institutions!"

* Ever and anon there rises to speak In the Lower House of Congress a man who, in respect of learning, is without equal in that chamber. Long since, in college days, he would challenge his fellows to read any two lines of Shakespeare which he could not locate--play, act, scene. Today the story persists that the kitchen-range in his bachelor apartment is piled high with books.

In the Presidency of Taft and Wilson, he-- Theodore Elijah Burton of Ohio--was a Senator. He is back in the House now, and from its floor he rose last week to pay the Senate a compliment as rare as it was pretty.

Speaking of the immigration bill as it affected Japan, he was of the opinion that the House should not legislate to exclude Japanese, but should leave the question to diplomatic arrangement. The House should not temper with the Japanese question, for, said he: "The Senate has charge of our foreign relations and is in closer touch with the situation."

In respect of age. Mr. Burton, 73, is surpassed by Speaker Gillett, two months Ins senior, by Representative Fuller (Ill.) 74, Representative Dickinson (Mo.) 75, Representative Greene (Mass.) 83, Representative Graham (Pa.) 74, Representative Stedman (N. C.) 83, Representative Sherwood (Ohio) 89.