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April 27, 1924 - Image 9

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Publication:
The Michigan Daily, 1924-04-27

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Two

VOL. XXXIV. No. 4-4e,.

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, SUNDAt, APRIL 27, 1924

PRICE, FIVE

IMMIGRATION

AND

WORLD

PEAC

Student Opinion Concerningj
Issue Now Confronting Nation

DEPLORE ATTITUDE Bates Favors
The subject of immigration to the R es c In
United States has been discussed the-
oretically and practically by many'
noted, authorities and students of thei r
subject for many years. All possiblet
criticisms and solutions have beeni "I am in favor of a restrictive im-
offered to the question which has, migration policy" was the comnientt
aroused such great interest and dis- of Dean Henry M. Bates of the Law
sentation in our international rela- school when questioned on the pres-
tions, but to us, as students at the ent immigration situation. The Dean
university and future American continued, "I am not in favor of dis-t
voters, the question has seemed criminating against nations as such.I
rather vague and obtuse unless we Selection of 'immigrants should beE
have had some close personal connec- = based to a large extent upon adapti-1
tion with some phase of it. bility to our institutions. While not
There are many here, however, to 'universally true, it is a fact that on thet
whothis ismnytsuh anwabstract ,whole peqple from the northern stocks
whom this Is not such an abstract have been more readily assimilatedj
condition which merits only a pass- t'ecause we ourselves are of northern I

THE ITALIAN VIEW
Michael De Filippis, instructor of1
romance languages, expressed his sen-
timents concerning the recent immi-
gration restrictions in this manner.
"Representative Italians in this coun-
try are in favor of restrictions, since
the United States deems it necessary,
but are unanimously opposed to that
portion of the law which discrimin-
ates against Italians." He feels that
to base the restriction on thie census of'
1890, rather than on that of 1910 makes
a resriction on Italians out of pro-
portion to that on other nations. I
Further, Mr. De Filippis stated that
the Italians in this country are not
representative of the nation, and that
therefore American judgment of them
is biased. He states, "Italians realize

The passage of an immigration bill
by Congress Is always an importantF
matter. But when a bill is passed
which alters the very fundamentals
'on~ which! our, Immigration policy is
founded - asgig does the new JIoh nson
bill-the importance not only in its
effect upon our own country, but in
its effect upon the world cannot be
measured. Whether it is best to re-
strict immigration at the present
time, whether it is best to Vestrict im-
migration from certain countries and
encourage it from others-all these
are questions which should be given
intelligent consideration.
The new bill, which is so construct-a
ed as to restrict the influx of mem-
hers of the south European, and. west-
Irn Asiatic races, and to encourage
the immigration of the Nordic or
North European races, and which vir-
tually prohibits the entrance into our
country of members of the Eastern
Asiatic races, is perhaps the boldest
step which the United States has yet
taken to dictate the racial character-
istics of future American citizens.-
Is the new bill too big a step? How
will it affect the world, politically,.
economically, and socially? It is a
question on which many .and widely
varied opinions are given.

Faculty Split In Discussion
Of Proposed Expulsion La

WORLD BENEFIT HughesUrges
ROY HOLMES, of the Sociology De- Exclusion Of
partment.
Our hope for the development of EasternPeople
anything like an ideally democratic
America demands for its realization,
among other conditions, that popula- "In my opinion the people of thel
tion pressure remain low. The natur- East cannot be assimilated by the
al increase, by itself, is sufficient at Western civilization," said The Right
its present rate to serve as cause for i Honorable William Morris Hughes,
concern to those who are thinking in war and peace premier of Australia
long-time terms. However great may from 1915 to 1923, in an interview dur-
be the population that America can ing his visit inAnn Arbor before the
care for without seriously reducing spring recess. Mr. Hughes is con-
its standards of living, it is but a mat- sidered as one of the ten greatest
ter of decades before thct number statesmen of the time, and has been
would be reached were sthmigrationee
entirely stopped. A policy if immi- called the world's greatest authority
gration restriction at least as strin- on the Eastern question.
gent as the existing one seems de- "Whenever we see mixed races we
sirable in the interest of Americans see degeneration," he contipued.
yet unborn. "High standards of living cannot be
And appeal need not be made to the maintained when cheap labor comes
(Continued on Page Fifteen) (Continued on Page Eleven)

}

ing though occasionally. Our foreign
students are vitally interested in the
policy which the United States is to
adopt as regards its acceptance of the
foreign immigrant. Place yourself in
their position, would it not be a vital
Importance to you whether your fel-
low countryman is to be welcomed or
refused 'admission when he comes to
this country with the intention of liv-
ing here? Would not the attitude
which the country acting as your host
takes toward your brother seem to re-
fiect upon you personally?
Nullifies Good Feeling
With a view of ascertaining first.
hand what the opinion of our foreign
students is upon the subject of their
Imigrating countrymen our our policy
toward them, several students repre-
senting some of the most interested
foreign nations have been inter-

stock. I, however, recognize that that Italians in this country are of
some of our best citizens from foreign the working class, and that the work-
stocks have come from the southern ing people of any nation is not repre-
nations (Continued on Page Ten)

i.--- _ _ _--

Nominations and Elections

ECONOMIC:ASPECTS
ZENAS C. DICKINSON, of the Ece
mies department
A considerable body of econo
and social doctrines on American
migration problems has develc
concurrently with the evolution of
immigration situation itself; so t
the bills now pending in Congress
but the latest installment of a to
conducted serial.
These bills involve three main r
posals, ,namely: (1) To reduce s
further the total volume of immig
tion permissable annually; (2) By
ing the 1890 Census basis, to cha
the national quotas so that a lax
proportion of the total will be dro
from northern European counti
from which- the bulk of our older
migration was drawn; and (3)
exclude ordinary Asiatic immigran
Humanitarian Argument
It is in regard to the proposal i
mentioned that the time-honored
migration doctrines of American E
nomists are most relevant. The
guments formerly advanced in fa
of unrestricted immigration were I
ed chiefly on general humanitariani
and upon the supposed need of an
creasing labor supply for Ameri
industries. Economic analysis d
not upset these arguments, but
shows more clearly the costs wh
the American wage-earner must
for succoring the dowh-trodden
other lands, and for providing Am
can employers with steady supplie
Immigrant common labor. The w
gains which have been realized by 1
skilled groups of labor here, since
migration was reduced by the war
by legislation,tend to vindicate t
economic diagnosis.
Issue is Less Restriction
But the live issue is no longer.
striction versus no-restriction; it
more versus less restriction. Al
we may have faith that our melt
pot will distill some Periclean set
ture out of Greek immigrantss
some sort of corresponding values
of the other races, .stil e- are pr
well agreed that the, tide of;iffn
gration which, was comig b efore
war cannot lbe '~siilated as cal
sloa'er flow. Is the' reason-to
pose, however, that theprop' ? se
per cent. rate (1890 basise) willbe '1
ter for our country than the- pres
rate of three per cent(9l:basis)
.some-: larger .'amount?.1,do .not'
that we have any way'of Jxdg/ing3
(Continued from Page 9)
EXCLUSION, BREACH 4
INTERNATIONAL ETHI

Sy Thomas H. Reed

mmediate interest
the Johnson Im-
Its Japanese ex-
which is supposed
entlemen's agree-
rapan. Strong op-
Lg our own people

'f;

Se'

fects of their destructive earthquake.
(Continued on -Wage Ten)
A TWO-FOLD ASPECT
OF IMMI9t ATION
Prof. Pitirinne Sorokine.
"Because the United. States was
founded for the purpose of experi-
ienting with entirely new and differ-
ent forms of government, and not
thinking for the present of the well-
being of the country, I can say that
I aiim in favor of unrestricted foreign
immigration," declared Prof. Pitirime
Sorokine, noted Russian student and
thinker, who has been in this city for
the past week giving a series of three
lectures on the conditions of Russia
today, and the causes for revolutions,
as he sees them. He is known as be-
ing a foremost student of the revolu-
tionary psychology of peoples through-
out the world.
"However, taking the conception
from a more rational. viewpoint, I!
would say that it were best for this
country that she restrict her immigra-
tion as much as. possible. The rea-
soning is that when the incoming, peo-F
ples of a decidedly different character
and standing are allowed to remain,1
the natural tendency is for the stan-
dard of living of the peoples to be
lowered Without restriction, the in-
coming peoples would soon become in,
the majority, may be attributed to
the immigration is a question which
is answered in by mind in a negative
manner, and I wish to say that the
greatness of America is not due solely
to the incoming peoples save in that
when the country was young they
proved to be the saving grace upon
which the foundation of the greatness
of the United States was laid.
"Today the situation because of the
inevitable passage of time and of the
changes which time has made in the
economic situation. as well as in the
social, I am able to say that the need
for immigration has stopped, and in-
stead of being 'desirable, the majority!
of aliens are undesired by the com-
fortable Americans. They now believe
that there is a sufficient number of
them in this country already, and that'
with unrestricted immigration they
soon would be -In the majority, and
would hence rule the nation, to the
exclusion of the native Americans.

(This is the second of a series of seven articles
E hich have been prepared for The Daily by Professor
Thomas H. Reed, of the political science department.
The third article, which will appear in next Sunday's
second section, will be a discussion of party organi-
ration and methods.)
The ark of 'our political covenant is the ballot box.
By far the greater part of the activity of the political
parties is concerned with getting ballots into them. To
determie who may be voted- for and tgnder what con-
dition S ballots may.be cast and cqunted, every .state
hi's a,&great body of laws.. The election laws of the
s of Michigan for example ocupy a volume ofa383
pages of 375 words.to the page.
Ii' all our states votes canbe 'cast' only by means
of an official ballot prepared by public authority. ansf,
furnished at public'expense. This, of course, necess-
tates some means of determining whose, names may
appear upon the hallot. In most countries this is a very
simple natter. All that is required being either a few
nominating signatures, or a mere declaration of in-
tention to become a candidate. In this country it is
the practice to signify the party of each candidate.
This may be done either by printing the names of all
party candidates in columns under the name and sign
of the party, or by printing the name of the party after
the name of each candidate. In any event the party
name is a valuable asset to a candidate, most people
indeed voting for the party rather than for the man.
For this reason it .is absolutely necessary under our
system to have some. authentic means of determining
who are the candidates of each of the political parties.
Otir problem is still further complicated by the fact
that we ,elect numerous officers such as governors and,
United States senators from the state, at large; and
once in four years i president from the whole country.
The result has been the development of a very elabor-
ate mechanism of nomination which, with the excep-
tion of the National Convention. for the choice of a
President, has been ,subjected to very minute legal
regulation by the states..

cratic movement led by Andrew Jackson. The parties
then turned to the plan of nominating presidents by a
delegate convention ; and since 1836 every presidential
candidate has been so nominated.
The convention system of nomination was in theory
simple and democratic. It was based upon the ward.
or town caucus.. In these caucuses voters of the party
in each town or ward were supposed to rpeet together
to nominate candidates for ward or township officers
anti to elect delegates to city and county conventions.
These conventions in turn chose delegates to congres-
sional distiict 'Co'nventions,. which'-selected delegates
to state conventions, which in their turn..selected dele-
gates for the national-convention. Nothing could.be
more denOcratid-in appearance than this. The diffi-
culty witW the sfstern lay in 'the fact that the 'caucuses
w re not in reality representative meetings. of the
part t Fraud and ioleice had something .to do with
this in the early dayss1 but even-after ample legal pro-
tection 'had been thrown around -the conduct of can-{
cuses or primaries, the, public could be induced, to
take no real interest in them. All the caucus did was.
to nominate a few candidates for obscure offices and
elect a few delegates to minor conventions. It is one
of the unhappy reflections to which observers of poli-
tics have been led that the people are only interested in
the large and dramatic aspects of political life. The
convention system further offered remarkable oppor-
tunities for those- who were adept in the bargainings
and wire-ptllings of politics.

Our present methods may be best understood by
briefly sketching the history of nominating methods.
In colonial times candidates for the legislature, that is
for the most important offices, filled by popular elec-
tion, nominated themselves. In Bobton, however,
during those stirring political days which preceded the
Revolution, it became the custom of the patriot party
to hold a preliminary meeting or caucus in which the
persons to 'be voted for at the coming town' meeting
were selected. Needless to say the candidates of the
caucus were always victorious. With the Revolution
came the necessity of choosing governors and presi-
dential electors at large in the states. Party success,
demanded that -there be someway of determining the
party's nominees for these' offices. This was at.first,
done by the members Hof the party who had seats in
the state legislature. -Later on there were added to"
their number delegates especially chosen from the
districts whose legislative :members belonged, to the
other party. It was only as tep then to the straight,
delegate convention which was everywhere ,ntrod uced
about the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth.
century. In the meantime presidential candidates had
been nominated by the so-called Congressional caucus,
that is, by the members of Congress belonging to the
n vinnuentin- The fact that from 1804 to 1824

About the beginning of the present century, general
disgust with the convention system led to the adoption
of- the 'so-called direct primary. By this method the
party members 'vote in' their primary directly for the,
party candidates for governor, United States senator .
and other officers elected at large. -Nearly a score of
states have extended the primary system to the choice
.of delegates to the national convention,, or have pro-
vided -foir an advisory' vote on candidates for the presi-
dency which is presumably binding upon those dele-.
ates. . There is now a great deal of criticism of the
direct primary. A It has failed to accomplish, many of.
the things which were hoped for. It has not broken
the power of machines and bosses, -nor has it materially,
raised the level of candidates. There is, however,
more interest in the primary than when it only selected
delegates to conventions, and there is, under the direct
primary system, a chance for a popular movement
within the party to overwhelm the machine. It would
be the part of extreme folly to abandon the direct pri-
mary system and go back to the old methods of nomi-
nation. It is very difficult to see how anyone who was
familiar with the convention system in the days of
its prosperity could recommend going back to it.
After all, the difficulty in the matter of nomina-,
tions is' not so much in the mechanism provided by law.
as in the minds of the voters. If the average voter,
'takes no interest in primaries, the prinary will be
controlled by the professional party workers, in other;
words by the machine. Voting. at an election after
having ignored one's party primary is the old story of.
locking the doo after the horse-is stolen. If the pri-
varies of both parties are neglected, we have at the
final election only a choice between evils. If you,
must choose between voting at 4lhe primary or, at the.
electiii, vote at the primary and let the election go.
The names of candidates are put on the primary
ballot by petition, a fixed proportion of the vote cast
for some officer at the last election being required for

either party. In the closed primary, the voter's choice;
of the party has been predetermined, usually by his
declaration at the time of registration.,
One of the evils of the direct primary has been the
tendency for the voter of one party to vote in the
primary of the other. If there is an interesting con-
test in the Republican party and no contest in, the
bemocratic party, Democrats like to participate in the
Republican primary. This is particularly the case
where the party in which the contest is taking place is
the domnant party in the state. The open primary
'lends itself'pecutiarly to this sort of thing, but it can'-be
done even under.' the closed primary. InCalifornia,
Where the closed primary. prevails. upwards of tw -
thirds of the registered voters 'of the' state 'are' en-
rolled as Republicans. In many districts there are al-
most no, Democrats, and yet Woodrow Wilson carried
Califormnia twice for the presidency. The reason for
the situation in ihat state is that the Republican._party
is normally the' stronger and that all the interesting
Primary battles for he last ten years have been within
another party as to participate in the election of mem-
bers to' another fraternity: It is really none of the
business of the Democrats who the Republicans nomi-
nate, and vice versa. This breaking over party lines in
the primaries tends to destroy the effectiveness and the
responsibility of parties. It should be restricted as
rigidly as possible.
Every effort is made by the law to protect the con-f
duct of elections against violence and fraud. In order
to prevent persons from voting. who have no right to
vote, it is now required that every voter be registered
in advance of the election. In some states the regis-
tration lists are permanent. In other: re-registration
at frequent intervals of all voters is required. In any
event -none but registered voters may vote. As' soon as
a voter has received his ballot,.his name is checked off
upon the poll- list. Severe penalties are provided for
those who attempt to vote upon a name other than their
own. To preserve the secrecy of the ballot and thus n
protect the independence of the voter, the law requires
that-.the voter take his ballot into a separate booth and,
mark it there in private. This is the culminating mo-
ment of citizenship when a man stands alone with God
and his lead pencil to determine the fate of his country.
No ballot is counted upon which any mark which could
many way be considered an identification of the ballot
is to be found, Only the official lead pencil or the
official rubber stamp can be used in marking a ballot.
In some states voting machines, where the turning of
a lever takes the place of the use of the printed ballot
and the lead pencil, are in use. They have only one
advantage, and that is that the vote is all counted when
the polls are closed. If, however, anything goes wrong
with the mechanism, as sometimes happens, the re-
suits may be very unsatisfactory. The correctness of
the count is guaranteed as is the general fairness of the
election proceedings by providing that -the election of-.
ficers, that is the persons who receive and count the
ballots, shall be drawn from both of the great political
parties. Each party is usually permitted also to have
official watchers at the polls during the progress of the
poll Designated 'watchers, and in some states the ,
public.at large, are permitted-to be present while the
vote is being counted. Election frauds -are still some- . -
times committed, but it is safe to say in general that
when a qualified elector goes to the polls he may be
sure of casting his ballot, casting it in secret, and hav-

That the exclusion of the Japa
peoples from the United State
technically within the rights of
country, but that it was a brea
international ethics was the op
of Prof. Joseph R. Hayden of thf
litical science department in atr
discussion of the current jhasE
the immigration question. "It is
privilege of any nation of the v
to 'say who shall enter- withi
gates, a privilege recognized b
ternational law," he said. How
Ido not think tlia't America di(
correct thing when your national
gress legislated against the Jaj
Ipeople. It is not as though great
hers of them came to our'shores
' year, they do not. Perhaps a hut
or two come to this country, an u
which when a proper considerati
the numbers which enter from
countries is given seems almost
ligible. It is true that the natur
crease of the Japanese race is
high but do not think that there v
be a menace from that source."
Professor Hayden did not
that any drastic results would f
the action of the United-States i
cluding the Japanese, but added
Japan is sure to protest and tl
has already placed a boycott on
fornia goods. "No such terribl
suilt as a war will come about '
is only too probable that it will
needless disputes. . am of the op
that it is an excellent thing to
a strong check on immigration
marily that undesirables may be
from this country."
That he was in favor of usin
1890 census as the basis fo
"quota" system of selection of
grants who shall be allowed to
this country was.expressed b
professor, primarily because a
desirable type of immigrant ca
this country at that time. The
fessor scouted the idea that the
aL'ainst immigration would ever

ituation will very soon
t in Russia There we
en snaces. and the de-

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