The Editor's Bag ness of the Constitution, and live under a government of laws, not of men.
A NATIONAL DANGER A contributor to one of our contem poraries, Mr. Tom L. Masson, who is editor of Life and presumably, there fore, an authority on that subject, draws attention to a new phase of the immigra tion evil in Lippincott's Magazine:— A CRYING EVIL We desire to call attention to a flagrant violation of one of our most important statutes. Under our immigration laws, no alien can land in this country who has no money and no capacity. If he comes from a foreign shore, he must be identified and duly passed upon. What is really happening? Every day, nay, almost every minute, in this country babies are being born who really have no right to enter our domain. Not only this, but they are calmly allowed to be here and not the slightest protest is made against them. It is true that recently some effort has been made to discourage their presence. But this is by private individuals, and not by the authorities. Every baby comes here from a foreign shore. He is a vagrant. Why, he hasn't even clothes on his back. In a large percen tage of cases he is sickly, and ought to be kept out by the quarantine authorities, if by no one else. These intruders ought to be guaranteed under the pure infant act, or else they should be promptly shipped back to the sender, with instructions to at least provide them with the necessities of life before they land among a free people. Perhaps the best way to remedy this crying evil (if its crying cannot other wise be abated), would be to enlarge the duties of our inspectors of immigration, and compel them to ship abroad all new born infants not comparing favorably, as regards education and capacity, with the least desirable class of immigrants we are receiving from foreign shores.
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It would be impossible to overestimate the vast economic burden of the infantile class upon our national life and re sources. We can easily obtain all the people we want from Europe, to pre vent the sum-total of our population from decreasing, and the wealth and property of the country would be greatly advanced were we to insist upon every new citizen possessing qualities ensuring his not becoming a private as well as a public charge. We would not suggest any reform tending to destroy our sacred family in stitutions; on the contrary, after a pro bationary term in Europe the young aliens could be brought back to our shores and restored to their parents, provided they were able to pass the standard tests applied in the case of all ordinary immigrants. We would like to see a revision of our immigration laws attempted (if not carried out) on this basis. Any proffers of co-operation sent to us will be promptly transmitted to a gentleman picked for a leader of this movement—a learned and influential Professor of Criminal Law, whose in come surreptitiously derived from con sultative work for eminent kidnappers, thieves, blackmailers, etc., is said to exceed by three or four times his aca demic salary. THE PHILADELPHIA LAWYER "When I hear that expression about being as smart as a Philadelphia lawyer, I always think of a little thing that occurred way back in '58," an old Vir ginia lawyer said, smiling. "We had a pretty big case on hand, and our client prevailed upon us to import a Phila delphia lawyer as consulting counsel. I almost dropped dead when he said:— "'Well, I guess we had better send the judge who is to try this case a
