CHAPTER XIV

CONCLUSION

IN the chapter dealing with our treatment of the Chinese, attention was called to the pledge of our government that in case of ill treatment "the United States will exert all its powers to devise measures for their protection and to secure to them the same rights and privileges, immunities, and exemptions as may be enjoyed by the citizens and subjects of the most favored nation." Thus far, Congress has ignored this promise.

Now that the whole world begins to realize how important it is for a nation to keep with utmost care its treaty obligations, has not the time come for Congress to take the needed action?

In this matter, moreover, we are bound by numerous treaties with many other countries also respecting the rights of aliens.

For example, the treaty of 1871 with Italy contains the following reciprocal pledges:

"The citizens of each of the high contracting parties shall receive in the states and territories of the other the most constant protection and security for their persons and property, and shall enjoy in this respect the same rights and privileges as are or

may be granted to the natives on their submitting themselves to the conditions imposed upon the natives."

The personal and property rights of aliens have, nevertheless, been repeatedly violated, and, as a result, the friendly relations existing between the United States and foreign countries have been jeopardized.

Honorable William H. Taft has given a list of seventy-three aliens of different nationalities lynched or murdered in other ways between 1885 and 1910, in addition to those who were wounded. Thousands have been driven from their homes and their property destroyed by lawless mobs.

In all these cases the federal government has acknowledged its responsibility by paying indemnities, but it has not been able either to give protection in case of threatened danger or of prosecution of those who committed the crimes, owing to lack of legislation authorizing the federal authorities to take the needful actions. In support of this statement the words of four recent presidents are offered: President Harrison, just after the Mafia case at New Orleans in 1891, said:

"It would, I believe, be entirely competent for Congress to make offenses against the treaty rights of foreigners domiciled in the United States cognizable in the federal courts. This has not, however,

1" The United States and Peace."

been done, and the federal officers and courts have no power in such cases to intervene either for the protection of a foreign citizen or for the punishment of his slayers."

President McKinley, in his annual message of December 5, 1899, used these words:

"For the fourth time in the present decade the question has arisen with the government of Italy in regard to the lynching of Italian subjects. The latest of these deplorable events occurred at Tallulah, Louisiana, whereby five unfortunates of Italian origin were taken from jail and hanged. . . . The recurrence of these distressing manifestations of blind mob fury, directed at dependents or natives of a foreign country, suggests that the contingency has arisen for action by Congress in the direction of conferring upon the federal courts jurisdiction in this class of international cases where the ultimate responsibility of the federal government may be involved."

President Roosevelt, in his annual message of December, 1906, said:

"One of the greatest embarrassments attending the performance of our international obligations is the fact that the statutes of the United States are entirely inadequate. They fail to give to the national government sufficiently ample power, through United States courts and by the use of the army and navy, to protect aliens in the rights secured to them under solemn treaties which are the law of the land. I therefore earnestly recommend that the criminal and civil statutes of the United States be so amended

and added to as to enable the President, acting for the United States Government, which is responsible in our international relations, to enforce the rights of aliens under treaties. There should be no particle of doubt as to the power of the national government completely to perform and enforce its own obligations to other nations. The mob of a single city may at any time perform acts of lawless violence against some class of foreigners which would plunge us into war. That city by itself would be powerless to make defense against the foreign power thus assaulted, and if independent of this government it would never venture to perform or permit the performance of the acts complained of. The entire power and the whole duty to protect the offending city or the offending community lies in the hands of the United States Government. It is unthinkable that we should continue a policy under which a given locality may be allowed to commit a crime against a friendly nation, and the United States Government limited, not to prevention of the commission of the crime, but, in the last resort, to defending the people who have committed it against the consequences of their wrongdoing."

President Taft, in his inaugural address, March 4, 1909, said:

"By proper legislation we may, and ought to, place in the hands of the federal executive the means of enforcing the treaty rights of such aliens in the courts of the federal government. It puts our government in a pusillanimous position to make definite engagements to protect aliens and then to excuse the failure to perform those engagements by an explanation that the duty to keep them is in

States or cities not within our control. If we would promise we must put ourselves in a position to perform our promise. We cannot permit the possible failure of justice, due to local prejudice in any State or municipal government, to expose us to the risk of a war, which might be avoided if federal jurisdiction was asserted by suitable legislation by Congress and carried out by proper proceedings instituted by the executive in the courts of the national govern

ment.

In 1912 a bill was prepared and introduced into the House enabling the federal government to execute its treaty obligations for the protection of aliens resident in the United States. This bill, drafted by Honorable William H. Taft, himself, was endorsed by the American Bar Association. No action, however, was taken by Congress. It is difficult to understand why Congress has so long failed to pass the necessary law. Is not the real reason the apathy of the responsible citizens of the United States in regard to international relations, responsibilities, and duties?

In conclusion, then, we earnestly invite all those who sympathize with the view and proposals presented in these pages to consider how they may most effectively co-operate for their realization.

What is now needed is a League for Constructive Immigration Legislation, composed of tens of thousands of citizens in all parts of the country, who will aid in the education of our people in these matters