Admittance of Wives and Children of "Nonquota" Immigrants LONG-CONTESTED case, decided May 26, 1924, by the A Supreme Court of the United States, fixed the construction of the immigration acts of 1917 and 1921, in respect to the admissibility of the wives and minor children of admitted immigrants. Gittel and Israel Gottlieb were the wife and four-year-old child, respectively, of Solomon Gottlieb. Solomon was a Jewish rabbi who came from Palestine to the United States some 14 months before his wife and child came. He was duly admitted and, procuring a position, furnished support to his family until able to send passage money. On their arrival they were excluded because the quota from Palestine was full. On a writ of habeas corpus in the District Court of New York admission was ordered, whereupon an appeal was taken to the Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Rogers went carefully into the case, examining the effect of the quota law of 1921 on the basic law of 1917. The 1917 act provides that ministers or religious teachers and their legal wives and children under 16 are not subject to the exclusion clause of that act; this act not having been repealed by the act of 1921, an effort must be made to construe the limitations of the later act so as not to do violence to the act of 1917. Rules for the construction of statutes were discussed, one of which was that absurd results should be avoided if possible. The conclusion was reached that Congress intended nothing by the act of 1921 that would "create a condition so unreasonable and absurd as to admit a minister while at the same time excluding the members of his family." The order of the court directing the release of the wife and child was therefore affirmed (285 Fed. 295). This decision was made a precedent in a number of cases involving similar and related conditions; but the Department of Labor was not satisfied with the ruling as a final determination and prosecuted an appeal to the Supreme Court. Here it was conceded that the laws of 1917 and 1921 should be held as complemental, the provisions of the earlier act being "still fully operative and may be considered as though forming a part of the later act." However, the phrasing of the law was said to be so definite as not to permit construction. The case was concededly "one of peculiar and distressing hardships,' so that if a favorable conclusion were possible it would naturally be made use of; but an examination of the exceptions and qualifications made it impossible to extend leniency to the case in hand, the limited scope of the exception relied upon "being plain, and no amount of discussion could make it plainer.' The limitation being what it was, any claim that it would be "absurd and unreasonable to bar wives and children of admitted persons could not have weight, "since the result we have stated necessarily follows from the plain words of the law, for which we are not at liberty to substitute a rule based upon other notions of policy or justice." This decision clearly upheld the construction of law given it by the Department of Labor in its original finding, and exposed to the possibility of deportation a considerable number of admitted persons, wives and children of immigrants residing in this country, who had been admitted in obedience to the ruling of the courts below, but under notice that an appeal had been taken. However, Con gress in its closing session on June 7, provided for the continued residence in this country of such persons, "approximately 8,800 aliens who are now here and about 500 who are on the ocean.' A resolution (H. J. Res. 283) lifting the ban against certain groups of such persons specified those heretofore admitted under a construction of the act of 1921 "required by court decision." This resolution was signed by the President on the same day and is now being observed in the administration of the act of 1921. It may be added that the act of Congress of May 26, 1924, which takes effect on June 30, on the expiration of the act of 1921, provides for the admission of the "unmarried children under 18 years of age, or the wife, of a citizen of the United States who resides therein at the time of the filing" of the required petition; also the wife and unmarried children under 18 years of age of a minister, or of a professor of a college, etc., who seeks to enter the United States solely for the purpose of carrying on his vocation, provided he has pursued the same continuously for two years immediately preceding the time of his application for admission. This permission is extended to the wife and children whether they accompany him or follow to join him later. TH Immigration Into Canada for First Quarter of 1924 HE following recent statistics on immigration into Canada are taken from the May, 1924, issue of the Labor Gazette of the Department of Labor of that country: IMMIGRATION INTO CANADA DURING THE FIRST QUARTER OF 1924 FACTORY INSPECTION Indiana 1 THE Indiana Department of Women and Children reports as follows in regard to its inspections and orders for the year ending September 30, 1923: Among the subjects covered by the orders were: Seating, lighting, ventilation, sanitation, general working conditions, hours, meal period, certificates, and prohibited occupations. Orders were issued to 121 out of 141 canneries in the fiscal year 1922. Of the 91 canneries reported on for the following year, 50 required no orders. Massachusetts THE report on the inspection work of the Massachusetts Department of Labor and Industries for April, 1924, included the following: Orders issued (mainly in regard to health and sanitary minors) 1, 945 Prosecutions.. 35 30 Verdicts of guilty secured. The wages paid by employers to workers after they had complained. to the department amounted to $1,219. 1 Indiana. Legislative Reference Bureau. Yearbook of the State of Indiana for the year 1923. Indianapolis, 1924, p. 108. 241 Ohio 2 SINCE the constitutional amendment to the workmen's compensation act of Ohio went into effect on January 1, 1924, the field deputies of the division of workshops and factories of the State department of industrial relations have been devoting a great deal of their time to factory inspection in industrial centers and to acquainting employers with the newly adopted safety codes in order that such codes might be effectively enforced. Successful educational safety campaigns have been carried on in the factories, workshops, and schools in some of the principal cities of Ohio. It is planned to enlarge these activities as soon as the necessary funds are available In addition to fulfilling the new duties imposed upon it by the recently established safety codes, the division has been "forging ahead" with its regular routine work. In April, 1924, the division officials made 3,255 inspections of factories and 758 inspections of mercantile establishments, a decrease of 110 in the former inspections and an increase of 437 in the latter compared with the preceding month. Pennsylvania R ECENT statistics on the general inspection work of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry are here reproduced from the May, 1924, issue of "Labor and Industry" published by that department: 2 Ohio. Department of Industrial Relations and Industrial Commission. Industrial Relations, April and May, 1924. WHAT STATE LABOR BUREAUS ARE DOING THE HE data listed below reported by various State labor offices are published in this issue of the MONTHLY LABOR REVIEW on the pages indicated. Connecticut.-Record of public employment offices, May, 1924, page 158. Illinois.-Employment statistics, April, 1924, pages 158 and 162. Indiana.-Employment office activities, year ending September 3, 1923, page 159; inquiry into accidents to children illegally employed, page 127; inspection work for year ending September 30, 1923, page 241. 165. lowa.-Employment statistics, April, 1924, pages 160 and 164. Maryland.-Report on volume of employment, May, 1924, page Massachusetts. Average weekly earnings of males and females in manufacturing establishments, April, 1924, page 124; employment statistics for April, 1924, pages 160 and 166; factory inspection, April, 1924, page 241. New York.-Average weekly earnings in State factories, April, 1924, page 124; employment statistics, April, 1924, page 167; fatal industrial accidents, May, 1924, page 195. Ohio.-Factory inspection, April, 1924, page 242. In April, 1924, the Department of Industrial Relations and the Industrial Commission of Ohio published the first number of a new monthly bulletin, Industrial Relations. The director of the department states in the issue of that month that the publication is an attempt to relieve a long-felt want." Through this channel statistical data will be made available from time to time in regard to the operations of the various divisions of the department, as will also information as to changes in rules and procedure, digests of opinions in technical compensation cases decided by the State industrial commission and the courts. This monthly will be furnished on request to Ohio employers who have complied with the workmen's compensation act, as well as to other persons who notify the department that they wish to be put on the mailing list. Pennsylvania.-Public employment office statistics, March, 1924, page 161; inspection work, March, 1924, page 242. Wisconsin.-Employment statistics for April, 1924, pages 161 and 168. 243 |