Immigration: Face of America HTY-110

pertaining to the subject; and to employ necessary clerical and other assistance. Said commis- sion shall report to the Congress the conclusions reached by it and make such recommenda- tions as in its judgment may seem proper.

SEC. 40. The authority is hereby given the Commissioner-General of Immigration to establish; under the direction and control of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor; a divi- sion of information in the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization; and the Secretary of Commerce and Labor shall provide such clerical assistance as may be necessary. It shall lie the duty of said division to promote a beneficial distribution of aliens admitted into the United States among the several States and Territories desiring immigration. Correspondence shall be had with the proper officials of the States and Territories; and said division shall gather from all available sources useful information regarding the resources; products; and physical characteristics of each State and Territory; and shall publish such information in dif- ferent languages and distribute the publications among all admitted aliens who may ask for such information at the immigrant stations of the United States and to such other persons as may desire the same. When any State or Territory appoints and maintains an agent or agents to represent it at any of the immigrant stations of the United States; such agents shall; under regulations prescribed by the Commissioner-General of Immigration; subject to the approval of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, have access to aliens who have been admitted to the United States for the purpose of presenting; either orally or in writing; the special inducements offered by such State or Territory to aliens to settle therein. While on duty at any immigrant station such agents shall be subject to all the regulations prescribed by the Commissioner-General of Immigration; who; with the approval of the Secretary of Com- merce and Labor, may; for violation of any such regulations; deny to the agent guilty of such violation any of the privileges herein granted.

Document 4: Excerpts from the Dillingham Commission Report (1911)

Significance: The largest and most extensive commission established to that point in U.S. history to study the impact of immigration. The commission was biased in favor of Anglo- Saxon immigrants and against the ‘‘new’’ immigrants of Southern and Eastern Europe.

Introductory

The complete report of the Immigration Commission consists of 42 volumes. In volume 1 there is presented a brief history of the organization and work of the Commission, together with its conclusions and recommendations, but this volume, as well as volume 2, consists for the most part of abstracts of the more extended reports of the Commission upon various phases of the subject under consideration. In preparing these abstracts it was the purpose of the Com- mission to present in a condensed form some of the more essential results of its investigations, and while the various abstracts lack the great mass of important statistical and other data con- tained in the reports upon which they are based, it is believed that they are sufficiently exhaus- tive to meet the requirements of the average student of the immigration problem.

Included in the two volumes are the complete reports of the Commission on various sub- jects, and also the present United States immigration laws and regulations, the treaty, laws, and regulations governing the admission of Chinese, and the United States naturalization laws and regulations.

Purpose of the Inquiry

As previously stated, the act creating the Commission directed that it should ‘‘make full inquiry, examination, and investigation, by subcommittee or otherwise, into the

Chapter 3 • The Great Wave of Immigration from 1880 to 1920

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