The peril of alien registration through the disguised form of voluntary registration definitely loomed up today when the bill of Senator Blease of South Carolina embodying the latter plan and introduced last May was taken up for consideration by the Senate Immigration Committee. Although the Committee adjourned for lack of a quorum without voting, it is understood the members will be polled and if a majority is found favorable the bill will be reported to the Senate for favorable action.
From reliable sources it is learned that a favorable report is extremely likely, especially because of the outward innocence of the so-called voluntary scheme with which the bill is clothed. It is also known that a majority of the members of the Committee are more or less hostile to immigration and aliens in general.
Senator Copeland of New York, who is the leading friend of immigration on the Committee did not attend the afternoon session of the Committee because of the pending tariff bill but he was present in the morning when no intimation was given that the bill would be considered. He has declared his intention of opposing the bill, terming it “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” and saying that it “represents the first entering wedge of compulsory registration of all aliens.”
The Blease bill authorizes the commissioner general of immigration to issue registration certificates to aliens who entered lawfully for permanent residence upon making application to the Secretary of Labor. The bill contains no compulsory clause, simply stating that any alien who registers shall be issued a registration certificate which would contain such information as name, country and date of birth, nationality, physical identification, port of admission and date of admission.
It is known that scheme in the Blease bill was adopted as a temporary substitute by Secretary of Labor Davis following the storm of opposition against his simon pure original compulsory registration plan put forward several years ago and that he has long hoped for the adoption of this substitute as preparatory to resurrecting the compulsory plan.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
