Burlington Weekly Free Press

A QUEER BILL.

If Congress keeps on in the direction it has been going for some time past it will wind up by building a high wall all around the United States, and closing all ocean ports. The latest proposed legislation in this direction is a bill reported in the Senate by the committee on education and labor, to prevent the importation of labor. This measure provides that the importation or emigration from any foreign country into any place within the jurisdiction of the United States of any alien under any agreement, expressed or implied, that such alien shall work, labor for or in any wise serve, in said jurisdiction, any person or corporation, shall hereafter be prohibited; that every such agreement shall be considered null and void; that any advance of the cost of transportation, or any part thereof, or agreement to pay or secure such transportation of any alien to any place within the jurisdiction of the United States, made by any person engaged in mining, manufacturing, building or transportation, or by any corporation whatever, shall hereafter be prohibited. It provides a penalty of $500 for each and every violation of these provisions, and that it shall be a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of $1000 and disqualification from holding office under the United States, for any person, while in the official service of the United States, to violate any of the provisions of this act, or to knowingly aid and encourage such violation. It also provides that it shall be a misdemeanor for the master or other officer of a vessel of American registry to knowingly bring from any foreign country into the United States any alien who is under any agreement prohibited by this act, and that such misdemeanor shall be punishable by a fine of not more than $1000 for each and every alien so transported on his vessel.

The bill declares, however, that this act shall not be so construed to prevent any subject or citizen of any foreign country coming into the United States from bringing with him domestic servants or other persons for his personal service or convenience or the service or convenience of his family accompanying him, nor from preventing any such foreigner, while temporarily residing in the United States, from bringing in such servants or persons above described, and that it shall not be construed to apply to the employment of sailors and seamen on vessels engaged in foreign commerce or such employment as may be otherwise allowed by law. It also contains a stipulation that if any person or corporation shall complain to the President of the United States that he or it is engaged, or is about to start a business requiring skilled labor of a particular kind, and that a sufficient quantity of such skilled labor can not be obtained in the United States, the President may, on being satisfied as to the truth thereof, issue a license to such person or corporation to bring in, unaffected by this act, such skilled labor, specifying in such license the kind of skilled labor and the number of artisans permitted to be brought into the United States.

Under this bill a Vermont lumberman, for instance, would be forbidden to go into Canada and hire a gang of French loggers. A more senseless bill it would be hard to find—unless it be one of those passed by the House, providing, in effect, for the prevention of inventions. What will Congress try to do next?