ODD IMMIGRATION TESTS PROPOSED

Using Soldier as Basis of Comparison, Asiatics Can All Be Shut Aut, Secretary of Labor Declares.

SAME STANDARD WOULD ALSO ELIMINATE OTHERS

WASHINGTON, Friday, Jan. 23. -- After a conference today with Commissioner-General Caminetti, Secretary Wilson, of the department of labor, advised Speaker Clark that the problem of Asiatic immigration could be solved by Congress raising the standard of admission so as to include in the list of excluded aliens those persons not able to pass the physical tests required of recruits for the United States army.

"Inasmuch as the vast majority of the present-day immigrants must earn a living, if at all, by performing manual labor," wrote Secretary Wilson, "I see no reason why the standard should not be raised to this point."

The views of the department of labor, including the immigration bureau, are expressed in a letter to Speaker Clark, in which Secretary Wilson says the method suggested would not only meet the Asiatic immigration issue, but also immigration generally of a laboring element, without violating the most favored nation or other similar clauses contained in existing treaties, as subjects and citizens of all countries would, under such a law, be treated as to physical requirements in exactly the same manner.

The letter was in response to the request from Chairman Burnett, of the House immigration committee, for comment on the Raker bill for Asiatic exclusion.

Concerted Effort to Get In.

Secretary Wilson says that a concerted movement exists in India and elsewhere to gain admission to the United States, and points out that Canada has legislated in even more drastic manner than is provided in bills now pending in Congress. He warns that if the Hindu movement is not checked by legislation, California and the West will not alone be affected.

"Climatic and industrial conditions in the Southern States and other sections of the Union," he declares, offer an extensive field for a people who can come in practically unlimited numbers, if by failure to do as Canada and other British colonies have done, they are tacitly invited."

The secretary also says that in view of the understanding with the Japanese government on immigration, there should be incorporated in pending legislation an exception with respect to existing agreements as to passports.

Besides the Raker bill, Secretary Wilson referred to bills by Representatives Church of California and Humphrey of Washington and contended that the constitutional right of Congress to pass such laws, even when the provisions affect subjects of nations with which the United States has treaties containing the most favored nation clause, "has of course been settled beyond the peradventure of a doubt," and he cited certain decisions.

The secretary said that "it would seem to be a question of probably only a short time before the United States immigration officials will be confronted with problems growing out of increasing immigration of Asiatic laborers from countries other than China, Japan or India." While he thought it well to dispose of the entire Asiatic immigration question in one measure, such as the Raker bill, the department, however, because of the time that will necessarily lapse before the Raker bill can become a law, urges the passage as an emergency measure of either of the other two.

Secretary Wilson said that since 1899, exclusive of those from the Philippines, 6,656 Hindus entered the United States in a regular manner, and including deportations, only ninety-eight had left. He intimated that a large number entered surreptitiously.

"The department is informed," he wrote, "that word has gone forth through India and certain portions of Asia and the adjacent islands that this is the Promised Land. From the Philippines came a report last spring that 6,000 or 7,000 were ready to start for the mainland at the first sign of the open door."