Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. IV.djvu/174

138 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS may come to the world in consequence of the canal cannot be at present imagined. Perhaps our destiny is to be more affected by it than anything directly due to an act of Mr. Roosevelt s. Our foreign relations, our labor conditions, the future of the Pacific coast, all are knit up with this huge enterprise, originated long before the day of Mr. Roosevelt, but the consummation of which he most certainly precipitated. Immigration. By an act of June 29, 1906, a Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization was provided, laying down a uniform rule for the naturalization of aliens throughout the United States. An Act of February 20, 1907, provided for the levy and collection of a tax of four dol lars upon every alien entering the United States. By this act certain classes of aliens, such as idiots and epileptics, were excluded; the importing of women for the purposes of prostitution was for bidden; as was also the prepayment of transporta tion of contract laborers. Undesirables were to be deported, anarchists excluded. Adequate provision for administration was unfortunately not made. Most of us are aware that members of some twenty-five or thirty races come to our shores every year to remain. Many know that nearly thirty millions have so come since 1820; that in 1910 we had living among us nearly fourteen million for eign born people; that they are now arriving at