lands must be sent for to join the immigrant here.  What formality is necessary to constitute this prerequisite, and how are the facts of relationship and that the relative is sent for to be established?  Are the illiterate relatives of immigrants who have come here under prior laws entitled to the advantage of these exceptions?  A husband who can read and write and who determines to abandon his illiterate wife abroad will find here under this law an absolutely safe retreat.  The illiterate relatives mentioned must not only be sent for, but such immigrant must be capable of supporting them when they arrive.  This requirement proceeds upon the assumption that the foreign relatives coming here are in every case, by reason of poverty, liable to become a public charge unless the immigrant is capable of their support.  The contrary is very often true.  And yet if unable to read and write, though quite able and willing to support themselves and their relatives here besides, they could not be admitted under the provisions of this bill if the immigrant was impoverished, though the aid of his fortunate but illiterate relative might be the means of saving him from pauperism.

The fourth section of this bill provides—­

That it shall be unlawful for any male alien who has not in good faith made his declaration before the proper court of his intention to become a citizen of the United States to be employed on any public works of the United States or to come regularly or habitually into the United States by land or water for the purpose of engaging in any mechanical trade or manual labor for wages or salary, returning from time to time to a foreign country.

The fifth section provides—­

  That it shall be unlawful for any person, partnership, company, or
  corporation knowingly to employ any alien coming into the United States
  in violation of the next preceding section of this act.

The prohibition against the employment of aliens upon any public works of the United States is in line with other legislation of a like character.  It is quite a different thing, however, to declare it a crime for an alien to come regularly and habitually into the United States for the purpose of obtaining work from private parties, if such alien returns from time to time to a foreign country, and to constitute any employment of such alien a criminal offense.

When we consider these provisions of the bill in connection with our long northern frontier and the boundaries of our States and Territories, often but an imaginary line separating them from the British dominions, and recall the friendly intercourse between the people who are neighbors on either side, the provisions of this bill affecting them must be regarded as illiberal, narrow, and un-American.