Anarchist Exclusion Bill

     The shooting of President McKinley, at Buffalo, by an Anarchist, recalls the effort made by former United States Senator David B. Hill to have Congress enact a law providing for the exclusion and deportation of alien Anarchists. In August, 1894, the State Department at Washington received word from the French government that a band of Anarchists, forced out of that country, had sailed from a French port for the United States. The State Department conferred with Senator David B. Hill as to how best to meet the problem. The result was that the Senate Committee on Immigration, of which Senator Hill was chairman, introduced a bill providing that no alien Anarchist shall be permitted to land at any port of the United States or be admitted into the United States, with a proviso declaring that this prohibition shall not apply to political refugees or political offenders other than such Anarchists. The bill provided also for the deportation of any alien Anarchist who had been allowed to land or who came into this country contrary to law. The fact that an alien had declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, the bill declared, should constitute no bar to proceedings against him. The bill was introduced in the Senate and passed; it went to the House of Representatives and the passing was postponed. The wisdom of such a bill is now apparent.