assessed a head tax of fifty cents on every passenger, not a citizen,
coming to the United States, and provided that the States should share
with the Secretary of the Treasury the obligation of its enforcement.
This law inaugurated the policy of selective immigration, as it
excluded convicts, lunatics, idiots, and persons likely to become a
public charge. Three years later, contract laborers were also
excluded.

The unprecedented influx of immigrants now began to arouse public
discussion. Over 788,000 arrived in America during the first year the
new law was in operation. In 1889 both the Senate and the House
appointed standing committees on immigration. The several
investigations which were held culminated in the law of 1891, wherein
the list of ineligibles was extended to include persons suffering from
a loathsome or contagious disease, polygamists, and persons assisted
in coming by others, unless upon special inquiry they were found not
to belong to any of the excluded classes. Thus for the first time the
Federal Government assumed complete control of immigration. Now also
both the great political parties adopted planks in their national
platforms favoring the restriction of immigration. The Republicans
favored "the enactment of more stringent laws and regulations for the
restriction of criminal, pauper, and contract immigration." The
Democrats "heartily" approved "all legislative efforts to prevent the
United States from being used as a dumping ground for the known
criminals and professional paupers of Europe," and they favored the
exclusion of Chinese laborers. They favored, however, the admission of
"industrious and worthy" Europeans.

Selective immigration thus became a political issue in 1892, partly
under the stimulus of labor unions, which feared an over-supply of