Speech #470031200

Mr. President. in discussing the bill now before the Senate. I do not deem it necessary to enter upon any detailed statements of the evils of Chinese immigration to this country. Debates heretofore had in this Chamber upon this subject have sufficiently developed the facts lying at the foundation of the opposition manifesteel by the people of the Pacific States and Territories to the influx of Chinese among them. Suffico it to say. that it is the common feeling there that this class of immigration is seriously hurtful to their present development as a prominent part of the American Union. It is hurtful to the moral foundations of society. It is hurtful to the success of American industries. It is hurtful to the progress of our infant settlements. inasmuch as it supplants a large class of European and American labor. which is the chief reliance for peopling the now States. The question of encouragement or restraint of Chinese immigration presents a deeper problem than that of mere effect upon our present wellbeing. The abiding characteristics of the Chinese as a people are so variant from our own. and so opposed to the purposes .of our civilization that the encouragement or restriction of this class of immigration presents the alternative of choosing for the Pacific States and Territories between the institutions of America and the institutions of China. The Pacific slope presents the only unoccupied region in the world whose soil and climate are calculated to attract Chinese migration now open to their occupancy. The Empire of China with her 400.000.000 of human beings and more. embracing onethird of the population of the globe. langs like a threatening cloud over the virgin States of the Pacific. The State which I have the honor in part to represent has from the beginning occupied a positive and leading position upon this question. In her constitution she provided that the Lecislature should have the authority to prohibit the immigration of alt persons not qualified to become citizens of the United States. This clause had special reference to the Chinese. The constitution of that State also provided. section 8. article 15. that.No Chinaman. not a resident of the State at the adoption of this constitntion. shall ever hold any real estate. or mining claim. or work any mining claim therein.