Speech #470038674

Were it in my power to do so. I would not only check this kind of unhealthy development of our resources. but also that which has begun to make inroads upon our public domains in another direetionthe accumulation of large tracts of land in the hands of foreigu owners who have no other interest at heart than that of exacting the greatest possible profit in the shortest time from their possessions here. I would even erect an impassable barrier to all and every kind of immigration which did not of itself clearly evidence the intent of becoming thoroughly absorbed by. and of giving up its inlividuality to our character as a nation and a republic. Our system of government can be perpetuated only if the spirit pervading it is imparted to the generations growin up in our midst and coming after us when we are gone. but this cannot be done if we grant that any class of popmlation conic into or be fostered in our midst which does not implicitly surrender its objectionable. features for the sake of hecming ono and inseparable with te people of the United States. Anotser important consideration prompts ie to gi vi this inrasure my support. Halistarved workmen all over the civilized world look with longing eyes toward the United States. where their colaborers have not only secured due recognition of their human rights. but are also enabled in most parts of our extensive territory to offer their families an endurable existence by their opportunities to earn fair. living wages. But Chinese immigration had and has for one of its avowed objects the supply of labor at tile most advantageous price to the employer. And this is possible only because. as has been admitted upon this floor. the Chinese laborer will take whatever he can get. and can live in his way comfortably upon what would cause starvation ami g our own laborers. In myhnmble opinionwe should not even tacitly recognize the principle of "work obtained from the laborer at the cheapst rate possible." It was this very sentiment which the late President Garfield. in denouncing the Morey letter dnring the last Presidential campaign. referred to when he said: "Its brutal septiments I have never expressed nor entertained. We should rather proclaim it as a sound maxim of our political economy that " whatever benefits the largest number of individuals will benefit in the end the whole country." and should insist upon a fair price for labor as one of the main levers to raise the standard of common prosperity. Again: No voice is raised against the immigration from across the Atlantic because we feel ourselves akin to the people who thus come to our shores. They are the offspring of the nations from which the founders of the Republic. its defenders. and heroes sprang. They are not only of our race. but allied in moral and religious sentiments. in the degree of culture attained.