Speech #470040966

Mr. Speaker. in the few remarks that I propose to make on the subject under discussion. I shall not speak with reference so nmuch to the particular bill before us as upon the general subject embraced in this bill as well as the one introduced into the House in the early days of this session. understanding that the two are of substantially the same import and effect. both having for their purpose the restriction. suspension. and I suppose the ultimate suppression of Chinese emigration to this country. and it is to this general proposition that I wish to speak briefly at this time. This questionof Chinese imigration. though by no means new. is one that until within the past ow years has not received from the people of the more easterly or central portion of the country the serious consideration which it has deserved. 21(.1 MMcH 22. The evils or alleged evils likely to occur from the want of placing some restrictions on this class of immigration have been so far away and the consequences so remote that the average citizen east of the Rocky Mountains has felt that. so long as his own section of country was not likely to be invaded by ally influx of this immigration and cheap labor. he could safely postpone consideration of the subject. leaving it to be dealt with by those who had already had to meet it face to face : like Artemus Ward. who did not care to go to the war himself. but was entirely willing to sacrifice all his wifes relations. Until within a comparatively short time the people on the Pacific slope have had to deal with this question almost singlehanded. having received little of either moral or other support from their fellowcountrymen on this side of the mountains. But the time seems to have come when a disposition is shown to meet this question fairly. and the Government is not only asked to determine its policy with reference to it in the future. but its power is invoked to put an immediate check to the further extension of the evil But there is even now. it seems to me. a disposition on the part of many to underestimate the magnitude of the subject and belittle the dangers likely to arise from this immigration. and while there are some who. as a matter of principle. would do nothing to restrict it. there are many who think no immediate danger at hand and no seriously bad results imminent. Why. it is sai4l that under the census of 1880 there were only about one hundred and five thousand of these people in the United States. or that the entire Chinese population was only about one fivehundredth part of our whole population. and hence the conclusion that no serious harm can come to our system of labor or no peril to our institutions or our civilization. But this statement is misleading.