Speaker. without a care for health. charity is vain. Humanity in its best sense begins with a sane body. The regulation of immigration has been decided by our highest court to be exclusively within the purview of Federal legislation. It is a part of our "commerce." Since steamvessels have taken the place of sails. immigration has chosen the stesanmarino for its transit over the sea. Immigrants are of that class which cannot afford cabin comforts. They are steerage passengers. We owe it to this class. which is doing so much for our land. to provide for their health. comfort. and safety. The reasons for this bill and others of a similar nature are cmphatic and cogent. We are aggrandizing our wealth of natural resources by immigration. We add to the energies of sun. soil. and climate the forces of muscle and mind. The signs point to a million of immigrants this year. If tlis additional force to our army of labor be desirable. if in the lowest and mercenary sense it is profitable to add the brain and brawn of Europe to our own. let us regard such precautionary measures as this. During the past ten years. or rather from 1870 to 1879. over one million and a ialf of people have flocked to our shores. Our greatest immigration was in the past year. it was 669.354. In 180 it was 457.257. In 1879 it was only 177.826.
Keywords matched
steerage immigration immigrants Immigrants