Speech #480051654

The industrial system of England is what it is becauseher social systern is what it isan aristocratic class. owning the land. a middle class. a laboring class. doomed forever to be a laboring class.with only enough set aside from what they produce to keep them in existence. Allied to England and the British system is India with her 365.000.000 of population. divided by law and immemorial custom into castes. with a vast labor population kept at the lowest level of existence and too frequently not above starvation. On the other side of us are the Mongolian hordes. with a social system which has come down through innumerable generations. Their industrial system includes also vast masses of laborers accustomed to live on the least amount of food that will support life. A few years ago we passed a law to prevent this population from coming into this country to occupy it. We said if they are permitted to come here. without restriction. they will supplant. take possession of. and occupy the land that should be reserved ibr a higher civilization. We said it was not for the interest of humanity to try .to graft our civilization on Chinese stock. or to turn over a part of this continent for the cultivation of a Mongolian civilization. We determined rather to preserve it for the growth and development of our 6wn race. The House has before it now a proposition to prevent the importation of contract labor. and I think the time has come when it were well to consider where the gain lies. either to ourselves or to humanity. in adding such elements to our population. But if we open our doors to free trade are we not taking a step which must resultin the end inlowering our laboring population to something near the level of laboring classes in monarchical and aristocratic nations? I hold that it is not possible to put our industrial system in competition with such as these without immediate loss to ourselves and the permanent injury of our social and " industrial organizations.