Speech #480122047

It is impossible tobring foreign laborers here under contract without assailing all these principles which I have been enunciating. I am opposed to importing laborers as we imaport horses and cattle. I am opposed to what may be called involuntary immigration into this country. uam not opposed to voluntary immigration. I regara n voluntary immigration as one of the chief sources of our strength. as a factor which has developed and is further to develop the grandest civilization that tais ontinent or the worid has ever known. and to make our own the most prosperous. the most powerful. and the most beneficent of all the nations of the earth. I believe that the admixture with our native races of those who come here imbued with theprinciples of this Goverment. seeking to better their condition. honestly desiring to work in this land of freedom. tends to build.us up as a peoplie and to ennoble the whole of our citizens. I have never been in favor of involuntary immigration. I voted against the Chinese bill. not because I was in a svor of Chinamen being brought hrerudr contract for labor. but simply because I thought there were in that bill sections and clauses which prohibited voluntary immigration into this country. which shut out the man who desired of his own accord. of his own free will. to come here and become a part of us. because men were shut out from this country by that bill. as I understood it. simply on account of their being laborers who wanted to labor in this country. I will go as far as any other man to prohibit bringing contract labor here. whether it be Chinese. or Italian. or Hunganan. or English. or French. or Irish. It is that principle which I contend against. and in so doing I recognize and uphold the right of any human being on this globe who himself. of his own motive. of his own desire. his own free will. wishes to come here and become part of us. and honestly partake of the benefits of labor in this country. to come without hindrance or restriction. My doctrine is that no importation of laborersto lower the rate of American wages should be permitted. and no voluntary immigration of honest laborers should be prevented. So. Mr.