Speech #490083006

Mr. Chairman. if I can have the attention ofthe committee for a short time I will explain as briefly as possible the condition of affairs on the Pacific coast calling for the most effective restrictive legislation that can be devised by Congress for the purpose of excluding Chinese immigration from the country and the necessity for a larger appropriation than is provided for in this bill to carry such legislation into effect. In doing this I shall not weary the committee with any matters not strictly pertinent to the subjectmatter under consideration. This bill proposes to appropriate the sum of $5.500 "to meet such expenses as may be necessary to be incurred in carrying out the provisions of the act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to Chinese. approved May 6. 1882. including the printing of certificates therein required. " I This sum is wholly insufficient for the purpose intended. In 1884 an appropriation of $5.000 was made to meet the expenses of carrying out the provisions of the restriction act for the year 1885. The insufficiency of this appropriation compelled the Treasury Department to exercise such rigid economy in providing the machinery for executing the provisions of the act that the law has been evaded in a most shameful manner. The return certificates furnished to departing Chinamen have been printed so meanly and with such meager detail that instead of preventing further immigration of Chinese laborers as the law intended. the certificates have been used in aid of illegal immigration. I hold one of these certificates in my hand. An inspection of the document will show its useless character. The Chinese Government under the law is authorized to issue certificates to Chinese merchants coming to this country. Under this authority that government prepared and furnished to departing immigrants a certificate containing a description of the person to whom it was issued with the most elaborate detail. Comipfed with that document our own certificate designed for our protection is utterly worthless. For the year 1886 no appropriation was made for the purpose of executing the law. and the result has been that the Chinese have been pouring into California at a rate far in excess of the average annual immigration prior to the passage of the restriction act. In response to the numerous complaints that have been made to the Secretary of the Treasury concerning the inefficient method of executing the provisions of the present law. that officer has replied that there were no funds at his disposal forcarrying the law into effective execution. Within the last month the United States district judge at San Francisco is reported as having declared that for the want of funds certain provisions of the law were practically nugatory.