Speech #500000584

It may be that American rogues sometimes flee to foreign lands for their countrys good. or to escape convict labor. and that in a court of equity foreign nations might have something against us by way of offset. but nevertheless. judging from the recent rather large increase of convicts in our own country. with some noticeable diminution abroad. and from the preponderance of foreign criminals in our courts and prisons. we must be by far the greater sufferers. The expense of the police in our cities from this source has been immensely increased. It is evident by their skill and deviltry here exhibited that too many immigrants have passed through the Old World high schools of crime and depravity. and. like Miltons Satan. they have heard of the New World and hoped there to "reign secure. I Our consulgeneral in Germany writes of "sons and other relatives of highly respectable ftmilies. who. in spite of all their talents and attainments. had to leave here. They were sent." he says. "by their families to America and other countries for the reason that their morals had become a scandal." These families might give their prodigals a certificate of character. but it would have to be worded like that of the Irishman about his parish priest. who was often found tipsy: "Oh. hes a respectable man. barring his character!" Youfig men. from seventeen to twentysix years of age. in Germany. liable to military service. who want to emigrate go to Antwerp or Rotterdam to embark. to escape from being seized and held back by German officers at Bremen. where they are often arrested. Of course they do not arrest paupers nor cripples. Colonies no longer go forth in fraternal groups. cemented by a like faith. but each immigrant. so to say. goes on his own hook. or is sent away for reasons most appreciated at the place of departure. The unprofitable and the unwanted. equally with thrifty Israelites. are almost kicked out of all parts of Europe. Certainly it is quite in order for us to guard against this wholesale and flagrant imposition. If our laws would fail to exclude the prohibited persons. it has been suggested to me that one of our rocky Aleutian islands would have surpassing merits as a penal colony. to which these offenders might be transported. Under our existing laws no alien can be lawfully naturalized by our courts who is destitute of "good moral character." I How are those who have become "a scandal "in a foreign land and a terror to their own families. to be discovered. unless the facts can be investigated and probed by our consuls where their character is notorious? Aliens arriving in our country. if the substance of the bill proposed shall be accepted. to whom the required consular certificates asto character have been refused. must logically be refused American citizenship. and also refused permission to declare their intention to become citizens. If. from their own defectsof character. or from incurable infirmity. they could not have been lawfully brought within the United States. it would be the acme of stupidity to bestow the highest privileges upon those who have jockeyed and evaded our laws by somehow and somewhere making a clandestine landing.