Speech #500101637

I elieve. capable of taking an entirely unbiased and unprejudiced view of what the social and economical requirements of thecountry in regard to this question are. The period often years will allow a sufficient time to elapse in which the passions of men will subside. It will allow another census to be taken under which we shall be able to contrast thestatisticsof labor and of production under the condition of things as it now exists and that which will obtain when Chinese immigration Ies been prohibited. and beside this it will. in my judgment. comport more absolutely with that fair dealing which we are under obligation to observe toward the Government of China. in declaring that this prohibition shall not be absolute. The insertion of the period of twenty years appears to me to be an infraction of the agreement in the first article of this treaty that the suspension shall not be absolute. I shall therefore hope that the Senate will agree to the modification suggested by the reduction of the period named from twenty years to tei].