Speech #500108014

The courts have decided this matter. As far back as Gibbons vs. Ogden (a remarkable case and a leading one) the doctrine was announced that commerce does not include mere traffic. but that it means intercourse. that immigration. like importation. is embraced within this power. So far as I can learn. this has never been questioned by a justice of the Supreme Court. save by Chief Justice Taney. in the passenger cases. who held that the same power which regulated foreign commerce regulated commerce "among the States." and that as Congress could not prevent a citizen from going from one State to another and living therein. that because the power over domestic and foreign commerce were collocated M the same clause. that therefore the same interpretation should be put on the power of Congress in each case. I need not say that was fbllythe folly of a wise lawyer. but still folly. We know now the radical difference between the power over commerce "among the States" and foreign commerce. and I need not pause to cite the multitude of decisions up to the present moment which respect the decisions of ChiefJustice Marshall on this point. Then there is the power of naturalization. which. undoubtedly. implies a choice as to who Congress will permit to be naturalized. Beyond all this is the power of selfprotection and the responsibility the United States as a nation must bear as to the status of every foreigner who enters our borders. True. sir. the civilization of the Chinese is not our civilization. true. they have neither capacity nor desire to become citizens of this country. and it Is true. too. that they are offensive in many respects to our own people. But I will not enter into that question. I hail this bill as a step in favor of libertya step to protect the laboring men and women of this country against the evils of a cheapening competition. and I beg to say. while it is right to exclude the Chinese. they are not the only enemy who are at our door. Labor is threatened in many forms by immigrants of various nationalities. threatenednay. not only threatened but actually suffering. The crime of which the Chinese are guilty is the crime against labor. The crime of working too cheaply. the crime of depleting wages.