Speech #520048967

I have never found any difficulty in gaining my own consent to vote for any measure of exclusion of the Chinese that seemed to be necessary by the condition of things on the Pacific coast where they most abound. I do not believe that it accords with the best interests of that people or any other people to introduce an alien race among them. nor a labor element that will come in competition with the American laborer who performs work on such different principles and surrounded by essentially different conditions. I therefore have voted. as the Senator from Missouri said he has voted. for every measure of Chinese exclusion that has come before the Senate since I have been a member of it. But I shall vote for the Senate substitute and against the House bill because I do not believe that any exigency which would warrant the harshness of the provisions of the House bill exists on the Pacific coast. There has been no evidence produced either in the Senate or before the committees to which the bill has been referredcertainly none before the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senateto show that any condition exists on the Pacific coast which demands the enactment of a stronger measure of exclusion than we already have.