Speech #520151362

The vagrant finds an inlet. The number of felons has not diminished. The contract laborer evades scrutiny. and the door was very recently with difficulty closed at the last moment upon contagion. Even at present we are standing in a temporary respite. fearing the dangers that may be coming with the approaching spring. Now. Mr. Speaker. this bill has beenconsidered by the Senate committee. by the Senate. by the Committee on Immigration of the House. It is intended to be beneficial alike to the citizen and the immigrant. Since 1882 there have been six bills passed relating to the regulation of immigration. By the bill passed March 3. 1891. the previous bills have been supplemented so that all idiots. insane persons. paupers. and persons likely to become a public charge. persons suffering from a loathsome or a dangerous disease. persons who have been convicted of a felony or other crime or shisdemeanor involving moral turpitude. polygamists. and also any person whole ticket or passage is paid for with the money of another. or is assisted by others to come. unless affirmatively or satisfactorily shown on special inquiry that such person does not belong to one of the foregoing excluded classes. or to the class of contract laborers excluded by the act of February 26. 1885. shall not be permitted to land upon our shores. In order that no injustice may be done to the immigrant. and in order that the law may be enforced. this bill proposes to examine into the conditions of the immigrant before he leaves his home. And it further proposes to make it obligatory upon the transportation companies. and those engaged in transporting immigrants. to notify such as may belong to the excluded classes that they will not be received by the United States. Itwill then prevent families. including members afflicted with the infirmities which are proscribed. from parting with theif little property. perchance a small farm or business. to find no rest for the soles of their feet in this land. and to be returned to the country they have left in most wretched condition. to begin life anew. This feature of the bill is humanitarian and just. The inquiries to be made are not intended as prohibitive but as merely statistical. The object of the entire bill is not to change any existing law. but to facilitate the enforcement of the immigration and contract labor laws as now written upon our statute book. and had the law for this previous examination been passed as the committee desired. during the first session of this Congress. thereis every reason to believe that the cholera troubles of last summer would not have arisen. It may be argued by many that this committee should have presented a bill virtually excluding the immigrant. but. sir. the worthy and the ablebodied immigrant becomes a desirable citizen. and we feel that it is illtimed for the people of the United States. who can in but rare instances count three generations not including an immigrant. to deny to others the advantages from which their happy and prosperous conditions may have sprung.