Speech #530023291

Now. all colors are under the protection of the fourteenth amendment. It was decided in the case of Yick Wo against Hopkins. the wellknown laundry case. reported in the one hundred and eighteenth volume of the United States Reports. that the Chinese were equally under the protection of the fourteenth amendment. Why. if there was any force in this theory it would apply to the language of the original act as to the requirement of proof. but there is no force in it. because it was explicitly decided in the Chinese deportation cases. that the Legislature controls the rules of evidence. and that all laws in reference to the competency of testimony in any case in the courts of the United States are regulated by act of Congress. which can be repealed or modified. So I claim that there is no necessity for this amendment. There are not enough negroes in California now to be of any importance. and I doubt if one would ever appear in any of these cases.