Speech #530025388

I have voted for every act passed by Congress since 1884 to exclude and prevent Chinese laborers from coming to the United States. and I am as much in favor of excluding them from our country as any Representative from Californiaor from any other State in the Union. The question. however. is not now the prevention of Chinese laborers from coming to the United States. Laws already passed are ample and sufficient to prevent Chinese laborers from coming to our country. although the debate for the last five days has often sounded like we were debating the question of Chinese exclusion rather than the question of Chinese registration. Tearingaway the network which fancy and oratory have woven around the pending bill. and stripping it of prejudice and passion. it simply amends the Chinese exclusion act passed May 5. 1892. known as the Geary act. by extending the time from the passage of this bill six months in which Chinese now in the United States may register and obtain certificates of residence. It also amends the act so as to define the meaning of the word "laborer." and strikes out the word "white." in the Geary act. and allows one credible witness other than Chinese to prove that the applicant for a certificate was a resident of the United States on the 5th of May. 1892. Oneeighth of all the Chinese in our country registered in the twelve months allowed them for that purpose. seveneighths of them word misled and did not register because they were advised by able attorneys and by the chief officers of the Six Companies. to which they belonged. that the Geary act was unconstitutional and that registration was not necessary. and that the Supreme Court of the United States would decide that the act was repugnant to the Constitution of the United States.