Speech #540037921

Mr. President. this bill is intended to amend the existing law so as to restrict still further immigration to the United States. Paupers. diseased persons. convicts. and contract laborers are now excluded. By this bill it is proposed to make a new class of excluded immigrants and add to those which have just been named the totally ignorant. The bill is of the simplest kind. The first section excludes from the country all immigrants who can not read and write either their own or some other language. The second section merely provides a simple test for determining whether the immigrant can read dr write. and is added to the bill so as to define the duties of the imniigrant inspectors. and to assure to all immigrants alike perfect justice and a fair test of theirknowledge. I Two questions arise in connection with this bill. The first is as to the merits of this particular form of restriction. the second as to the general policy of restricting immigration at all. I desire to discuss briefly these two questions in the order in which I have stated them. The smaller question as to the merits of this par ticular bill comes first. The existing laws of the United States now exclude. as I have said. certain classes of immigrants who. it is universally agreed. would be most undesirable additions to our population. These exclusions have been enforced and the results have been beneficial. but the excluded classes are extremely limited and do not by any means cover all or even any considerable part of the immigrants whose presence here is undesirable or injurious. nor do they have any adequate effect in properly reducing the great body of immigration to this country. There can be no doubt that there is a very earnest desire on the part of the American people to restrict further and much more extensively than has yet been done foreign immigration to the United States. The question before the committee was how this could best be done. that is. by what method the largest number of undesirable immigrants and the smallest possible number of desirable immigrants could be shut out. Three methods of obtaining this further restriction have been widely discussed of late years and in various forms have been brought to the attention of Congress. The first was the imposition of a capitation tax on all immigrants. There can be no doubt as to the effectiveness of this method if the tax is made sufficiently heavy. But although exclusion by a tax would be thorough. it would be undiscriminating. and your committee did not feel that the time had yet come for its application. The second scheme was to restrict immigration by requiring consular certification of immigrants. This plan has been much advocated. and if it were possible to carry it out thoroughly and to add very largely to the number of our consuls in order to do so. it would no doubt be effective and beneficial. But the committee was satisfied that consular certification was. under existing circumstances. impractical. that the necessary machinery could not be provided. that it would lead to many serious questions with foreign governments. and that it could not be properly and justly enforced. It is not necessary to go further into the details which brought the committee to this conclusion. It is sufficient to say here that the opinion of the committee is shared. they believe. by all expert judges who have given the most careful attention to the question. The third method was to exclude all immigrants who could neither read nor write. and this is the plan which was adopted by the committee and which is embodied in this bill. In their report the committee have shown by statistics. which have been collected and tabulated with great care. the emigrants who would be affected by this illiteracy test. It is not necessary for me here to do