Speech #540077645

In my judgment. Mr. President. our present laws. rigidly. conscientiously. and impartially enforced. are sufficient to prevent all the evils of immigration that are complained of. These laws not only prohibit the admission into the United States of Chinese laborers. but add the following classes of aliens: All idiots. insane persons. paupers or persons likely to become a public charge. persons suffering from loathsome or dangerous contagious diseases. sersons who have been convicted of a felony or other infamous crime or mis. emeanor involving moral turpitude. or any person whose ticket or passage is paid by the money of another. or who is assisted by others to come. If this legislation stopped here it would be sweeping enough in its character to meet every emergency in the way of restricting undesirable immigration. but it goes further than this. It provides that no steamship transportation company or owners of vessels shall directly or through agents. under heavy penalties. either by printing or personal solicitation. invite immigration to the United States. except by ordinary circular letters. or other representations stating the teems of transportation. etc. It is charged that emigration is largely stimulated by steamship agents in Europe. and that the European countries send us their superfluous population. This assertion has no foundation in fact. Immigration to our shores is coming to be counted as a serious loss by the countries from which it is drawn. Indeed. the different governments of Europe do not think they have any surplus population and strive by the strongest laws to make emigration of their subjects as difficult as possible. In Germany. for instance. steamship agents are allowed to act only within a narrow range prescribed by minute police regulations. They must be residents of the district in which they do business and citizens of that country. They must obtain a license for that purpose and deposit a large sum (in Germany 20.000 marks) with the police authorities. and it is then difficult to obtain such a right. Often slight infractions of the police regulations and the emigration laws are at once punished by heavy penalties. No steamship line is permitted to circulate information about foreign countries which might be considered as inciting to emigration. Even a simple comparison. for instance. between Germany and the United States. showing the advantages of the latter. is considered as belonging to this interdicted class of literature. In addition to these acts of Congress the most thorough sifting process takes place in Europe. When emigrants apply for passage they have to answer very particular and searching interrogatories. a copy of which must be filed with the Commissioner of Immigration in this country. We have the testiiony of thelabor organizations of this country that the present laws. if carried out as they are now administered. fully serve the purpose for which they were intended. Let us glance for a moment at what the labor organizations have to say on this subject. 1896.Mr. Samuel Gompers. president of the American Federation of Labor. which has an aggregate membership of 652.300. says: While. in my opinion. it may be necessary to restrict immigration in some cases. American workingmen are reluctant to impose any restraint upon the natural right of a man to choose his own place of abode. Mr. Morse. secretary of the International Machinists Union of America. says: This trade is not much affected by the influx of alien labor. The foreign elements chiefly affecting the engineering trade are the Swedes and Germans. "Swedes and Germans" are of the class of immigrants commended by the author of this bill as being those desirable. Mr. OKeefe. editor of the Knights of Labor Journal. says that this order does not object to immigration in the abstract. but does object to immigration induced by representatives of steamship companies or their agents. Mr. Anderson. general secretary of the Philadelphia Operative Bricklayers Union. with 36.000 members. states that this trade has no strong feeling against immigration. It may injure the trade here and there. but in the mass he thinks it does no harm. Mr. P. J. McGuire. general secretary of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. says that his society is divided on the subject of foreign immigration. some being in favor of one and some of another bar of restriction. but in his opinion. as he says. the more thoughtful men among the members think that immigration in the past has really made the country what it is. He believes that New York changes its labor population every few years. men whohave been there some time moving out and being replaced by newcomers. .Mr. G. W. Perkins. president of the Cigar Makers International Union. of 30.000 members. says a large number of immigrants have come into the cigar trade. Of these. many are Germans who at first are socialists. but who gradually become good tradesunionists. A considerable number of Russian Jews have of late years come into the trade. but wages do not seem to have been reduced in consequence. On the contrary. they seem to have increased in the wellorganized centers of the trade. The New York State branch of the American Federation of Labor. sitting in Albany. reported among other things the following: � That while believing in the necessity of greater efficiency in the administration of the immigration department. we nevertheless hold that extreme radical measures of restriction would be contrary to the spirit of our times and the welfare of our country. Natural and wholesome immigration has been the source of unbounded benefit to our country. and our vast natural resources are such as would easily support many times our present population. * * * We wish to condemn the old Know Nothing sentiment which uses the immigration question as apretext. The same spirit attempts to rise from the Olead through this blind clamor and again bid defiance to the irresistible tread of industrial and social progress. I The Junior Order of American Mechanics. of 160.000 members. calls itself a patriotic fraternity. In its declaration. among other things. it asserts: We affirm a warm and hearty welcome to all immigrants who desire to better their condition and become a part and parcel of our nationality. but we have not one square inch of room for the anarchists. the socialists. or nihilists. or for any one who is not willing to vow allegiance to that flag which is powerful enough to shield and protect them as well as us in the exercise of our religious and civil liberty. � Among the opinions of statesmen and economists on this subject. Dr. Charles W.