Speech #540081293

The provisions of this bill do not apply to persons employed on the steamers of the Great Lakes or the rivers tributary thereto or to the employees of railroads having termini outside of our country. The gentleman from Pennsylvania introduced as a substitute his bill. known as the consular inspection bill. and also the original McCall bill. which provides for the educational test and does not limit it to males andmakes no exception as to parents. I presumeit is knownatleast it ought tobeknownto the members of this body that we have in this country what are called immigrant inspection stations. the principal one being situated at Ellis Island. an island situate in New York Harbor and in plain view of old Castle Garden. It is also known to all present that a corps of Government officers are stationed at these points. and it is made their duty and business to see that no person is allowed to land as an immigrant who is forbidden by existing law. I shall. in the discussion of these bills. direct my principal remarks to the Stone bill. or the consular inspection bill. Its main features can be gathered from the following extract from the bill: No alien immigrant shall be admitted within the United States unless. in addition to other requirements and provisions of law. he or she shall exhibit *to the United States inspectors of arriving immigrants at the place of admission a certidicate. sitied by the United States consul or other authorized representative of the United States at the place nearest where said immigrant has last resided. setting forth that the said consul or other United States representative has made an investigation concerning said immigrant and that said immigrant does not belong to the class or classes of alien immigrants excluded from admission into the United States under the provisions of the act of Congress approved March 3. 1891. Under existing law. the Chinese as a class are excluded. The maimed. crippled. paupers. idiots. contract laborers. persons suffering from loathsome diseases. and the criminal classes of all lands and climes are now debarred from admission to this country. It is made the duty of our officers of immigration to enforce this law. But under present facilities the laws are not enforced. and. moreover. they are incapable of proper enforcement. The census reports of 1890 show that nearly 50 per cent of the inmates of our almshouses are foreigners. and about the same proportion of the convicts of our penitentiaries are from the same class. and the foreign population represents only about 15 per cent of the total population. This state of affairs could not exist if the immigration laws were properly enforced. The primary consideration of this House should then be whether the great mass of the people are demanding a law for the more rigid enforcement of the laws restricting immigration and whether this demand. if it exists. is based upon right and justice. This Congress has been flooded with petitions from every section of the country demanding the passage of legislation of this character. and it has come from every section of the country. In fact. more petitions have been presented on this one subject than all the other matters pending before Congress.