Speech #540100213

President. I differ very radically from the views of the Senator from Massachusetts with reference to the advisability of the passage of this bill. Nor do I regard from the same standpoint the report of the Commissioner of Immigration on this question. I think it will be observed by every Senator who has the opportunity carefully to read his recent report that he differs very widely from the views suggested by the Senator from Massachusetts. and the recommendation in this bill of the restriction of immigration. His suggestion is entirely the reverse. He says expressly in his report that the great danger. which the Senator from Massachusetts has so carefully and eloquently urged. to the institutions of this country from the overcrowded condition of the foreign population is the reverse.. and that instead of there being an overcrowding of foreign immigration there is a decrease each year under the wise and healthful laws already provided upon our statute books of foreign immigration. and that today there are only 50 per cent of the foreign immigrants who came to this country since 1820 remaining. they have died or they have gone back to the country from whence they came. So far as having ayailed myself of the courtesy of the Senator from Massachusetts with reference to extending the consideration of the bill from the last session to the present is concerned. I am today first advised of it.