Speech #560044047

It provides: That Chinese in the Hawaiian Islands when this act takes effect may within one year thereafter obtain certificates of residence as required by "An act to prohibit the coming of Chinese persons into the United States." approved May 5. 1892. as amended by an act approved November 3. 1893. entitled "A. act to amend an act entitled An act to prohibit the coming of Chinese persons into the United States. approved May 5. 1592." and until the expiration of said year sh:all not be deemed to be unlawfully in the United States if found therein without such certificates. Everyone is aware. I suppose. that the Hawaiian Islands are filled with Chinese. that a large number of people of that race were there when those islands came under the dominion of the United States. and that great hordes of Asiatics have been imported since. All here are also aware. I suppose. that but a few short years since a tremendous agitation shook this country. and especially the Pacific slope. over the menace of Chinese cheap labor. and that it was thought necessary that legislation. extremely drastic and denounced by some as uncivilized and cruel. should be resorted to in order to deal with the Chinese problem and exclude I the competition that threatened our white domestic labor. Now. according to thisbill. as I understand it. we are providing that great numbers of Chinese. resident in the Hawaiian Islands. not only those who were there when we acquired those islands. but the many thousands brought there under contract since. shall obtain certificates and possess the right to go anywhere in the United States and. in any line of business which they may see proper to enter upon. to compete with our own laborers. This is one of the fruits of reaching out and gathering in islands here and there. without reference to what the islands are. without reference to the people who inhabit them. and without proper care to prevent those islands from being overrun. while under our own control. with the most undesirable class of Asiatics. We have in the Hawaiian Islands not only many who are entirely undesirable. but many others who are a serious menace to our own institutions. and provision is here made for domesticating them. I find in this bill another provision not novel. but worthy.