Speech #570039021

This legislation. however. proceeds upon the theory which. it is believed. has been announced by the highest judicial tribunal of this country. that our insular territory is not a part of the United States. but. on the contrary. is territory belonging to the United States. It is believed. therefore. that the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States is not applicable to this class of persons born in this portion of our insular territory. That amendment provides as follows: All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof. are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. Hence. to bring a person within the protection of this amendment two of three things must concur. He must be either born or naturalized in the United States and be subject to the jurisdiction thereof. By section 3 of the bill a definition is given to the term "laborer " as used in this bill. It is the same definition in substance and effect and in almost the identical language given by the existing law as construed by the decisions of the Department. and it is construed to mean both skilled and unskilled manual laborers.