Speech #570039027

President. the legislation proposed by this bill does not involve. as I have attempted to show. any question of Punic faith. The bill under consideration is but an attempt to crystallize into one intelligent. harmonious statute the laws upon this subject as they exist today in virtue of the various existing treaty and legislative provisions. as defined and construed by the departments and the Federal courts. with such elaboration and extension as are necessary to extend the policy of exclusion to our insular possessions. It is legislation which in forceful form seeks to throw the ample folds of protection not only around the laborer of this country to guard him against the ruinous competition of the cheap serf labor of the Asiatic. but which also protects the morality of the Republic and of the people from the polution which otherwise must inevitably result from an admixture with our people of unlimited numbers of a race wholly incapable of assimilation. who never can become citizens. and whose vices are a deadly and dangerous menace to our people and our Government. I would attract the attention of those who mock at the suggestions that there is danger unless a check is interposed of a great Chinese invasion into this country. to past history in connection with Chinese invasions into foreign countries. Fourteen years ago. on January 12. 1888. I had the honor of addressing this Senate upon the general subject of Chinese exclusion. I then. in discussing this phase of the subject. among other things. said: If the Chinese pagans. led on by the great Mongolian leader Timur or Tamerlane. over five long centuries ago. overwhelmed the lrincipalities and peoples along the Tigris. the Euphrates. the Volga. the Ganges. and the Nile. and left a track of desolation through Russia. and Turkey. and Egypt. and India which required centuries to efface: if the Chinese five hundred years ago proved themselves. under great leaders like Tamerlane. to be conquerors in vast. extensive territory. and victorious over innumerable strong and intelligentprincipalities from the Tigris to Moscow and from Moscow to the shores of the Gauges. what may not be feared from themcand their countless millions in the future? Russia has felt the terrible shock of Chinese invasion. and to rally and recover from which it required the vigorous exercise of al her energies for centuries after. The present Czar of all the Russias is not unmindful of the great danger to surrounding nations from vast numbers of Chinese invaders. It is stated he recently declared that the greatest danger to the western world existed in the Chinese Empire. It oily needed." said he. "another Tamerlane to set in motion another invasion. comprising perhaps 20.000.060 of the hardier races of northern China. to overwliein Europe. not by their military strength or skill. but by mere force of numbers. If 20.000.000." said he. "were not enough to do the work. then 20.000.0(0 more might follow. drawn from a population that is to all intents and purposes numberless." If the means of. travel between nations and empires are improved. if the cost of travel is materially diminished. just in the same ratio is the danger which threatens this country through an overabundance of undesirable immigration increased. If it is true. and history affirms the fact. that long prior to the invention of steam engines. centuries before steamships and railways had an existence. nations were invaded. peoples overrun. principali-. ties destroyed. not by any superior intelligence or military skill. but solely by reason of the force of numbers. how much more likely are such things to occur in the present life of nations. when. through the instrumentality of steam and electricity and all the allied powers of scientific achievements oceans are bridged with palatial homes. distances between the empires. kingdoms. and republics of earthChristian and pagan. free and despotic. enlightened and barbarousare annihilated. and all these are brought into immediate physical union. and when the continents of the earth and the islands of the seas. the different hemispheres and various zone belts of the earth. with their strange. complex. diverse. and nonhomogeneous and nonassimilating millions. are brought into immediate and dangerous contact. To the suggestion that has been made in certain quarters. that by reason of our Chineseexclusion policy our trade has fallen off with the Empire of China. I can not make better answer than to quote what was said by Hon. JULIUS KAHN. Representative in Congress from the State of California. in the recent statement made by him before the Senate Committee on Immigration while this bill was under consideration. Mr. KAHN said: Much has been said here about the treatment England has accorded to China and the manner in which she has held her trade.