Speech #570039304

Mr. Chairman. a most important and farreaching question has been submitted to the Fiftyseventh Congress for its consideration. Shall immigration be entirely excluded. or to what extent shall it be restricted? Two bills have been introduced. one of which was referred to the Committee on Immigration and the other to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. The Shattuc bill. which was referred to the Committee on Immigration. referred more particularly to migration from the countries in Europe to the Atlantic seaboard. while the bill that bears the name of the distinguished gentleman.from California had to do with the restriction or entire prohibition of immigration from the Orient. It has been my good fortune to sit for many weeks with both of these committees and to hear the testimonywhich has been presented for their consideration by what may be held. I suppose. to be the conflicting interests in this question. Before the Committee on Immigration. on the one side. appeared the representatives of labor. many of whom. extreme in their views. would carry to the point of exclusion immigration on the Atlantic seaboard. others desired an educational test. On the other hand. we had those who employ labor and the steamship lines contending that it would be cutting off an absolute necessity for the development of our country to inaugurate any restriction in regard to free immigration. After a great deal of consideration the bill has been reported to the House and will come before it in the future for its action. I can state that the committee. irrespective of its political affiliations. have exercised their patience and best judgment in reporting a bill which they believed to be for the best interests of the country. I come now. sir. to the bill which has been reported by the Com-. inittee on Foreign Affairs. relating to immigration from the Orient. During the hearings on this subject we have heard some extreme views--those who wish to exclude entirely immigration from China and other countries in the East. and those who say the necessity for increased labor exists in California and in the rest of the country and have entered their protest thereto. On the one hand we have the representatives of the labor organizations. and those. of course. from the Pacific coast are more urgent in their protests than those in more remote sections. for they claim that they understand the evil better. On the other hand we have had resolutions from the boards of trade in California and Oregon. representing the business interests. and claiming that the demands of labor are excessive and too restrictive. We had representatives of the agricultural interests who entered their protest. claiming that at certain seasons of the year it was impossible to gather the crops. and they were allowed to perish because of the want of labor. We have had the women in their various organizations protesting against exclusion. saying that the domestic problem was a serious one. and that they needed the immigration of Chinese in order to supply the necessary wants of the household in the way of service. This will give some idea of the difficult problems which appeared before the Committee on Foreign Affairs for solution. On one point. Mr. Chairman. we were united. and that was that the immigration of the lower class of Chinese laborers. commonly known as coolies. must be prohibited in the interest of the purity of the morals of our country and in the interest of American labor. The one difficulty that might have arisen before the Committee on Foreign Affairs would naturally be our relation to a foreign government. It would strike anyone at the first blush that to have our country pick out a single nation on the face of the earth and say to that particular nation that the inhabitants of your country shall not enter ours with the same freedom as is extended to the balance of the powers of the world would cause a feeling between the two countries that in some instances might be the cause of war.