Speech #570041786

The same thing may be said as to the criticisms of that Senator as to the definition of "merchants " and "students" and others. and as to the regulations thrown around their entry and their stay in this country. The present bill is nothing but a reenactment of former laws or former regulations relating to said classes. except that it is liberalized as to merchants. With the exceptions which I shall presently notice. it is a literal fact that this bill is a reenactment of existing law. and the prime necessity for its reenactment is found in the fact that existing law will expire by its own limitation on the 4th day of next May. and it must be reenacted if we are to have Chinese exclusion after that date. The bill is not the work alone of the California Chinese commission. or of the Pacific coast Senators and Representatives. but the officials of the Treasury Department and of the Department of Justice assisted in framing it. Those provi-