Speech #570044198

I should say let Congress exercise its right. which has been declared by the Supreme Court of the United States. and let it by proper enactment of exclusion measures abrogate all treaties. ancient and modern. on this question. It will be seen that the policy of the United States with reference to the exclusion of Chinese laborers has been one of slow growth. In the beginning Chinese exclusion was not a matter of much concern. The principal object of our diplomatists was to break through the exclusion of the Chinese Empire and to secure access for our citizens and the development of our trade. With the growth of the Pacific coast conditions became changed. and the demand became more and more insistent that Chinese immigration should be restricted and regulated. and finally that it should be prohibited. The principle of exclusion became a national necessity. Our expansion since the SpanishAmerican war has compelled us to extend the principle of exclusion upon a proportionately extended scale. The existing laws and regulations have been extended to the Philippines. and. in fact. to all of our insular territory. In the Hawaiian Islands. Chinese immigration is prohibited by the joint resolution of annexation and by the act of Congress providing for the government of the Territory of Hawaii. The existing laws and regulations providing for exclusion of Chinese from the United States have been established and enforced in the Philippine Islands by military proclamation. and the present bill therefore makes permanent conditions already existing. Mr. President. the Committee on Immigration carefully considered the question of the exclusion of the Chinese from the Philippines. There were presented to the committee many petitions and some testimony urging the admission of unskilled or at least skilled labor into the Philippine Islands. It was the opinion of the members of the Committee on Immigration that it was better to postpone the commercial and industrial development of the Philippine Islands for a time and to preserve those islands for the Filipino people themselves and not to threaten them with that of which we understood they had the greatest apprehension. that the islands should be immediately thrown open to the exploiter and speculator. The question of exclusion is as important in the Philippines as it is in the United States. Manila must not be permitted to exist as a gateway through which Chinese immigrants can find entrance into the United States. and it is our obligation and our duty to preserve the Philippine Islands for the Filipino people. extending to them as rapidly as possible the principles of American civilization and the largest practical measure of free government. A feeling of hostility toward the Chinese on the part of the Filipinos seems to have always existed in the islands and to be as strong as any similar sentiment in the United States. In the middle of the seventeenth century there were about 30.000 Chinese in the neighborhood of Manila. At that time they revolted against the Spanish Government and for some years besieged Manila. They finally withdrew. raising the siege. but they were pursued to a point beyond Canarta and slaughtered in great numbers. As a result of this revolt against the sovereignty of Spain in the archipelago greater restrictions were placed on their immigration. but in spite of these restrictions the Chinese colony. notwithstanding their great loss. always displayed a peculiar ability to corrupt the administrative element in the Philippines. In 1755 all nonChristian Chinese were ordered to be expelled. but before the day arived for their expulsion (June 30. 1755) an extraordinary number had become Christianized. while many others began to study the mysteries of the faith. Several thousand were banished from Manila. and in the time of Don Siman Deon. 1762 to 1764. it was calculated that some 8.000 died in the central province of Luzon. being exterminated by the order of the governorgeneral. The Chinese question has always been a serious one for the governorsgeneral. In 1859. when Sefior Norzaray gave up his command in the Philippines. he declared that one of the most difficult questions remaining to be solved was that of the commerce carried on by the Chinese in the provinces. The clamor against the Asiatics he declared to be general in the country. because competition with them was impossible. Spaniards. Mestizos. and Indians all gave them a free field in retail business when they entered the islands.