Speech #570044639

It is known that not only deception but corruption prevails from the highest to the lowest in the governmental service of China. Li Hung Chang. whose name was mentioned yesterday as one who would have been prohibited from coming into the country under the construction of the treaty which the friends of this bill advocate. who died only a few months ago. leaving one of the colossal fortunes of the world. and who was the chief minister of China for over forty years. is known to have amassed his immense fortune as the result of the corrupt use of his office. With certificates permitting Chinamen and Chinawomen to enter into this country worth anywhere from $500 to $1.500 or $3.000. as my friend from Idaho suggests. if the gates are to be thrown open upon the mere certificate of these Chinese officials. we might just as well have no Chinese exclusion. The Senator from Wisconsin thought we had suffered no bad results by the execution of the present law. and therefore that the substitute proposed by the distinguished Senator from Connecticut was amply sufficient for the future carrying out of our policy of Chinese exclusion. and he criticised those here who undertook to impeach the correctness of the recent census returns upon the subject of the Chinese population of this country. Mr. President. it has not been the Senators in favor of this bill who have inveighed against the correctness of the census returns. It was the Treasury officials themselves who came before the Immigration Committee and told that committee that those returns were not correct. and that. whereas those returns showed that there were only 93.000 Chinamen in the United States. their information led them to believe that there were more than 300.000 Chinamen in the United States. and that they were here as the result of frauds perpetrated upon the Government by Chinamen who were. in fact. laborers. but who had come to the country under other guises and under other designations. Mr. President.