Speech #570064518

Mr. Chairman. the bare statement that the number of immigrants received into the United States during the past eighty years equals more than onequarter of the present population. and that more than onehalf (nearly twothirds) has been received in the last thirty years. presents in a concrete form the magnitude of the immigration problem. In the years gone by this constant stream of immigrants has been welcomed to our shores. partly as a valuable contribution to the brawn and brain that peopled the prairies of the West and transformed them into the rich and powerful States that delight our pride and strengthen our nation today. and partly because a large number of them came to escape wrong. oppression. and hunu suffering akin to that from which the Pilgrim Fathers fled when they crossed the ocean to found in a new and unknown land a government wherein they could have homes and worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. In later years. it has developed. new elements have been purposely injected into the stream which. unless checked. threaten not only to seriously pollute it. but also to thrust upon our nation and the States burdens they should not be called upon to bear. By reason of this change the feeling of welcome which had hailed the incoming immigrant from 1821 to 1875 changed to one of alarm lest "the unguarded gate " might allow entrance too freely to elements discordant and not easily assimilatod. as well as burdensome and harmful to the best interests of the country. Hence there has arisen the demand. growing more and more insistent. that restrictive measures should be enacted to regulate the influx and sift the quality of the incoming aliens. This demand has been partly pacified by legislation of a restrictive nature during the past twenty years having the purpose. first. to prevent assisted immigration brought here under contract to perform the labor done by and take the places of workmen already here and employed in mine and field and factory. and. second. to prohibit and prevent the practice of foreign countries making the United States the dumping ground for the pauper. vicious. insane. and criminal classes of other nations. To meet and check the importation of labor under contract the. alien contractlabor law of February 26. 1885. was passed. mainly at the demand of the Knights of Labor. then the most powerful of the national organizations representing the labor of the country. To correct the other evils realized and complained of various statutes have been enacted during the past thirty years from which results more or less beneficial have been attained. The report and evidence submitted by a commission appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury June 17. 1891. to investigate into "the causes which operate in the several countries of Europe to incite immigration to this -country" named the following as the chief causes promoting said immigration: 1. The efforts of emigration aid societies. supplemented by associations. public and private. for aiding criminals and paupers to emigrate. 2. The increased facilities. speed. and profits of alien steamship and transportation companies. who. through their numerous agents. advertise the marvelous beauty of this country. the high rate of wages that range here for labor. and the alleged quantities of land that can be had gratis from the Government. and thus make an impression on persns who do not own and can not in reason expect to secure the homes in which they live. 5. The cont clahor importers. who induce emigration for the sake of cheap labor. This report showed that large numbers of homeless children of both sexes below the age of 16 were being shipped to the United States. It also fully described the methods by which criminal and pauper emigrants were shipped to this country. and gave a list of 69 societies actively engaged in such work. The findings of the investigation were summarized in the following words: From the foregoing report it will be seen that there are many persons engaged in the business of transferring from the moribund systems of European misgovernment vast numbers of their dangerous. pauperized. diseased. decrepit. and criminal population. not only as a safety valve to their overstrained machinery. but t serve as an element of weakness in this Republic. the greatness of which they view with growing alarm. Some of these persons are the occupants or the heirs apparent to thrones. officers of charitable societies and boards. and agents of carriers by land and sea. many of the latter subsidized by foreign Governments to monopolize the ocean carrying trade. Others are within the bounds of the United States who distribute the human detritus as contract laborers. imported by them to increase dividends at the expense of wages and the dignity of labor. Still others organize these malcontents into groups to wage war on our system of government. and endeavor to bury popular sovereignty beneath a mass of unAmeican jargon and bombthrowing anarchy. The facts thus reported are amply sustained and corroborated by information gleaned by investigations of Congressional committees. special commissions. etc. The testimony is overwhelming as to the volume of undesirable immigration even now being admitted. The demand for effective restriction is universal and imperative. and the legislation herewith submitted will be a step in the direction of meeting and correcting the evil. Brief consideration may be properly given to the course of immigration from 1821 to 1901. as shown by official statistics and records of the Goveprment. Examination will show a fluctuation between wide extremes at different periods. The tide of immigration may be said to have begun in 1820. when 8.885 immigrants arrived. while by 1880 the number had increased to 28.822. with a total between 1820 and 1880. inclusive. of about 150.000. - From 1881 to 1840 almost exactly 600.000 were received. From 1841 to 1850 there came 1.718.251. From 1851 to 1860 the number reached 2.598.214.