Speech #580004334

Mr. President. in addition to that this bill which the House has sent to the Senate not only decreases the safeguards that the bill of the last Congress provided for the agriculturists of the country. but it increases the time for which this tariff reduction is to extend to about three times that which was fixed by the Administration bill of the last Congress. If the President of the United States believed when. through his Secretary of State. this treaty was negotiated that these carefully worded provisions in the House bill with reference to Chinese exclusion were in force in Cuba. something would have been said in the message or by other means of communication to Congress explaining why these provisions were omitted from the treaty. It is not for me to assail the motives of any official. however high or however low. I know. though. and the country knows. that in the bill which was framed at the last session by command of the President there were provisions carefully worded providing that Cuba should enact laws rigidly excluding Chinese. and without which the reciprocity it provided for should never go into effect. while the treaty which the President made later and that is now up for adoption omits all reference to such requirements.