Speech #580059876

I send the formal notice that the treaty will terminate immediately upontn of iinthe priod mentioned (December 7. 104). and shall not continue for anoTerio e . It is not my purpose to enlarge upon the peril of a great and constantly increasing Chinese population. That question was fought out between 1878 and 1882. during which time the first treaty. providing that the United States might regulate. limit. and suspend Chinese immigration. was negotiated. and the first statute by which the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States was prohibited was enacted. The insistence npon such unusual treaty provisions and statutory enactments grew out of the conviction that a large Chinese population was destructive of AngloSaxon civilization. Such a population reduced the standard of living for white laborers to the point of degradation.