Session #59 · 1905–07

Speech #590059402

Obviously. there can be but one price for tickets. and today there is but one price. So what is the result? Does the alien immigrant alone pay this head tax? Oh. no. everybody who comes across the Atlantic Ocean. first -or second class or steerage. pays it today. either the full $2 or some portion of it. and where the Government does not get the $2that is. where the money is paid by an American citizen returning or an alien Who already has a domicile here. or anyone. except those to whom the law appliesthe steamship company gets the $2. and we are legislating to raise the rate of dividend of the German and all the other foreign steamship lines. for we have only one American line of shipping on the Atlantic coast engaged in this business. that line running to Philadelphia and New York. So that is what we are going to do. There was not a steamship company came before our committee to protest. and I do not wonder. It had been advertised far and abroad that the head tax was going to be raised. That was a gift for the steamship companies to the extent of $3 on every ticket sold to other than aliens. That is all that that particular part of this muchadvertised bill does.
Keywords matched
steerage head tax immigrant

Classification

Target group
Also mentioned
Germans Englishmen
Sentiment
Negative
Stereotyping
No
Confidence
90%
Model
gemini-2.0-flash
Framing
Economic threat Legal / procedural

Speaker & context

Speaker
WILLIAM BENNET
Party
R
Chamber
H
State
NY
Gender
M
Date
Speech ID
590059402
Paragraph
#2
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