Speech #590059402

It gives them all there is in the bill. American citizens returning from abroad! It makes them pay either the full $5. or so much as the steamship companics determine that the traffic will stand of the $5. in addition to what they would otherwise pay for passage. and. above all. and more than that. this bill takes from the immigrating family $5 for every man. woman. and child of the immigrants that the gentlemen to whom I have alluded most earnestly desire. What will they do? They will do what they are doing now to some extent. only more so. Instead of taking a steamer for an American port and beconing valuable American citizens. with American opportunities for themselves and their children. they will take a British steamer to Canada or some other foreign steamer to Argentina. and we shall lose just the kind of immigrants who in the early days went out on the western prairies and everywhere and built up all of the great Middle West. Canada. that is today sending agents down into Minnesota and Wisconsin and paying them a premium for every American citizen that they can get to emigrate across the border over into their wheat fields. will get the kind of immigrants that these gentlemen say that they want to get here. I intend. as to that particular provision of the bill. should it come before the House. to vote against it. I think the sober second thought of the Members here. when they study the question. will lead thhm along the same lines. and I believe that when that question is thoroughly considered they will come to the conclusion that the head tax is all right for this purposeand this purpose onlyto pay the expenses of the immigration service. What are the facts today? This $2 head tax has been in force just three years. and today they have paid all the expenses of immigration out of the fund raised from that $2 hand tax and have a fund of over $2.000.000 as a surplus. and when I say "expenses" I include additional land and new buildings. The gentlemen who drafted the House bill were so certain that it would be a revenueproducing measure. that it would produce more money than would be necessary for the needs of the service. as to insert the provision that where the head tax produces more than two and onehalf million dollars yearly the surplus shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States. In other words. if this bill succeeds. we are going into the business of taxing not only the immigrant. which is bad enough. but taxing the casual visitor. for this bill applies to every alien passenger that crosses either the Atlantic or Pacific ocean. and making each of our own citizens pay $5 to some foreign steamship company. Every German that comes to investigate our great resources. every Englishman who travels in the great West is subject to this tax. Up to last year there had more Englishmen gone each year through the Yellowstone Park than there had Americans. He pays. in addition to the expenses of travel. an utterly unnecessary sum of $5. Up to this time the head tax has not been a large sum. and it has not been noticed. but the increase will be noticed and travel will be diverted. It is these annoying little things at the threshold that do divert travel. To sum up. we do not stop a single undesirable man by the increase. We make the poor man. who has had to struggle to get here. who has money enough to start him in. go down into his slender resources and pay the Governmentthat does iineed itanywhere from $10 to $60 for the prifilege of crossing our shore line. We accomplish nothing by it. and I hope when the bill comes before the House this head tax will be put back where it is now. where it is justified. where it simply raises money enough to cover the expense and causes no one any serious inconvenience.