Speech #590091375

Ours perhaps are more peculiar than any other in the universe. It is a composition of the freest principles of the English constitution with others derived from natural right and reason. To this nothing can be more opposed than the maxims of absolute monarchies. yet from such we expect the greatest number of immigrants. They will bring with them the principles of the government they .have imbibed in early youth. or. if able to throw them off. it will be in exchange for an unbounded licentiousness. passing. as Is usual. from one extreme to another. It woilsd be G miracle with them to 8top precisely at the point of temperate liberty. There Is another view of the question of Immigration. which was suggested to me by an editorial in the Washington Post of yesterday. May 21. which is as follows: To put it plainly. the Republican party has practically barred out most of the products of foreign labor. and at the same time has tempted European workingmen with wages that. to them. are "beyond the dreams of avarice." In addition to these influences. our manufacturers. protected by tariff bars. are taking bread out of the mouths of European workingmen at home.by selling their products abroad at prices far below those which our own people are compelled to pay. and so low that even European cheap labor can not compete with them. Mr. President. it is a common statement that the cardinal principle of the Republican party is protection to American industries and American labor. yet the American laborer is today confronted with the proposition that he has to pay protection prices for everything he buys. while his labor. which is the only thing he has to sell with which to buy the necessaries of life. is daily in danger of depreciation or absolute loss because labor is not sufficiently protected as against undesirable immigrants who are almost daily being dumped on our shores by thousands. I shall not. however. discuss this subject further. To my mind it is selfevident that tariff rates should be reduced and immigration restricted. Mr. President. I have tried to present the abuses of our present system of immigration. and now it is in order for me to suggest what I regard as proper legislation to be enacted at the present time. Before I do this. I wish to say immigration legislation in the United States has been the slow growth of years of study and investigation on the part of Congress and of Government officials. I believe the act to regulate the immigration of aliens into the United States. approved in 1903. is a good law. It is being enforced by the CommissionerGeneral of Immigration in a way that is satisfactory to the country. I think he is a faithful and an efficient officer. Existing immigration laws. as far as they extend. are good and appropriate. but they are often violated. - All agree that our laws are wise in excluding such classes as idiots and insane persons. epileptics. paupers. persons likely to become a public charge. professional beggars. persons afflicted with a loathsome or with a dangerous contagious disease. persons who have been convicted of a felony or other crime or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude. polygamists. anarchists. prostitutes. but the time has arrived when the restrictions. should be extended. I shall not consume the time of the Senate by referring in detail to all matters presented in the pending bill. but I shall refer to the important additions now proposed to existing immigration laws. which were in the bill introduced by me and which are embraced in the pending bill. The first addition is known as the headtax amendment. A head tax of 50 cents on every immigrant was imposed by act of Congress in 1882. which was afterwards raised to $1. and under the act of March 3. 1903. it was increased to $2. Under the pending bill it is provided that there shall be levied. collected. and paid a duty of $5 for each and every passenger not a citizen of the United States. or of the Dominion of Canada. Newfoundland. the Republic of Cuba. or of the Republic of Mexico. who shall come by steam. sail. or other vessel from any foreign port to any port within the United States. or by any railway or any other mode of transportation from foreign contiguous territory to the United States. andthe money thus collected is required to be paid into the United States Treasury and shall constitute a permanent appropriation to be called the " immigrant fund." to be used under the direction of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor to defray the expense of regulating immigration of aliens into the United States.