Speech #590120179

Mr. Chairman. that amendment places the head tax at $2. the same figure which it now is under existing law. instead of $5 as proposed by the committee. In this connection I desire to state that the State of Minnesota. which I have the honor in part to represent. is in favor of the encouragement of immigration of the right sort. The State has a large amniount of unoccupied lands. recently ceded by Indian tribes. which lands need settlers. The last legislature of the State appropriated money for the purpose of advertising the State and the unoccupied lands. in order to induce immigration. The platform of the dominant party recently adopted a plank in favor of further appropriations for that purpose and in favor of the encouragement of immigration for the development of the resources of the State. I believe that if this " head tax." so called. Is raised from the present figure. $2. it will discourage the kind of immigrants which are in every way desirable. and which the State of Minnesota especially wants. It is stated in the report of the committee that the head tax is intended to restrict immigration. I will read the part of the report which refers to it: The increase of the head tax was adopted largely owing to the belief that it will tend to decrease the number of aliens and tend to exclude the less desirable. Now. in my -humble opinion. it will have exactly the opposite effect. It will discourage the most desirable. It will discourage the immigration of men with large families. but it will permit the landing of laborers who come singly. who come here not to make their homes in the country. but to compete with our own highpriced laborers. A difference of $3 in the head tax to the man who comes here to work for wages amounts to but a day or two of labor. He may come here to labor for a year or for six months with the intention of returning to his native land to spend his earnings. In our State we have a large percentage of foreignborn citizens. but nowhere is the standard of citizenship higher.