Speech #590134173

He wanted him because he would work cheap. and he believed in cheap labor. What we wanted. he said. was cheap labor and more of it. and then we would produce things cheaply and sell them dear. and soon we would have all the money. and if the millennium was not actually in sight it was just around the corner. Which one of these forces was the most potent in bringing about the result I do not know. but anyhow. o July 28. 1868. we concluded a new treaty with China which treaty was known as the Burlingame treaty. and was duly ratified and proclaimed February 5. 1870. and contained for the first time a provision allowing unrestricted immigration of Chinese to this country. Every argument used in favor of Japanese immigration now was used then in favor of Chinese immigration and with just as much reason. I need not go over the results that followed the execution of that treaty. The treaty was in force but a very short timejust long enough to open the eyes of our people to the great mistake they had madewhen agitation for the repeal of the immigration clause was started. and finally the further coming of Chinese coolies was forbidden. It had to be forbidden. The presence of Chinese laborers became such a source of irritation to our people. so productive of riots and disorder. so disastrous an experiment. and so ruinous in its effects upon white labor and the opportunities of white laborers that all political parties united in demanding that their coming should be stopped. and it was stopped. And now we are repeating in our relations with -Japan the same costly experience that proved such a disastrous failure under the Burlingame treaty. It is said that no age ever understands the meaning of its own time. and it would seem that it must be so. With the experiehce our people had just passed through. struggling with the problem of Chinese immigration it is difficult to understand why they entered in this Japan treaty containing its immigration clause at all. Those in authority at that.time did not understand the situationdidnt understand the meaning of their own time. It would seem.