Speech #590162070

I suppose the House was set. and they could not elp themselves. They had -to take what they could get or take nothing. Everyone .supposed that the immigration bill was dead anyway. that it was deadlocked il conference and would never see the light of day again. Lo atnd behold. an exigency has arisen oIl the Pacific coast. strenuotus individuals are at work to accomplish certain ends. the alle mal who presides over the State Department drafts an amendment to a bill passed by the Senate last May. and last June by the House. aind which has been in conference ever since. the conferees take a distinguished gentleman into their confidence. orl he takes them into his confidence. and the Senate is notifled that this bill nmst go through. Why? Speaking in plain terms. to keep the Japs out of California. Therefore there is a twofold object involved in the urgency with which this bill has been pressed and is )eing pressed to atdoptioln. The first of those objects is. as I- said. to keel) Jalanese laborers from coming into this counitry. ..he conferees. in furtherance of a policy which looks to sectional advantage. have incorporated provisions which chmige the law in regard to contract labor. which provide for a closlng of the little dribble of immigrants who have started to go southward. and the two linked together are to be driven through Congressthe Souths interest. as usual. ignored. the Pacific coist. of course. taken care of. They both involve- the race question. The object of preventing undesirable Japanese from coning into this country is one with which every southerner sympathizes far more keenly than any man on the other side possibly can who does not live in the West. But when we in South Carolina. where we have 235.000 more negroes than whites. with our industries struggling. some of them languishing for want of laborall kinds of labor. agricultural as well as manufacturingseek to obtain some little assistance toward equalizing the races. getting something which may promise relieft from what I believe to be an impending race conflict there. actuated by selfish greed certain people of certain States step to the front. hugging to their bosoms the popular issue of the welfare of labor. clamoring for the right of the workingaman to be protected from the importation of contract labor. saying to us of the South: "You shall not have the opportunity to get a few thousand white people to help stem the tide of negro ignorance and barbarism with which we engulfed you forty years ago." Mr. President. lest some think I speak too harshly. I desire to call attention to the fact that this must be in pursuance of a settled policy. that there is something more involved than the mere settlement of this question as to the admission of the Japanese and the exclusion of contract laborers. I hold in my hand two resolutions which.were introduced in the House of Representatives. On February 2.