Speech #600006421

Mr. Chairman. I thank the gentleman from Alabama . who was a distinguished member of the Immigration Commission. created by the immigration act passed last Congress. for his courtesy in yielding the floor to me for a short time. I shall not detain the committee long. as my views upon the question. of the immigration of aliens into the United States were fully expressed in a speech which I made upon the floor at the first session of the Fiftyninth Congress. I believe in the restriction of immigration. This bill now before the committee is to provide for the erection of an immigration station at Philadelphia. Pa.. and in the discussion of it there has arisen a debate involving the whole immigration question. and. inasmuch as this question has been injected. I feel constrained to reiterate my views upon the subject of immigration. As to the bill before the committee providing for a new immigration station at Philadelphia. I asked the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. MooRE]. in the debate. if it had the favorable report of the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization and of the Immigration Commissioner. and he replied to my question that the bill had the approval and indorsement of both. The gentleman from Alabama . who was a member of the immigration Commission. and who. as a member of that Commission. visited Europe last summer to make a study of the immigration question. and who is well known to be in favor of proper restrictions upon immigration. also states that in the discharge of official duties he visited the immigration station at Philadelphia. and that a new building is badly needed. I can therefore see no objection to the passage of this particular bill. because so long as we have immigration laws upon our statute books we must provide for the proper housing of the immigrants. Hmnanity and the execution of our existing laws require this much at the hands of Congress. and I agree with the gentleman from Alabama In this respect. Mr. Chairman. I do not think that anyone who Is in favor of a restriction of immigration desires to keep out of the United States good immigrants. the right kind of immigrants. and desirable immigration. We want immigrants in the South for our farms. mills. and manfuacturing interests. but we do not want the undesirable class of immigrants who have been flooding the country in recent years. That was the position taken by the governor of Virginia. Governor Swanson. in his inaugural address. and that is the position of many other prominent men in the South.