Speech #600006421

If they do not come within the excluded classes. these men. and men like these. have always made good citizens. They become assimilated with our population. and they come to make the United States a home and permanent abiding place. But in the past few years through many influences. and by means of lax laws. which have now been amended by the act of the last Congress. passed February 20. 1907. the bars against immigration and the restrictions imposed upon immigration have been evaded to such an extent as to admit many undesirable citizens from many races of the Old World who are incapable of assimilation with our population. and do not help us to build up the country. who are dangerous to our institutions. and in a few years will return to the country from whence they came. carrying the money which they earned here in their pockets. In speaking of the class of immigrants who should be admitted into the country. both Madison and Jefferson said that we should only admit those who are capable of assimilation in the first place. and in the second place. who come to make this country a permanent home. Of course. Madison and Jefferson and those statesmen of the early days of the Republic never contemplated any such class of immigration as we have had in recent years. or the horde of foreignborn people who are now surging into the country. I thought. when I spoke upon this subject before the last Congress. that we had reached the flood tide of immigration. but the reports of the CommissionerGeneral of Immigration and of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor show that there has been a very large increase for the year 1907 over the year 1906. The statistics show that during the last fiscal year 1.285.349 ihmigrants came into the country. while in 1906 there were 1.100.735. an increase of 184.614 over 1906. and an increase of 25S.850 over 1905. or an increase over the year of .1906 of more than 17 per cent. and over 1905 of more than 25 per cent. So that with a population of 80.000.000 in the United States. one and onequarter million of foreignborn people are coming to our shores each year. The statistics in the reports of the CommissionerGeneral of Immigration and Secretary of Commerce and Labor further show that a very large percentage of these immigrants are from southern Europe and Asia Minor. and a comparatively small percentage from the northern European races. Of the aliens admitted during the last fiscal year. the CommissiouerGeneral of Immigration says that about 30 per cent were illiterate. and that 873.923. or about twothirds of those admitted. had less than $50 each in their possession. These hordes of people coming from southern Europe and Asiatic countries compete with American labor and are a menace. My friend from New York . for whom I have a very great respect. says that there is an unreasonable fear as to such competition with American labor. But. apart from the fact that very many of these immigrants are most undesirable. it does not seem to me from the statistics and the facts before us that such fear is unreasonible. and I want to say to my friend from New York that behind that apprehension and fear is a very large body of American citizens and many organizations of laboring people of this country. If these people performed the kind of labor American citizens can not and will not do. certainly these labor organizations would not be so persistent in their opposition to that kind of immigration. and they must have some good ground upon which to base their fears and apprehension. Mr. Chairman. I think I have said about all that I care to say upon this subject. having expressed myself fully and clearly in a debate upon this subject during the last Congress. I shall not oppose the bill for the erection of this station. because we must take care of the immigrants who come here under existing laws. being careful to see that these laws are enforced. but I do believe we should keep out of the country the undesirable classes who have been coming here. We want good immigration in the South and throughout the country. but we do not want undesirable immigration.. It is a menace to our country and it is competition with the American workman. I believe that is all I now have to say upon this subject. [Applause.1