I happened to be one of those who made investigation into what was lnown as the padrone system. The padrones were men in New York who brought boys out from Italy and let them out for various purposesshoeblacks. and one thing and another of that sortand the boys were held in a condition of practical slavery. We have tried to meet some of these difficulties by our immigration laws. but the fact that slavery has been abolished. the fact that it is a crime. does not seem to me to make it desirable. therefore. to do away with all the statutes which were designed to punish the crime and which make it a crime. The declaration of the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution is not of itself sufficient. and in the same way in which the Philippine Commission has passed the statute providing for the punishment of the crime of slavery. which is abolished by the general provision of the organic act. so I think that statutes of similar nature on the statute books of the United States should remain in order to prevent crimes of that character. whether they occur among the Chinese immigrants or whether among the padrones who exist in New York and in some of our -other large cities. I was merely going to add. Mr.
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