Speech #610068240

President. I shall not inflict any extended remarks upon the Senate. as I have heretofore discussed this amendment at some length. On the 26th of April I pointed out that this increase is needed to defray the expense of the Immigration Bureau in a more liberal treatment of detained immigrants at our ports. a more thorough inspection of the enormous incoming tide. and the needed deportation of admittedly undesirable aliens who gain entrance. I also urged it because it would not fall upon the immigrant but upon the uhtaxed foreign steamships. and because even a still greater increase was desirable to increase and equalize steerage rates so that we would not continue to be the cheapest country to reachalthough in many cases the more distantand hence. in truth. the worlds immigration dumping ground. I have published in the RECORD Its indorsement by the Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America. the National Farmers Congress. the National Grange. the Cotton Manufacturing Association of America. the American Federation of Labor. and the Knights of Labor. Nearly every patriotic society and charitable organization in this country. of which there are many. have indorsed this movement for the restriction of immigration. less lax enforcement of the law. and the more efficient handling. inspection. and examination of immigrants at our ports of entry. I desire to read a short paragraph prepared from the annual report of the commissionergeneral. which shows how the most objectionable aliens gain admission without the least apparent difficulty: The report of the commissionergeneral shows that a foreignborn pspulation (which in 1900 constituted 13.6 per cent of the total population) furnished in 1908 134.094 persons. or 21.9 per cent of those in all the penal. reformatory. insane. and charitable institutions of the United States. or 15.6 per cent of the criminals. 20.8 per cent of the paupers. and 29.5 per cent of the insane. (The proportion of the foreign born to the total population has remained practically constant for several decades.) It further. appears that of the 15.323 alien criminals. 8.197. or 53.5 per cent. had committed serious crimes as distinguished from minor offenses. The total number of aliens In 1904 in these institutions was 44.985 as against 60.501 in 1908. an increase of 15.516. or about 34 per cent. The alien criminals increased from 9.825 to 15.323. the insane. from 19.764 to 25.600. the paupers. from 15.390 to 19.572. Tie criminals Increased from 4.124 to 8.197 in grave offenses. and only from 5.701 to 7.126 in minor offenses. I quote one short paragraph from Theodore Biughams report in the city of New York. I believe he was until very recently police commissioner of New York City. through which comes tile bulk of our present enormous foreign Immigration of from 1.000.000 to 1.500.000 aliens annually: We are trying to handle mediaeval criminals. men in whose blood runs the spirit of the vendetta. by modern AngloSaxon procedure. It is wrong to allow these people to slip into this country. But besides allowing this. we give them. once in. every chance to work their blackmail without getting caught.