Mr. Chairman. the work of this commission. so far as I can see. up to this hour has cost us the enormous sum of $657.992.67. which. in my estimation. is not worth so many pennies. In reference to the report about the conditions of steerage. I wish to state that if the commission had read my speech which I made a year ago on the floor of this House against the conditions which exist there it would not have been necessary to incur the extravagant expenditures reported by them in connection with their investigation of steerages. A year ago and two years ago I took it upon myself to examine personally the conditions. and I defrayed every expense out of my own money. I then pleaded for legislation which would effectually remedy these deplorable conditions. but to no avail. for the bill that Congress passed the last session relieved the steamship companies from complying with the act of 1900. which. if enforced. would in a measure ameliorate the intolerable conditions existing in the steerages of nearly all vessels. So what benefit did the country derive from the work of the commission. which. as I have stated before. expended up to the present time the enormous sum of $657.992.67? If any member of the commission will show me that the sum of $125.000 is actually needed to complete the work which it has attempted to undertake. I will gladly withdraw any and all objections that I have. however. I do not think that there is anyone here who can do so. and therefore I am not willing that we should appropriate another $125.000 for the purpose of giving some favored few a little longer time to draw large salaries for merely copying unsigned letters and publishing derogatory reports on foreignborn citizens to be used as proof for securing unreasonable restrictive and prohibitive inmigration and naturalization legislation.
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naturalization steerage steerages