Speech #610190309

I remember that a gentleman for whom I entertain not only the highest personal regard. but the most profound respect. the gentleman who now occupies the White House. made the statement in a speech in New York two or three years ago that the prosperity of the South and the production of crops there depended upon a certain kind of labor. I know he was mistaken. and I believe. putting my opinion against his. that in a few years we would produce greater crops and have an untold advance in prosperity if we were not vexed by tile presence of the very labor that he had in mind. I believe that the Pacific coast will be in immeasurably better condition when it is not any longer vexed by the presence of undesirable aliens. I read a statement a day or two ago which I clipped. and which is now on ay desk. made by sonie gentleman apparently familiar with immigration into the United States. saying that threefourths of the immigrants coming into the State of New York are undesirables. The figures may be wrong. but it is beyond question that large numbers of those who come in are undesirables. And I want to say to the gentleman from New.York . whol has interested himself in this question. and who. I see. has been associating with gentlemen who desire to distrbute those people throughout the South. that we do not want them. The only people in my State that I know of who desire immigration into Texas regardless of its character or its source are the planters with large areas under cultivation. who measure all civilization by the number of bales of cotton that they can turn out. and speculators in real estate. who want a profit on the land purchased and do not care whether purchasers are orientals or soreeyed people from Syria. provided they buy the land. I heard it suggested a little while ago by a man of unusual intelligence that the point of view in California varied somewhat anong its citizens. that politicians who want office were all opposed to the Japanese immigration. but the farmers who wanted to cultivate the soil were all in favor of it. I do not know which of these is true. But I say to the gentleman from California that I sympathize with his efforts to raise the standard of citizenship and character amuong the inhabitants of this country. and so long as I have the honor to Ie a Member of this House I shall contribute to his efforts in that direction by my vote. We are.getting more immigration than we need. and getting it more rapidly than it can be assimilated. It is coming so fast and in such numbers that it is a menace to labor right now and threatens the comfort and prosperity of the next generation. when land. in relation to the numbers demanding it. will be scarce.