Speech #620137125

Mr. President. It is rather a startling fact that since the year 1860 we have admitted to this country about 23.000.000 aliens. known as immigrants. It is an equally startling fact that in the last 12 years we .have admitted about 9.000.000. and when in the year 1907 we received the largest number ever received in any one year during our history. to wit. 1.285.000. the country was aroused. and Congress authorized the appointment of a commission to investigate the whole subject of immigration. That commission entered upon the discharge of its duties and spent the better part of two years. perhaps longer. in accomplishing its work. and It has made a report to Congress. which is embraced in about 40 volumes. largely statistical. The reports of the commission upon the different subjects studied will be round in volumes 1 and 2. and it is in these volumes that the ordinary reader will be able to find the general results of the commissions work. In them will be found reports based upon their study of medical examinations abroad. of immigrant aid societies. of alien criminality. of the immigration situation in Canada. They have had prepared a dictionary of races. which every Senator will be very glad to have in his library. as well as a review of immigration legislation. they investigated and made reports upon the whiteslave traffic. steerage conditions. physical assimilation. congestion of immigrants in cities. immigrants in agriculture. occupation of parents and children. as well as upon other subjects not here enumerated. They made a thorough investigation of the effect of immigration upon 20 of the leading industries of the United States. selecting those which are the most important in their proportions. like coal. iron. steel. cotton. woolen. mining. and others. In doing this they sent their agents into 200 of the most important industrial communities in the United States. and they came in contact with about 700.000 individuals who are employed in such industries. They also made.23.000 family 4tudies. and tho result of their work. as I have said. will be found in these reports. The recommendations of the commission are substantially embodied in the bill now under consideration. But before examining the bill in detail I propose to discuss the general features of the immigration problem as they seem to me to affect the social. industrial. and political conditions In this country.