Speech #620137353

I have very little more to say. I wanted today to present the general features of the question as they seem to me to bear upon the problems which we have to solve in this country. and I have been leading up today to the educational test as the most important one feature of the bill through which we can restrict the number coming to America of those whom we look upon as being the least desi -able type. This bill is based in a large part on the immigration act of 1907. which has proved to be a most effective measure in its application. This bill contains many new provisions. the greater part of which were recommended to Congress by the Immigration Commission. Other provisions are based on recommendations which appear in the last annual report of the Commissioner General of Immigration. The bill proposes the repeal of all existing Chineseexclusion laws. except that section of the law of 1S82 which refers to the naturalization of Chinese and the substitution of a provision excluding from the United States the following: Chinese persons or persons of Chinese descent. whether subjects of China or subjects or citizens of any other country foreign to the United States. persons who are not eligible to become citizens of the United States by naturalization. unless otherwise excluded by existing agreements as to passports. or by treaties. conventions. or agreements that may hereafter be entered into. The two provisions next foregoing. however. shall not apply to persons of the following status or occupations :This is the existing law. but it should be applied to the new provisionGovernment officers. ministers or religious teachers. missionaries. lawyers. physicians. chemists. engineers. teachers. students. authors. editors. journalists. merchants. bankers. capitalists. and travelers for curiosity or pleasure. nor to their legal wives or their children under 16 years of age wyho shall accompany them or who subsequently may apply for admission to the United States. but such persons or their legal wives .or foreignborn children who fail to maintain in the United States a status or occupation placing them within the excepted classes. shall be deemed to be in the United States contrary to law. and shall be subject to deportation as provided in section 20 of this act. Briefly stated. the United States naturalization law extends the privilege of citizenship to "aliens being free white persons. and to aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent." while the Chineseexclusion act of May 6. 1882. specifically states "that no State court or court of the United States shall admit Chinese to citizenship." As gtated. the repeal of the latter provision is not proposed. It is well understood that foreignborn persons of the Mongolian race. including the Chinese. Japanese. and Koreans. are not eligible to citizenship under our law. and it is probable that at least the greater part of the people of India and other countries of Asia are likewise excluded from the privilege. At present the Japanese would be little. if at all. affected by the proposed legislation. as under a voluntary understanding with Japan laborers of that race are not permitted by the Japanese Government to come to the United States. the G6vernment of Japan withholding passports from them. Granting that the longestablished naturalization policy of the United States Government ought to be perpetuated. the exclusion from the country of any considerable body of persons who must remain aliens obviously is undesirable. The purpose of the proposed legislation is to accomplish the exclusion of such persons. Under the present laws Chinese of the professional classes are permitted to. enter the United States. but are subjected to certain regulations and restrictions which do not apply in the case of persons of any other race or nationality. Under the proposed law the Chinese are placed on an equality with every other people in this regard. Moreover. at present Chinese of the excluded classes are singled out for different and more severe treatment than are the excluded classes of other races. and while the Commissioner General of Immigration recommends a consolidation of the Chinese and immigration laws. he would retain all the harsh features of the former and differentiate in several important particulars between the Chinese and aliens of other races seeking admission to the United States. The law proposed by this bill would regulate the immigration of all aliens according to the same standard on the theory that if severer restrictions seem necessary in the case of any particular race they should be impartially applied to all races. In the preparation of this bill some desirable features of the Chinese laws which do not appear in the immigration act have been made applicable to all aliens and where the laws differ only in detail these differences have been eliminated. As a matter of fact. there is only one important detail of the Chineseexclusion laws which is not incorporated in the bill In some form. That detail Is the provision contained in sdction 6 of the exclusion law of 1884. which requires that every Chinese person entitled to admission to the United Statesshall obtain the permission of and be identified as so entitled by the Chinese Government. or of such other foreign government of which at the time such Chinese person shall be a subject. in each case tj be evidenced by a certificate issued by such government. * * * I may say here that I am perfectly willing that that provision shall remain in the law if it is desired-