Speech #620138134

President. after the illuminating speech on this subject by the Senator from Vermont and the forceful presentation of the question by the Senator from New York [Mr. RooT]. I have no hope of adding anything of interest to the discussion. but I do desire to briefly submit the reasons which influence me in supporting the bill as framed and opposing the committee amendment which seeks to strike from that bill the literacy test. For a period of years preceding 1907 the tide of immigration Into this country had grown steadily with every year. until in that year more than a million and a quarter of immigrants came to our shores. All over the country. from ocean to ocean. our people had become apprehensive over this growing flood of immigration. They wondered what it meant to the wages of the American workingman. what it meant to the perpetuity of American institutions. yet whenever there was an attempt to restrict this immigration by national legislation that attempt was met by the claim of the great employers of labor that they needed this unrestricted flood of immigration to draw on for labor to properly conduct their business and that any curtailment of it meant a check in the prosperity of our people. There were no sufficient accurate data upon which the question could be intelligently discussed and legislated in reference to. although a bill containing the literacy test has passed one or the other Houses of Congress nine times. Such a bill passed both Houses in 1.897 and was vetoed by President Cleveland. In 1907 a bill containing substantially this provision passed the Senate of the United States. but when it reached the other House. either for the purpose of retarding legislation restricting immigration or for the purpose of securing information so that such legislation could be more intelligently considered. the other House substituted for the literacy test a provision creating the Immigration Commission. The bill creating the commission provided that the commission should investigate the immigration question and report its conclusions and its recommendations as to legislation on the subject. A wor( about the composition of that commission. It was composed of nine members. three Senators named by the President of the Senate. three Members of the House of Representatives Aamed by the Speaker of the House. and three persons. not Members of Congress. selected by the President of the United States because of their familiarity with the immigration question. This commission represented every shade of opinion upon the question of immigration. Some of its members favored no restrictionin immigration. some of them favored no immigration. Under the power conferred upon them they first investigated conditions in those countries from which the heaviest immigration was coming. They investigated the economic conditions of the laborers there. what wages they received. what drove them to our shores. what kind of citizens they made In those countries. and what kind of citizens it might be expected they would make when they came to our country. Returning to this country. the commission followed these aliens into the various pursuits in which they had embarked. To show the nature and the scope of this investigation. the commission considered more than 3.000.000 individual cases. following them into the occupations in which that number of aliens were then engaged. The result of their work Is comprised in 42 volumes. containing much valuable information to the student of this subject. The commission ascertained two pregnant facts in connection with this question: One. that in the past 25 years there has been a total change in the character of the immigration coming to our country. Prior to 1882. 95 per cent of the immigration came from northern Europethe British Isles. Germany. Belgium. Switzerland. and Scandinavia. These immigrants were holne seekers and were readily assiinilated by our people. They desired to become citizens. and they helped in the development of that great northwestern empire of ours. but within the past 15 -years more than S0 per cent of the immigration comes from southern and southeastern Europe. and those immigrants are not as a rule home seekers. they are not readily assimilated by our people. they do not desire to become Afmerican citizens. but each year they either ship or they carry back to the shores from which they came millions of dollars of American money. The commission found. too. that there was a greater supply of unskilled labor tian the business of our country demanded. and that this surplus supply of unskilled labor was used by the great employers of labor as a weapon with which they forced down the wages of American workingmen below a fair wage. according to our standard. and below a fair share of the profits of the business in which those men were employed. The commission. as the result of their investigation. unanimously recommended that there should be legislation substantially restricting immigration. and. with the exception of one member. Mr. Bennet. of New York. they unanimously recommended among the various methods of restricting immigration I the adoption of the literacy test. To strike this test from the bill rejects the conclusion reached by that commission. it emasculates the bill and leaves it nothing but a codification of existing immigration laws. it bitterly disappoints the American people. whose sole interest in the immigration legislation is that there shall be some substantial reduction in the flood of immigration. The reason given by the committee for striking out that section of the bill is that the retention of it might jeopardize the passage of the bill. I do not believe that to be the case. I think that is the most important part of the bill. and should be retained in it. There is one other consideration that influences me to reach this conclusion. There has never been a time in the history of our country when restriction in immigration would work as little injury to the business interests of our country as today. There are no great enterprises being rapidly pushed to completion requiring as an indispensable adjunct to their development an unlimited supply of cheap labor. There has never been a time in the history of our country when its political welfare has imperatively demanded a substantial reduction in immigration as today. We are living in a shifting era. The burden of government. according to the tendency of political thought. is being placed more directly upon the shoulders of the people. and whether one rejoices in that or whether one deplores it is absolutely immaterial. the fact remains.