Chairman. aside from the merits of the propositions involved in this bill. I want to take occasion at this time to criticize the political judgment of. the gentlemen who have seen fit to foist this bill upon the consideration of Congress and the country at this time. This Democratic administration. the first in 16 years. came into power on a platform pledging the party to remedy certain economic conditions existing in this country. and the platform was absolutely silent on the subject of immigration. In conformity with our platform pledges we have enacted legislation on the subject of the tariff and the currency. we are about to enact legislation looking to trust regulation. and the great question of railways in Alaska is actively engaging the attention of this Congress and the country now. I respectfully submit to my Democratic friends that.if we are interested in the success of the present administration we will confine ourselves in our legislative activity to those subjects upon which our party went before the country on its platform. and we will carry out the pledges we then made to the people. and if. after having done this. any time be left during the present session of Congress. we might then take up measures that were not referred to in the platform of the party. I believe that if we inject the subject of restriction of immigration. particularly by means of an illiteracy test. into our legislative program at this time. the manner in which the country will receive the legislation already enacted on the tariff and the currency. and the manner in which it will receive the legislation about to be enacted on the trusts. and having reference to railways in Alaska. will in large measure be confounded with our immigration problem. I believe that this administration. and the policies upon which it has embarked should be judged by the country fairly and impartially. and that it is unfair to the administration and its policies to inject the subject of immigration into its program at this time. The foreignborn voter will in all probability regard this emigration bill as an affront to the people of his country. and when he goes to the polls next November he will register his vote as a protest against the immigration policy which we are about to adopt. and the effect. whether beneficial or otherwise. of the legislation we have already enacted and are about to enact on economic subjects will be lost sight of. So I appeal to my Democratic associates to let us proceed to the enactment of legislation looking to the carrying out of our party platform pledges. so that the country can judge of our policies in that regard uninfluenced and unhampered by any extraneous matters. [Appla use.] I respectfully submit that. however important this matter of restriction of immigration may be. this administration is entitled to be judged by whilt it has promised the people to do and what it has already done. :ind that the question of restriction of immigration. in view of our platform pledges and the attitude of the administration upon that subject. is not. now before the country and should not now be before this Iouse. During the course of the debate on this bill. I have heard some men intimate. or at least try to convey the impression. that they were in the confidence of the administration and that they know what the President will do if this bill should pass.
Keywords matched
immigration emigration