Speech #630378253

It shall also be unlawful for any such person to bring to any port of the United States any alien afflicted with any mental or physical defect. .Now. the mental part is already amply provided for. and the repetition of it rather confuses the purport of this clause. Its purport is that when one is neither mentally nor physically incapacitated. from the standpoint of a disease or otherwise. except In such a way as might incapacitate him from earning a living and render him likely to become a public charge. then it is unlawful for him to come in. Our immigration officials have inspected him. he has passed the mental test. he has passed the disease test. but upon examination he is found to have some physical defect that is neither a disease nor a mental aberration and therefore is likely to become a public charge. The committee and those in charge of framing this bill were doing their best to preserve as nearly as possible the standard of citizenship from a mental and physical standpoint. Striking out the words " mental or" does n6t in any sense of the word show any disposition to allow one mentally defective to come into the country. in that we have amply provided for it elsewhere and have restricted this clause to what might have been overlooked in the preceding clausesthat some one otherwise admissible might possibly become a public charge.