Speech #630433806

I hardly think that statement is correct. but even if it be correct. does it furnish a basis for a veto of a measure of this character at this time? I think he must have overlooked the fact that for 20 years the Nation has been demanding just this type of legislation. he must have overlooked the fact that 30 years ago we began the restrictiv6 policy in the adoption of the contractlabor law. and we adopted that law because we did not want unfair competition against.the labor element of the United States by those coming from foreign nations. That law.was intended. undoubtedly. more to protect the skilled labor of the United States than any other. because at that time the demands for common labor had not become as great as later on. but.. nevertheless. the principle of restriction was Just as firmly asserted in that legislation as it is in the legislation the purpose of which is to restrict in some measure the flow of Immigration into this country at the present time. consisting as it does of unskilled common or farm labor. among the males to the extent of 90 per cent of the whole. competing as it does with the common labor of this country at all the great centers of our industries. and in such a way as to reduce the earning capacity of this class of wage earners and to ddstroy the American standard of living. The restrictive legislation of 1885 to which I have referred is found rewritten in the bill which has been vetoed. It is known as the contractlabor clause. Among the excluded classes are ".persons hereinafter called contract laborers. who have been induced. assisted. encouraged. o solicited to migrate to this country by offers or promises of employment. whether such offers or promises are true or false. or inI consequence of agreements. oral. written or printed. express or implied. to perform labor in this country of any kind. skilled or unskilled. persons who have come in consequence of advertisements. for laborers printed. published. .or distributed in a foreign country." That. Mr. President. .in substance. was the legislation adopted 30 years ago. and was absolutely restrictive in its character and .was based upon the rights of the United States in the protection of its own citizens and their wellbeing to forbid the solicitation and the bringing into this country of men who would actually compete against the laboring men of this country in the labor market of the Nation.