Speech #640066693

And this principle. in my judgment. is so firmly established in our institutions that when some of the other socalled but rapidly vanishing absolute rights have been materially lessened in importance as a result of presentday legislation. this right of religious freedom shall remain intrenched as a sacred if not an absolute right of an American citizen. But while agreeing with my good friend and very desirable Member of this House. in so far as this principle is concerned. unlike him I am in favor of this bill. I remind the gentleman and the Members of this House that the Republican national platform of 1896. on which William McKinley was elected President. contained a provision demanding that the immigration laws be thoroughly enforced and so extended as to exclude from entrance to the United States those who could neither read nor write. This action on the part of the delegates to the convention could not have been based on information obtained later than 1895. and in that year the number of immigrants to this country from Europe amounted to 271.000 and more than 50 per cent of these came from Germany. the United Kingdom. Norway. and Sweden alone. so that the religious issue could not then have been involved. I am in receipt.of numerous letters. petitions. and resolutions from local labor organizations favoring this bill. signed in many instances. to my personal knowledge. by good and true Catholics. and I will not have it said on this floor without entering an emphatic denial that the religious question is involved in the consideration of this measure. Certainly it is not in so far as I am concerned. nor do I- believe that it haS any influence on any other Member of this body. Not only am I free from any feeling of religious antagonism but also from any racial antagonism. considering myself a child of the one great God and able freely and without restraint to extend the right hand of fellowship to the newcomer to our shores regardless of the country from which he comes or the religion which he professes. The gentleman sought to strengthen his position by reference to a conversation with a representative of the Junior Order United American Mechanics. giving the impressionI think I correctly state his attitudethat the order referred to was favorable to the bill on religious grounds. and yet in that same conversation he tells us that the same representative of the order informed him that they had been fighting immigration for a period of 60 years. If this be true. then surely their opposition is not based on religious grounds. for I have already shown by reference to statistics as recently as 1895 that it has only been within comparatively recent years that the bulk of European immigration has been Catholic. and therefore the attitude of "the Junior Order United American Mechanics being consistent with its position of former years can not be said to rest on any religious opposition. Now. a word as to the merits of the measure. In these days. when our States have enacted compulsory education laws and childlabor laws. and this body. as recently as the present session. not only encouraging but seeking to force these laws on unwilling States by excluding certain childmade goods from interstate commerce. all of which has been done with a view to fitting the rising generation for the duties and responsibilities of a higher citizenship. and done in many cases at great cost and sacrifice to poor families. and especially to widowed mothers. it is but right and just and fair to say to those from without who seek the superior advantages of this country that they should at least put f6rth sufficient effort to meet the limited requirements of this bill.