Speech #640264506

I do not think ignorance is iii"adaaithge in arnybodY.. hilt tii llliteiacy test in this bill isa -method of restriction. and after years of discussion and investigation it has been found that. onthe whole. it excluded more undesirable persons and fewer desirable ones than any other. I meely wish to say a single word on this question that has been raised in regard to the Japanese. Two years ago we placed in the bill a provision. and worded it in a- way satisfactory to the Japanese representatives. which excluded persons not eligible for naturalization. adding. except where there was other provision by treaty. convention. or agreement entered into or to be entered into. That provision was accepted by the Japanese at that time as satisfactory. with the addition of that exception. The House repeated that provision this year in its bill. Representations were then made that the Japanese objected to it because they did not like the intimation of race inferiority. and the Senate changed It to a geographical exclusion so as to reach other Asiatic immigration. and leave the Japanese under what is known as the gentlemens agreement. When we came into conference there was great objection to the changes made. by the Senate. and the conferees finally decided on a provision which omitted all reference to agreements and all reference to eligibility .for naturalization. and simply provided that persons now excluded in any. wayby law. by treaty. by convention. or by agreementshould continue to be excluded after the passage of this bill. We make no race discrimination. It applies to all the world. It does not. in my judgment. touch the treaty of 1911 at all. That treaty left out the old provisions about immigration. and we were protected by the short time of notice necessary- in case the gentlemens agreement was abandoned.