Speech #650321471

As I have already remarked. the object of the pending resolution is to place women on the same footing as men so far as the right of franchise is "concerned. :I am in favor of a constitutional amendment :properly drawn which will permit theworthy women of this country who are citizens. either by birth or through the regular and orderly processes of naturalization. to have the right of suffrage. -but I want that amendment so drawn that It will protect the worthy women. who should vote. against the unworthy. vho should not vote. and I want It so drawn :that Congress can hereafter pass laws.properly protecting this enlarged and increased electorate. I conceive it to.be our duty under our oath as Senators to pass an amendment that will do this. I do not know who prepared the.pending constitutional amendment. but I believe it has been drawn without proper consideration or study of the Constitution and conditions that exist under our naturalization statutes. the careless disregard of them. the abuses that have crept into the making of citizens. and the apparent indifference of some authorities to the grave menace to the institutions of popular government that thus arise. In giving to this subject that careful study which its gravity demands. .my attention has been attracted to two circumstances in particular. The passage of a resolution of:thls kind is closely related to the precarious situation in regard to aliens which has been brought about by the war and our participation in it. Congress has been forced to pass drastic laws at -the eleventh hour to protect this country against sedition. treason. and detpseated disloyalty. arising from the fact thbat so many foreigners reside amongst us and that Germany has carried on a surreptitious propaganda here ever since the war and evidently. from latterday developments. even for many years before the war. It isnot necessary for me to recite the many outrages. bombings. dynamitings. murders. committed by the disloyal foreigners residing here. The consideration of this amendment conferring upon female citizens the right to vote necessarily brings up at this critical time the grave question of our Immigration and naturalization laws and policies. especially in their relation to and effect upon women of alien birth already here or who may. hereafter come. The other particular circumstance was not fully appreciated by me. in its relation to the constitutional amendment as drawn. until I conferred with officials of the Bureau of Immigration and learned its extent and seriousness. It arises from the abuses that exist In connection with the traffic in women for iamoral purposes. While our immigration laws have been framed with the object of protecting society against this traffic. nevertheless many women become citizens of theUnited States hrouiih pro forma marriages contracted simply for the purpose of giving the poor. unfortunate women a status of citizenship under our laws and preventing them from being deported. The pimp. the procurer. these vice -scavengers of humanity. products of the swill barrel of foreign lands. carry on their immoral. unspeak-