Speech #670195735

Except for a voluntary. ex parte statement. there is not a word before you upon which you can base your judgment or sympathy upon the question of even humanity. if you please. Tile committee were denied that right. We were unable to get that testimony to bring it before you. and there is brought in here the bold statement. and they irely on hearsay or outside testimony in regard to this matter and they are now appealing to you on the question of sympathy to break down the Immigration Service to permit these people to come in here contrary to law. to the end and for the reason that many people or a number in these large cities are inter ested and always have been against the immigration law in th first place. and in the second place as a finality and as a fac the steamship companies are the people involved. and they are the ones who want this law repealed if they can get it repealed They are the ones who are the strong sponsors for the particular legislation to allow these people in here. Talk about sympathy talk about mercy. talk about humanity! Then my friend from New York comes in here with a folder that he has had rolled up for three or four years. with nothing ta show who these people are. We could have gotten at the testimony and have presented it to the House if we had had the opportunity. We would have been able to show how the Immigration Service at Ellis Island is being broken down. when it has been suggested on the outside that some men went in and rubbed at least 20 names off the manifest. and then had gotten $100 apiece for these men that were over the quota. This is thus reported. The facts should have been adduced. We could have proven those facts I am convinced. but we were denied the opportunity. and you are denied it. The Secretary of Labor. the Commissioner General of Immigration. each in his heart and in his mind wants to enforce the law. They told us that they are in favor of it. but there is a constant appeal and demand that they do not enforce it. We should uphold them in enforcing the law. Then they promised him they would possibly get this piece of legislation through in this body if he would let them in temporarily. and then he told them that these people ought to be deported. That they were here illegally. and this Congress breaks the law down. That was his statement to the committee some tine before on another matter.