Speech #680116616

Nor have we admitted the demand of the overcrowded countries of the Old World that they have a free hand to solve their problems of overcrowding by sending their undesirable surplus to us. It is frequently insisted that the League of Nations should control migrating populations. helping them to secure admission into the country of their selection and protecting them from the opposition usually called prejudice which confronts them. Those who urge this proposition want a league of Europeans and Asiatic nations who are suffering from overcrowding to have power to procure the admission of migrating population to the United States. where they are trying to come. Neither President Wilson nor any other responsible American advocate of the League of Nations has favored passing to it the control of Americas immigration policy. European and Asiatic nations would like to see that done. Spokesmen for their people already admitted here have urged it frequently during recent years. The suggestion will never be tolerated by the American people. There remains. then. the question whether our immigration policy will be controlled by treaties or agreements between us and foreign countries or by Congress. Treaties regularly made by the President and ratified by the Senate are in a class apart from mere agreements made by the Executive with foreign powers without "the advice and consent of the Senate." The "gentlemens agreement" belongs to the latter class. Italy. in its note of September 15. 1921. to Mr. Secretary Hughes. suggested that its emigration. which. of course. is LXV546 Americas Italian immigration. "be made the subject of a specific agreement beforehand. as already suggested." This suggestion no doubt expresses the wish of other foreign governments. I point out two specific reasons why Americas immigration policy should not be regulated by the treatymaking power. Our experience as to the attitude of our Presidents toward this problem should warn us of the danger of passing absolute or chief control of it to him. The Presidents constant contact with delicate and difficult questions of our foreign relations and the necessity of maintaining cordial intercourse with foreign countries expose him and his advisefs and agencies to constant pressure toward a tendency to too great liberality in immigration laws and regulations. Our people now almost unanimously agree that we have heretofore been ruinously loose in our immigration policies. but even such restrictive measures as have been adopted in the past have nearly all been enacted in the face of executive opposition. Nearly every step forward has been in spite of the Presidents veto. In 1879 President Hayes vetoed the first Chinese exclusion act. In 1882 President Arthur vetoed an act suspending Chinese immigration for a period of 20 years (Immigration Commission Report. vol. 2. pp. 580581). On March 3. 1897. President Cleveland vetoed an immigration act excluding illiterates (2 I. C. R. 573). President Taft vetoed an Immigration bill in 1913 containing a restriction against the admission of illiterates (RECORD. special session 59th Cong. p. 101). In 1917 President Wilson vetoed an act excluding illiterates. but Congress passed it over his veto. The present percentage quota immigration law was first passed by the Sixtysixth Congress. but failed because President Wilson withheld his approval. It was again passed by the Sixtyseventh Congress and later extended. both acts having been approved by President Harding. whose action on these measures was about the first approval by a President of the United States of any measure designed to reduce or strictly regulate immigration from foreign countries. The treaty between the United States and China. called the Burlingame treaty. concluded July 28. 1868. and proclaimed February 5. 1870. volume 1. Treaties and Conventions. page 234. Article V. contains the following language: The United States of America and the Emperor of China cordially recognize the inherent and inalienable right of man to change his home and allegiance. and also the mutual advantage of the free migration and emigration of their citizens and subjects. respectively. from the one country to the other for purposes of curiosity. of trade. or as permanent residents. Article VI of the same treaty contains the following provision : Citizens of the United States visiting or residing in China shall enjoy the same privileges. immunities. or exemptions in respect to travel or residence as may there be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the mostfavored nation. and. reciprocally. Chinese subjects visiting or residing In the United States shall enjoy the same privileges. immunities. and exemptions in respect to travel or residence as may there be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the mostfavored nation. * * * Intolerable conditions soon developed in California as the result of this treaty stipulation that Chinese had :In inalienable right to immigrate to the United States and permi nently reside here. but the treatymaking power failed to relieve the situation. In 1879 a bill was introduced in Congress limiting to 15 the number of Chinese who could come into the United States upon any one vessel. It was argued against this bill that it -would abrogate the provisions of the Burlingame treaty.