Speech #700145558

Without objection. it is so ordered. The letter referred to is as follows: Petition and memorial To the honorable the Members of Congress in the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: On behalf of the seamen of the United States I hereby humbly submit this our petition and memorial that S. 717. "A bill to provide for the deportation of certain alien seamen. and for other purposes." introduced by Mr. KING. of Utah. be passed for the following reasons : (a) The Chinese exclusion act passed in 1891 has been steadily. and in a constantly increasing number of instances. violated by means of substitution by young Chinese coming and aged ones desiring to return to China departing as seamen on ships. (b) Through the smuggling into the United States of Chinese excluded by law. (c) By smuggling narcotics into the United States in violation of law. all made profitable through the exclusion of the Chinese and the high duty on narcotics. and accomplished through the vessels. American and foreign. being permitted to come to our ports with men serving as seamen who could not under the law be admitted as immigrants for permanent residence in the United States. Since 1917. when the act forbidding certain persons to come to the United States was passed. such excluded persons came in an increasingly large number into the United States in violation of law. They could not come ais immigrants and therefore came and are coming as seamen on vessels that often carry a very much more numerous crew coming to the United States than they carry leaving the United Sttes. because (a) There was no distinction made between bona fide and mala fide seamen. (b) Because there was no law of the United States providing that vessels leaving the United States should carry the same number of men in their crew as they had on arrival . (c) Because it is possible for somebody to obtain large sums of money in a way that is easy and comparatively safe. Chinese have paid from $1.000 to $1.100 for being landed in the United States. and excluded Europeans and South Americans paid from $200 to $400 each. As exclusion became more extensive the sums of money to be gathered by the smugglers became greater. As the quota laws reduced the number of men who could come and as the supervision became stricter the number of Europeans and South Americans smuggled in became greater and the business more profitable. These violations of law are still continuing and increasing. American consuls in Europe maintain that nothing can stop this smuggling except a thorough examination of the crews of vessels as they arrive in American ports. together with the deportation of main fide seamen and excluded persons coming as seamen on vessels under whose flag they were not specifically born. at the expense of the vessel by which they were brought. The purpose of this bill is to stop the violations of our immigration laws and. incidentally. to remove unfair competition from American ships and American seamen. The evils above mentioned and the remedies which we seamen have from time to time respectfully submitted have been brought to the attention of the departments and Congress. Hearings before congressional committees on this matter date back to 1023. We made an effort to have the remedies included in the immigration bill of 1924.