Speech #740240284

President. permit me to make a brief explanation. The bill pending before the Senate in section 302. on pages 22 and 23. makes provision limiting the number of aliens who may be employed on any ships crew. These provisions. in my opinion. are very proper. and I do not desire to be understood as opposing them in any way. save to call attention to the rather obvious fact that the language as used. either purposely or inadvertently. makes it impossible to employ any aliens who are ineligible for citizenship. that is to say. it is impossible to employ any Asiatics for any purpose at all on board the ship. Senators will note that the requirement is for a certain percentage of nativeborn or naturalized citizens. and for a supplementary percentage of those who have declared their intention to become citizens. Therefore any person who belongs to a race which is ineligible to make the declaration of citizenship would be ineligible for employment. I have no desire to increase the number of aliens who may be employed upon any American ship. but it happens that the ships which provide service on the transPacific run do employ some Asiatics. and chiefly use them in the stewards department. They claim. and I think justly and truly. that they find it necessary to employ those Asiatics. The reason for the necessity for doing so is that many of the passengers on some of the runs are themselves Asiatics. and the ship operators find that it is impossible to employ a good class of American citizen to serve the Asiatic passengers on the ships. When they attempt to do that. which they have done in the past. they find that they can obtain only the services of very lowgrade employees. and that they cannot get the type of employee which they think is essential to the adequate servicing of the ship. The purpose of the amendment is merely to provide that in the stewards department not to exceed 20 percent of those who are ineligible for citizenship may nevertheless be employed.