Speech #780106308

Third. I want to enumerate a few of the reasons which seem to me to make this legislation highly desirable. First. in 1880 a treaty was made between China and the United States. giving the United States the right to exclude Chinese from immigration to this country. This right doubtless was possessed by the Congress without treaty. but nevertheless the treaty was negotiated. From May 6. 1882. until June 23. 1913. the Congress of the United States passed 13 laws or parts of laws dealing with the exclusion and deportation of persons of the Chinese race. While Orientals generally have been excluded from admission to this country. it is interesting to note that the Chinese are the only nationals repeatedly specified by race in our statutes. These acts are replete with the expression. "Chinese persons or persons of Chinese descent." Even the Japanese are largely excluded under a socalled gentlemans agreement. In other words. under our existing laws the Japanese are given a preferred status to the Chinese. To date we have been more considerate of the vicious. treacherous Japs than we have of the kindly. heroic Chinamen. At the time the original Chinese exclusion acts were passed our immigration laws were very lax. we had no quota system. and the Chinese were immigrating to our west coast in hordes. There was great fear throughout the country. especially In the West. that cheap Chinese labor was going to vitally affect the American standard of living. In the intervening 60 years since the original Chinese exclusion acts were passed local and world conditions have vastly changed. In the meantime. we have greatly improved. strengthened. and tightened our immigration laws. We have adopted a quota system under which the citizens of various nations are admitted on a quota basis. Quotas are calculated not upon the number of persons living in the country from which the immigrant comes. but upon the number of the nationals of that particular country resident within the United States when the census of 1920 was taken. in relation to a total fixed quota of 150.000. Now the second part of this discourse. H. R. 3070 was reported by the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization after careful and extensive hearings and deliberations. This bill first proposes to repeal all acts or partial acts which specifically exclude the Chinese from immigration to this country. The second section of the bill gives the Chinese a quota under which no more than 105 Chinese per year could enter the United States. This places China on an equal basis with other countries permitted immigration rights into America. with one exception. Whereas the quotas of other countries are based upon nativity. the quota given China by this bill is based upon nationality. In other words. no more than 105 Chinese could come into this country. regardless of where they live or where they were born or from whence they seek admission. However. section 2 gives a preference of 75 percent of this quota of 105 to Chinese born and resident in China proper. Section 3 of this bill permits Chinese legally resident within this country to become naturalized under existing naturalization procedure. At this time there are 40.000 Chinese aliens in the continental United States and about 5.000 in Hawaii. Only a select few of these could become American citizens under our naturalization laws. It seems to me this is a desirable provision. If a person is legally resident in America. if he is to continue living among us. he becomes a more desirable resident through citizenship. As a citizen he naturally has greater pride and interest in his community and in his adopted country. Now for the third section of these remarks. Let me say just here that in matters of immigration I am a restrictionist. I have introduced a bill. on which I expect to demand hearings. to reduce all immigration quotas into this country for a period of 10 years by 50 percent. The bill now under consideration is not an immigration bill. This bill is a war measure and a peace measure. This bill has my wholehearted support. first as a matter of principle. second as a matter of policy.