Speech #780106534

This grants tb the Chinese a privilege which has not been grnted to the Germans as such nor to the French nor to the Irish nor to any other nationality. Can it be expected that this great departure which the proponents of this bill seem to think is only a gesture will not bring repercussions that will be heard all around the world? We are in a gesture changing the most important section in the whole immigration law. It is the basic section. After taking this gigantic step and trying to do what I am afraid will destroy our whole immigration structure they then proceed to prepare another section which is to the effect that after we grant this great distinction to these Chinese that we provide that only 105 may come by reason of this enactment and that only 75 of these need come from China. In other words. the proponents of this legislation ask us to risk the very life of the important immigration laws that have done so much for the working people of the country in saving their jobs against the cheap labor of the world just simply to make a little flagwaving gesture that will. only mean that 75 out of 350.000.000 Chinese would be eligible for admission to the United States. I do not rate the Chinese as being so ignorant and so easy as not to notice how they are being. fooled and discriminated against. . There is no degree of eligibility. If a Chinese is made eligible to citizenship. he is just as much eligible .as the Englishman. or the Irishman. or the Frenchman. To makehim eligible and then say he is not eligible. and we will tolerate only 75 of them per year. is not putting them on a par with other peoples and other countries. The reason they were declared ineligible is due to the fact that they were considered as unassimilable and it was.necessary for our country to dosomething to restrict immigration. For many years in the early nineties a million immigrants .came to our shores annually. In 1907 beforewe had restricted immigration. there came to our shores approximately 1.265.000 persons for permanent residence. This number came legally. It is safe to say that an equal number. at least. came illegally.