Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1915 — IMMIGRATION BILL VETOED BY WILSON [ARTICLE]

IMMIGRATION BILL VETOED BY WILSON

Message Explains Refusal to Sign Measure. / PEOPLE DON’T FAVOR CLAUSE President Declares That the Literacy Test Provided in Act Is Radical Departure From Nation’s Policy. Washington, Jan. 29.—President Wilson vetoed the immigration bill in the following inessage to congress: “It Is with unaffected regret that I find myself constrained by clear conviction to return this bill without nay Signature. Not only do I feel it to be a very serious matter to exercise the power of veto in any case, because it involves opposing the single judgment of the president to the judgment of tho majority of both houses of the congress, a step which no man who realizes his own liability to error can take without great hesitation, but also because this particular bill is in so many important respects admirable, well conceived and desirable. Its enactment into law would undoubtedly enhance the efficiency and improve tho methods of handling tho important branch of the public service to which It relatQs, but candor and a sense of duty wjth regard to the responsibility so imposed upon me by the» Constitution in matters of legislation leaves me no choice but to disBUI Too Radical. "In two particulars of vital consequence this bUI embodies a radical departure from the traditional and longestablished policy of this country, a policy in which our people have conceived the very character of their government to be expressed, the very mission and spirit of the nation in respect of its relations to the peoples of the world outside their borders. It seeks to all but close entirely the gates of asylums which always have been to those who could find nowhere else the right and opportunity of constitutional agitation for what they conceived to be the natural and inalienable rights of man; and it excludes those to whom the opportunity of elementary education has been denied, without regard to their character, their purposes, or their natural capacity. "Restrictions like these, adopted earlier In our history as a nation, would have very materially altered the course and cooled the humane ardors of our politics. The right of political asylum has brought to this country many a man of noble character and elevated purpose who was marked as an outlaw in his own less fortunate land, and who has yet become an ornament to our citizenship and to our public councils. The children and compatriots of these illustrious Americans must stand amazed to see the representatives of their nation now resolved, in the fullness of our national strength and at the maturity of our great Institutions, to risk turning such men back from our shores, without test of quality or purpose. It is difficult for me to believe that, the full effect of thin feature of the bill was realized when it was framed and adopted, and it is impossible for me to assent to it in the form in which it Is. here passed. Change of Policy. “The literacy test and the tests and restrictions which accompany it constitute an even more radical change in the policy of the nation. Hitherto we have geherou ly kept our doors open to all who ar, j not unfitted by reason of disease or incapacity for self-sup-port or such personal records and antecedents as were likely to make them a menace to ot r peace and order or to the wholesome and offensive relationships of life. In this bill it is proposed to turn away from tests of character and of quality and impose tests which exclude and restrict; for the new tests here embodied are not tests of quality or of character or jf personal fitness, but tests of opporflßnity. It the .people of this country have made up their minds to limit the number of immigrants by arbitrary tests and so reverse the policy of all the generations of Americans that have gone before them, it is their right to do so. I am their servant and have no license to stand in their way. But I dp not believe that they have. I respectfully submit , that no one can quote their mandate to that effect. Has any political party ever avowed a policy of restriction in this fundamental matter, gone to the country on it and been commissioned to control this legislation? Does this bill rest upon the conscious and universal assent and desire of the American people? I doubt it. It is because I doubt It that I- make bold to dissent from it. I am willing to abide by the verdict.

blit’ not until if has been rendered. Let the platforms of parties speak out upon this policy and the people pronounce their wish. The matter is too fundamental to be settled otherwise. “I have no pride of opinion in this question, I- am not foolish enough to profe’ss to know the wishes and ideals of America better than the body of her chosen representatives know them. I only want instructions direct fropi those whose fortunes, with ours and all men’s, are involved. (Signed) ' “WOODROW WILSON.”

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