Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 91, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1917 — ALIEN BILL LAW; SENATE IGNORES JAPAN PROTEST [ARTICLE]

ALIEN BILL LAW; SENATE IGNORES JAPAN PROTEST

Measure Passed Over President’s Veto by Vote of 62 to 19. CONTAINS THE LITERACY TEST It Now Becomes a Statute and Amounts to Excluding of the Yellow Race From the United States by Its Provisions. Washington, Feb. 6—The senate, by a vote of 62 to 19, repassed the immigration bill over the veto of the president, despite a warning from the state department that the Asiatic exclusion section might result in disturbing amicable relations with Japan. The measure. containing the literacy test, fought over for 20 years and vetoed by three presidents, now becomes a law. Phelan Was Converted. Senator Phelan, one of those Who voted to override the veto, voted against the original passage 1 of the bill. Senators who' voted for the original b ; ll but would not vote to pass it over the veto were: Hollis, Johnson of South Dakota and Thompson, Democrats, and Sherman and Smith of Michigan. Republicans. New objections from Japan to the language of the Asiatic exclusion section of the vetoed immigration bill were disclosed in the senate when Senator Reed, fighting the proposal to repass the bill over the president’s veto, announced’he had been authorized t>y the state department to say that the Japanese embassy had called attention to the provisions. The bill as finally passed thought to meet all objections. The administration already has successfully used its influence to prevent passage of antialien land bills in Idaho and Oregon objected to by Japan and a desire not to agitate relations with Japan now is evident in all administration quarters. <- This has been accentuated by the favorable reception ink Japan of President Wilson’s action in breaking off diplomatic relations with Germany, which has been most gratifying to the government. In leading up to his announcement Senator Reed said that in view of existing conditions he thought the, senate should most seriously consider what it wished to do with the immigration bill. |T lay it hard on the conscience and ntelligence of senators,” Senator Reed rontinued, “whether at this particular juncture we desire to do anything that 'will in the slightest degree tend to disturb the amicable relations between this country and a country with which we have no serious controversy. “At this particular time in the world’s affairs sober thought and reflection ought to be the rule with ref- ■ trecce to every matter touching our foreign relations. I am unwilling at this hour of the world’s fate to do anything that will by any possibility weaken or impair friendly relations existing between our country and a country which has given to us no offense. ‘This is no time or place to be seeking new i cints of difference or creating new causes of friction with great powers with which we have been at complete peace and with which w.e desire to remain in complete accord and amity. We have enough ahead of us which we cannot avoid,”