Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1902 — FAVORS EXCLUSION [ARTICLE]

FAVORS EXCLUSION

Senator Fairbanks Presents a Strong Argument in Defense of American Workmen.

CHINESE LABOR-NOT WANTED

Indiana Senator Submits a Logical Plea In Behalf of the Immigration Restriction Bill That Is Now Under Consideration.

In the senate Saturday, April 5, Senator Charles N. Fairbanks spoke on the pending Chinese exclusion act, In the advocacy of which he has been especially active. *The question under discussion is one in which wage-earn-ers of Indiana and especially organized workingmen have taken a lively interest. Indiana members of congress have received thousands of petitions, resolutions and memorials urging the adoption of the bill in question as a measure for the maintenance of the American standard of wages and living. Legislation in accordance with this wish, so universally entertained among the wage-earners of Indiana, is receiving the support of every Indiana Republican member of congress—all believers in the doctrine that the American workingman is entitled to protection from the free entrance of both cheap labor and the products of cheap labor through the custom houses and Immigration stations of American ports.

Senator Fairbanks said: Mr. President: The pending measure is to prohibit the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States and to any territory under its jurisdiction. The prohibition, however, does not apply to the return to the United States of any registered Chinese laborer who has a lawful wife, child or parent therein, or property of the value of SI,OOO, or debts of a like amount due him therein and pending settlement. The bill does not prohibit the admission of Chinese officials, teachers, students, merchants and travelers for curiosity or pleasure. It cannot be doubted that we have ah absolute right to enact such laws as will safeguard our citizenship against contaminating influences from any quarter of the globe. More than this, the duty to preserve the purity of the currents which vitally affect the standard of our citizenship is plain and imperative. Our national policy has always been a broad and generous one. We have been hospitable to all of those born beneath alien skies who desire to come and make their homes with us, and for many years we imposed upon those seeking admission no conditions or restrictions whatsoever. Millions from abroad have been added to our citizenship and have participated in the development and upbuilding of our nation. In comparatively recent years congress has deemed it a wise policy to discriminate and to exclude from all quarters those vicious, immoral and undesirable elements which would not add to the well-being of our society. The restricted classes have been few, indeed. We have denied admission to Idiots, insane persons, paupers, or persons liable to become a public charge, persons with a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease, persons who have been convicted of a felony or other infamous crime or misdemeanor Involving moral turpitude, polygamists, assisted immigrants, contract, and Chinese laborers. There were no restrictive laws prior to 1875, except those which prohibited coolie trade. No one who gives serious thought to the question will insist that-our present immigration laws are unduly restrictive. The exclusion of the elements indicated would seem to be dictated only bv a wholesome regard for our own welfare. During the last decade the total immigration to the United States was 3,615,163. During the year 1901, 487,918 were added to our population from abroad, or enough to found a city nearly two and a half times larger than the city of Indianapolis. Enough are annually coming to our shores to make a city larger than the city of Cincinnati, and nearly as large as the combined cities of San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. At the rate of our immigration for last year there will be added to our population in six years enough to found a state as large and populous as the state of Indiana. This immigration does not include any appreciable number of Chinese, and the query naturally arises, What would be the total annual immigration with no restrictive laws safeguarding the Pacific coast against the admission of the Chinese? For the most part the immigrants who have come to us have been intelligent, well-disposed people, desirous of building homes among us, and of uniting their fortunes with ours in the fullest degree. They come mainly of their own volition. No others are de- , sirable. I For some years it has been the policy of the government to exclude Chi- • nese laborers from admission. This 1 policy has found its expression in treaties and in the statutes of the United , States. ' \ 1 After reviewing the history of our , treaty relations with the Chinese empire from 1844 to the present time, Senator Fairbanks continued: The pending measure is in effect a codification of existing laws and the

rules and regulations which have been promulgated by the treasury department to carry such laws into effect The rules and regulations have been suggested by experience In the enforcemeat of the exclusion laws. They have been necessary to give the laws effect and to prevent the ingenious and systematic efforts which have ’been made continually to evade them. The executive department has experienced great difficulty in circumvnting the efforts which have been systematically made to secure the admission of prohibited classes. Organizations have been and are now maintained tn China and the United States for the purpose of securing the admission of Chinese through our ports contrary to the letter and spirit of the law. Fraud and bribery have been employed in every conceivable form to evade the law and the rules and regulations issued by the treasury department, and the vigilance of our officials hjis failed to exclude all that should have been debarred. The vast extent of our boundary line along the Canadian and Mexican borders, and the large profit to be made by the successful admission of the excluded classes makes it exceedingly difficult for our officers to exclude all who should be denied admission. It was made apparent to the committee that agencies are now established which undertake for a consideration of from S2OO to S4OO per capita to secure entrance into the United States of Chinese who are within the prohibitions of the law. These rich Inducements make it necessary, in order that the policy of the United States with respect to Chinese exclusion may be made effective, that the laws should be carefully framed and made to meet the requirements of the department charged with their enforcement. ’ Some of the provisions of the bill may seem unduly drastic, yet they are such only as experience has suggested. They are such in the main as are now found necessary to enforce existing law and to prevent its evasion. To those who respect and obey the law they will not seem burdensome; they will seem severe only to those who wish to nullify it and to secure the wrongful admission of Chinese for the large profit which the nefarious traffic offers.

It may seem to some that existing rules and regulations were adequate and that it was unnecessary to enact them into the form of a statute. But experience has shown that they are not regarded by some officials with that respect which they have for the written law, and that they are too readily and easily set aside by those who are appointed to administer them. Purpose of Bill. The bill before us is not a departure from the well-settled and well-known policy of the government. It is a policy the full purpose and scope of which is as well known in the Chinese empire as it is known in the United States. It is with especial pride that we point to the fact that our labor is better paid than the labor of any other country. Our effort has been to maintain a high wage scale, upon the generally accepted theory and belief that well-paid labor means better citizens and a better country than we could possibly enjoy if wages were forced to a low standard. A low wage market is most undesirable. It is not in the interest of either capital or labor, and we shall fail in our duty if we shall open the way to the free admission of oriental cheap labor, which will inevitably result in lower wages to cur laborers. The Chinese empire is teeming with a population of some 490,000,000 of human beings. With many it is a struggle for the barest necessities of life. It is a notorious fact that many of the people there live upon that which no decent American would wish one of his own countrymen to be obliged to subsist upon. The great Chinese ports are but 20 days from San Francisco, Portland and Puget Seund. Transportation facilities are ample, and the cost is moderate. The opportunities in- this country are so much greater and more inviting than in China, that countless thov sands would seek our shores were restrictions removed. The opportunities which this country affords are very well known in China, and the agencies which are now so fruitful in devising means to evade existing laws would soon send her vast numbers to invade our labor markets. Nothing Immoral in Exclusion. There is nothing immoral in our exclusion of those who do not tend to elevate our civilization. On the contrary, we would be recreant to the high trust committed to us if we should enter upon a policy of admission of vast numbers who must surely tend to bear it down. Our course is not dictated by any ill will toward the Chinese empire. We have but to recur to the events of the past few years to find the amplest assurance of American friendship for that great and venerable empire. When other nations sought her dismemberfnent and the distribution of her provinces among the powers of the earth,- the United States stood first and foremost In favor of the preservation of her solidarity^ 1 We wish for China the most enlightened progress and prosperity, but our first duty is to our own country. We wish to see our country «grow in strength and power; not in numbers only, for we do not find in mere numbers our greatest national strength and chief glory. We find our chief pride in the character and quality of those who constitute

the 80,000,000 of American citizen*. If numbers alone constituted the real strength of a nation, China would indeed be one of the strongest, one of the most puissant upon the face of the globe. We value our broad fields, our great cltiea They stimulate our pride, but above and beyond all that, as great and splendid as they are, we value our citizenship. It is, indeed, our chief glory. It means more to us, more to our children and to their children, mere to the future strength and majesty of the republic than all of the myriad material things which surround us. A high order of citizenship is the chief end and alm of the republic. We establish schools and found universities that they may elevate our people to a higher and broader and better plane. We have a care for the humblest among us. We want men and women who are in love with our institutions, and who will support and defend them; and transmit them unimpaired to posterity. It has bean a part of our national policy to greet at our ports those from every land who are assimilable with us. We have been actuated by no nativlstic spirit. We have made them joint sharers with us in the blessings and opportunities with which a benificent Providence has favored us; but we should not invite those who will pull down and degrade our high standard. We have heard much recently of the necessity for more land and for more territory. The vast plains of a few years ago have been largely occupied. Homes have been built and cities have been founded there. We read in the decennial census of our tremendous progress, and the eye of prophecy can already see how soon the unoccupied places, comparatively small, will be required to accommodate our rapidly increasing numbers. Our first care is to our own country and its citizenship, native born and foreign born alike. Our policy toward those of foreign birth, as I have hitherto said, is a broad and generous one. So soon as an alien sets foot upon our soil, every avenue, save one, is open .to him, as it is open to the native born. The ways of trade and commerce, the professions and politics, are as free and open to him as to those who are born beneath our own benignant skies. Being thus liberal, have we no rightful concern as to who is admitted? Is it of no concern to us whether or not he shall have in him the elements of good citizenship? What were our country without its citizenship? Destroy it or corrupt it and our chief glory is gone. The admission of cheap labor may for the time being stimulate enterprise upon the Pacific coast and elsewhere. It may quicken the wheels of commerce, already turning with greater rapidity than at any period in our history. It may for the time being promote the interests of capital, but I de not believe that in the long run it will do so. I do not believe that there is a right-minded and intelligent citizen of the republic who vieyrs the multiplied agencies for cheap production—production with decreased labor —who does not put the query to himself “What will be the result when we shall have a surplus of labor?” A surplus of labor is in the nature of a calamity. V e can conceive of no worse misfor tune than a great country with labor unemployed. A surplus in the labor market is one of the serious probabilities that often faces us. That American labor is displaced by the admission of Chinese labor, and that the opportunity of American la- ! bop is curta’led to the extent that Chl- . nese labor is introduced is obvious. It may be said that the same is true with respect to the admission of European labor, but in the latter case we admit those from whose ancestors we are descended, and who, speaking largely, are readily and fully incorporated into our American citizenship; while in the other case we have no racial elements in common. They do not harmonize with us. Upon their admission they become an undigested and undigestible mass. The pending bill is intended to carry into the public law as the policy of the United States, recognized in the Gresham treaty and sanctioned by the almost universal judgment of the people, the absolute exclusion of Chinese laborers. It recognizes as entitled to admission Chinese officials, teachers, students, merchants and travelers for curiosity or pleasure, excepted by the terms of the Gresham treaty. It has been found in the administration of the law that Chinese laborers have been smuggled into the country as belonging to the excepted classes, and It has become necessary to define such classes so as to prevent a gross abuse of the privilege. A most serious objection to the admission of Chinese laborers is the general disregard of the home relation, with all of its humanizing and ennobling Influences. The American home is indeed the unit of the republic. In the Anal analysis, great issues which engage our attention from time to time, in fact the destiny of the republic, are determined at the American fireside. Abolish the American home and the days of the republic are numbered. Immigration which ignores this great potential fact Is a serious menace, and is "not to be desired. The Immigrants who have so materially added to our national strength have come mainly from those countries where the home and family relations are sacred, and they have built among us frugal and virtuous homes whence wholesome influences have I permeated the entire community. The hone is, indeed, the nation’s supreme

defense. Can you conceive that the Chinese who are excluded by the terma of the bill before the senate wouhl erect homes throughout the county, M has been done by the immigrants from the United Kingdoms, France, Germany, Scandinavia and oth<r European countries? Competition with Chinese labor.' Competition between American labor and Chinese labor is uneqial. The two start In the contest up*n an entirely different plane. The American laborer must have better cbthes, better houses, better food. His wants are more—thank God for tiatl—and they must be supplied. He is to live and labor, educate his children, and his ashes are to repose here among his kindred. What he earns Is to »e spent here among his own countrymen and not In some foreign land. The Chinese laborers are not without poling of merit. They are docile, patlent,\nd have remarakabla power of endurance, but their necessities are few and easily satisfied. They are but human ma-\ chines of the lowest order. They may, If need be, subsist upon what the American laborer throws away—upon what we would be ashamed -to see him obliged to live upon. The Republican party adheres to the wholesome doctrine of protection against unfair competition with alien cheap labor, and the country Itself Is the amplest testimony as to the wisdom of this policy. The admission of Chinese laborers whose condition is so far below ours is in flagrant vlolaof the very principle and purpose of protection. If the Chinese would speedily rise to our standard the case would be different. But experience unfortunately demonstrates that they continue upon a lower plane, and the inevitable tendency is to bring American labor to their undesirable level. Can it be possible that American labor and Chinese labor can work side by side, the one receiving less than the other in wages and subsisting upon much less than the other? It follows as night the day that the lower paid and lower fed will cause his higher paid and better fed competitor to come down to his unfortunate condition. Against this we enter our protest. We do it from no ungenerous motive toward the Chinese empire; we do it out of national self-respect and in our national self-interest, and no one can justly challenge the wisdom of our policy. We enter upon mo denunciation of the Chinese empire or upon any wholesale arraignment of her subjects. There are Chinese scholars of renown, statesmen of ability, merchants of honor and sagacity, but they are not of the classes which are so unattractive to us. We exclude contract laborers from all countries. No contract laborer, whether from the United Kingdom or any country in continental Europe or elsewhere, is permitted to enter the gates at Ellis Island. The exclusion of Chinese laborers, whether under contract or not. is dictated solely by the same motives and in the interest of American labor and of American civilization. Some question has arisen as to whether the law should operate beyond the term of the Gresham treaty of 1894, it being suggested that the present bill should terminate with the expiration of that treaty. The sixth article of the treaty provides that — “This convention shall remain in force for a period of ten years .beginning with the date of the exchange of ratifications, and if, six months before the expiration of said period of ten years, neither government shall have formally given notice of its final termination to the other, it shall remain in full force for another like period of ten years.” It thus will be seen that unless one or the other of the high contracting parties shall elect to terminate the treaty and notify the other to that effect six months before the expiration of the period of ten years, the treaty will continue in full virtue and effect an additional decade. So, whether the treaty shall terminate in 1904 will depend upon the fact as to whether either of the powers parties thereto -shall denounce it at the end of the first ten years. The pending measure is not in contravention of the terms of the treaty, and it is not necessary that a time < limit should now be fixed. If enacted into law it will be in force so long as congress wills and no longer. The congress may repeal it whenever it deems that the public welfare shall so require. It may allow it to stand upon the statute books until Dec. 7, 1904 (when the treaty may be terminated in the discretion of either power), dr for an additional period of ten years, the extreme limit of the treaty or longer as it shall'deem best in the national interest. During the continuance of the Gresham treaty it cannot be said to contravene any of our international obligations for it but gives force and effect to the provisions of the treaty. Our policy for the 'exclusion of Chinese laborers has been maintained so long, and the reasons for its maintenance are so well known to the Chinese empire and are as cogent now as ever, that it is entirely probable +Mf that great power will desire that the +- naty shall continue for the maximum term of 20 years. If it shall be thouv’ 1 'Mt after the expiration of the treatv our exclusion policy should not rest alone upon an act of the congress, then, in advance of the expiration of the treaty a supplemental or additional treaty may be negotiated by the two governments, which shall fully acknowledge the right of the United States to maintain In full force the policy embodied in existing treaties and laws.