THE ROLL CALL
The Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES When the Senate Rose To Its High Duty "IT COMES from the steamship com-panies," declared Senator Lodge, He was referring to the active opposition to the...
...but the Secretary of Commerce and Labor puts it higher * * * nearly fifty per cent...
...Burton...
...All of the members of the commission, upon the facts, agreed that the present condition of labor in our basic industries demanded restriction...
...Clarke, Ark...
...Newlands...
...Dillingham...
...The census of 1890 and the census of 1900 show that 21 per cent...
...Works...
...They are an injury to the country, not a help, and on that class the literacy test would be particularly effective.'' And Senator Lodge contributed this to the discussion...
...They come here simply to take money out of the country...
...Chilton...
...Bryan...
...Shive-ly...
...Smith, Md...
...Cummins...
...In many branches of immigration thirty per cent...
...Warren...
...Jenks of Cornell University, and Mr...
...of the alien criminals are illiterates...
...So a commission of nine members Was created— three from the Senate, three from the House, and the U. S. Commissioner of Labor, Dr...
...The objection is constantly made that the illiteracy test would not exclude criminals or anarchists, because criminals and anarchists usually read and write...
...Smith, S. C; Smoot...
...Johnson, Me...
...Senator Dillingham answered that question in the following colloquy: Mr...
...Penrose...
...In 1907, when the illiteracy test for admission came before Congress, it was decided not to act until a special and thorough examination of conditions was made...
...Making the Nation Wait IN DEFENSE of the illiteracy test provided in the bill and supported by the Immigration Commission, by eminent economists and sociologists, and by an overwhelming majority of both houses of Congress, Senator Dillingham rose to explain, anew, what it is designed to accomplish...
...Williams...
...McLean...
...These steamship companies," said Senator Lodge, "are particularly interested in this matter, because the illiteracy test would bear more hardly on the birds of passage, as they are called, than on others...
...This test is not aimed at the character of immigration that has made America what it is to-day...
...Jackson...
...The Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES When the Senate Rose To Its High Duty "IT COMES from the steamship com-panies," declared Senator Lodge, He was referring to the active opposition to the Dillingham-Burnett Immigration Bill...
...Kavanaugh...
...The illiteracy test contained in the bill simply reaches that latter type of immigration and it is estimated that it will reduce its numbers to the extent of one-third who are now coming...
...been with both committees, has pervaded the capitol, has been present at the hearings which the President gave the conferees and also to the commissioner of immigration from New York...
...Guggenheim...
...Bankhead...
...Paynter...
...It seems to me that no objection more inept than this can be made...
...It is here to-day...
...They live in a way which no American workman could endure, and then in the autumn gather up the money they have made here and go away, taking it back to their own country...
...Curtis...
...All other forms have been carefully examined, but this is the best practicable form of selection and restriction which it has been possible to devise after twenty years of careful consideration...
...In the Senate, after a "joker" had been forced out of the bill by progressive Senators, there were only nine votes cast against it...
...Borah...
...Mar-tine, N. J...
...And the Senator from Massachusetts further emphasized the motive back of such opposition by remarking, "Even under existing law there has been great indignation at what has been done in that direction as violating our contract labor laws...
...It had experts in every part of the United States to investigate the facts about immigration and about the condition of the immigrants...
...Stephenson...
...Why...
...Martin, Va...
...Myers...
...To quote Senator Dillingham, "Down to 1882 the largest proportion of all the immigration to this country was from Great Britain, Ireland, Scotland and the Scandinavian countries, Germany, Holland and France, all of which was of the same basic stock as that of which the population of America is so largely made up...
...This commission worked for three years...
...Smith, Am...
...Smith, Mich...
...Taft Vetoes the Bill DESPITE this, and despite the fact that Con-gress was very nearly unanimous in its approval of this Immigration Bill, President Taft vetoed it...
...President Taft's objection does not weigh in the face of the excellent provisions of the bill as a whole...
...He said the commission's investigation of conditions shows that the character of immigration has changed greatly in recent years and that evil conditions have resulted from the congestion of illiterate, unskilled laborers who have swarmed to the manufacturing cities of the eastern states during the last ten years...
...Root...
...Kern...
...Culberson...
...President, attention has been so concentrated upon the illiteracy test that it is very easy to overlook the great importance of the rest of the bill...
...Nobody can say aught against the character of that immigration...
...Hitchcock...
...Town-send...
...One source of opposition to this bill has been from the railroads of the Southeast who want to bring in citizens of that nation which is now exhibiting such marked capacity for self government (Mexico) to work on their roads...
...Clark, Wyo...
...Crane...
...Thornton...
...Sutherland...
...Gamble...
...The Senate acted wisely and in the best interests of all in passing the bill over his veto...
...The Democrats control the House...
...Oliver...
...It sent a sub-committee abroad to examine conditions at the source of immigration...
...Cullom...
...Crawford...
...McCumber...
...Bacon...
...of these go back, thus making a double profit to the steamship company...
...Fall...
...Page...
...President, although it is not the purpose of the illiteracy test to exclude criminals, although it is not framed with that object in view, we have statistics to show that a very large proportion of those aliens who find themselves in the criminal courts are illiterate...
...that they were active and aggressive...
...Thomas...
...Eight of the nine members concluded that the best form of restriction was the illiteracy test...
...aided them all they could...
...But the House, 223 to 114—only fifteen votes lass than the required majority—refused to override the President's veto, and this measure will not become a law at the present session...
...Dillingham...
...and generally stimulated emigration from those countries to this...
...Brady...
...Commenting on this, Senator Lodge said: "Mr...
...they go back in the autumn...
...Reed...
...Bristow...
...Tillman...
...I should like to ask to what extent the commission ascertained that emigration from the south and southwestern portion of Europe had been stimulated either by manufacturers or steamship companies, or by both...
...They come for the summer...
...What the Commission Found THE Dillingham-Burnett Immigration Bill passed both houses of Congress by an exceptional majority...
...SENATORS VOTING TO UPHOLD THE PRESIDENT'S VETO OF THE IMMIGRATION BILL—18: Catron...
...would be rejected it will be seen that the purpose of this bill is simply to relieve the congestion in the congested districts of the United States where this recent immigration is mostly found and to relieve us of that type of immigration that is transient in its character, that which is not at all adapted to aid in building up and maintaining American institutions...
...But the commission found that during the last Here is the Vote by Which the United States Senate Overwhelmingly Passed the Immigration Bill Over President Taft's Veto SENATORS WHO VOTED TO PASS THE IMMIGRATION BELL OVER PRESIDENT TAFT'S VETO—72: Ashurst...
...The representatives of the companies are here in Washington...
...Foster...
...Lippitt...
...Smith, Ga...
...Meanwhile the country waits for a measure that should have become a law without delay...
...Brown...
...Nevertheless, Mr...
...The purpose of the illiteracy test is not to exclude criminals...
...There was a large amount of evidence discovered in Europe when the commission was there indicating that the agents of steamship companies in Europe were stationed in almost every country...
...Wheeler who later became Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Labor...
...that they held out inducements to men to emigrate...
...Bradley...
...Sheppard...
...Swanson...
...Nelson...
...Overman...
...His only objection was to the literacy test which he believed "violates a principle that ought, in my opinion, to be upheld in dealing with our immigration...
...The administrative provisions represent the work of years...
...Mr...
...Johnston, Ala...
...Kenyon...
...the exclusion of the criminal is provided for by other sections of the existing law, which have been improved and amended in this bill...
...Percy...
...Gronna...
...Clapp...
...It has been shown over and over again that the illiterates form a very large proportion of those inmigrants who are congested in the worst parts of our great Eastern cities...
...0'Gorman...
...Richardson...
...The counsel of one company has...
...La Follette...
...Perkins...
...du Pont...
...Gallinger...
...Wetmore...
...Said Senator Dillingham, "When I say that the old immigration is entirely different and that only a fraction of two per cent...
...Gardner...
...Stone...
...This measure is based on the investigation and recommendations of the United States Immigration Commission...
...Owen...
...Burnham...
...Brandegee...
...That immigration entered into all the industries, agricultural and otherwise, of the country so that now it has been fully assimilated and represents one of the strongest and best elements in American citizenship...
...It has been proved over and over again, and beyond question by successive investigations, that the illiteracy test would exclude more who are undesirable and fewer who are desirable immigrants than any other...
...I put it at thirty per cent...
...It was announced immediately that a bill containing virtually the same provision will pass in the next Congress...
...In reply to the President's specified objection, he said: "Objections can be made to this legislation as they can be made to any other form of restriction or selection...
...Jones...
...Poindexter...
...Gore...
...advised them how to disregard the law successfully...
...NOT VOTING—5: Briggs...
...Pomerene...
...Dixon...
...Chamberlain...
...Pitt-man...
...It made a report of forty volumes full of statistics and facts...
...Bourne...
...These birds of passage do not come here as the men of '48 came in the great immigration of that period, to make their homes, build up the country and become part of our citizenship...
...Fletcher...
...For twenty-five years," he said, "we have met that opposition at every turn...
...It is they who furnish the funds for the agitation, who fill the newspapers with advertisements...
...Simmons...
...Thomas...
...Webb...
...In the words of Professor Jenks, this bill is in accord with the best authority and the best thought of the day and is based upon the long and patient investigation of "the one body of men that has really made a thoroughly sound, scientific study of the question...
...His reasons were given to Congress in the form of a letter prepared by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor...
...they embody the best conclusions of what the President calls a very 'able commission,' which devoted three years of hard work and careful investigation to this subject...
...Watson, ten years there has developed a stream of immigration fostered by manufacturing trusts seeking cheap labor and by steamship companies reaching out for increased traffic which created a condition expressed by Professor Jenks in a recent letter to President Taft in the following words: "The figures collected by the Immigration Commission * * * prove beyond doubt that in a good many cases these incoming immigrants actually drive out into other localities and into other unskilled trades large numbers of American workingrnen and workingmen of the earlier immigration who do not get better jobs, but, rather, worse ones...
Vol. 5 • March 1913 • No. 9
