The San Francisco call., 1897-01-28
Tariff Legislation of No Avail
if the Influx of Pauper
Labor Continues.
Hepburn of Iowa L.uily Cheered by
the Ga.1eries-Con ference Report
on tie Bill Adopted.


Bartholdt (R.) of Missouri, chairman OF
refused to sign the report. 1t was agreed
that the debate should continue until AIS
o'clock to-day and that members should
have the right TO print.
Danford (R.) of Ohio opened the debate
in the presence of a large number of
mem bers but an unusually small attend
ance in the galleries He explained
the changes made in conference and
answered the objections made to the
separation of an llliterate husband
and his wife. He admitted that his bill
was drawn for the purpose of excluding
undesirable immigrants and that the edu-
cational test was inserted in order to carry
out that purpose The time had come, he
said. when something should be done to
restrict i'm migration.
Time and again the conventions of the
two great parties had promised the coun-
try relief on this score, but this was the
first real effort to make good these
promises.
He read from statistical returns of the
Superintendent of immigration to show
the large proportion of iliterates coming
to the United States from the southern
and eastern portions of Europe, asserting
that the immigration from the western
and northern nations of Europe wouldbe
but little affected by the proposed legisla-
tion.
A significant statement had been made
| In the newspapers recently to the effect
| that if every industrial wheel in the
country was started and the mills fully
| manned there would be two or three hun
dred thousand men still unemployed.
! He did not speak for the Weary Wat
kins' who did not want to work at any
time, but for those who want to labor and
| who were pleading for legislation for their
protection.
| The provisions OF the bill known as Cor
liss' amendments. and intended 10 deal
| with that class known as birds
| of passage, Mr.. Danford said, wou.
| doubtless be found difficult to en-
force-more difficult, probably, than was
| imagined-but that something must be
done to prevent the forays of these people
| who come in the summer and flee IN the
| winter was generally conceded.
Dolliver (R.) of Iowa asked what was
| the purpose OF departing from the educ
| tonal test fixed by the House and Senate
| bill, and providing that the immigrant
should read and write the constitution OF
! the United States in the language of his
Danford replied that it was to reach the
| Russian Jews, who, being driven from
| their homes and having drained the
| charity of Western Europe, were being
| thrown upon our shores in great nun bers.
For the first time in their history the
| Hebrew Associated Charities of New York
were compelled to appeal for aid to people
| outside their own race for the relief OF
| their people in t. at city.
He concluded with an earnest plea for
| the passage of the bill which would in some
small degree relieve the country from the
me mace to which it is exposed under
| presen: laws. He did not ask that hard-
| ship be worked to any one but that the
| interests of the residents OF the country
| might be conserved.
In opening the debate in opposition to
the adoption of the report, Bartholdt said
| he had refused to sign the report
! for two reasons first, that by
! its provisions families-husbands and
wives, mothers and children-would be
eparated, and second. that it forbade the
entrance of immigrants who could not
| read the language OF their native or
/ adopted country.
This drastic provision, he said, was not
contained in either the Senate or House
bill, and it's appearance vindicated his ex-
pressed fear some weeks ago that If the
bill went TO conference it would return in
shape which could not be justihed to
the constituents of many Representative
| and would offend the sense OF justice and
| right of the country.
THE bill, Bartholdt asserted. would de-
feat the purpose nominally ureed by its
advocates, OF establishing an education al
| test. 1t would shut out, for instance, q
| class OF Germans who had for 800 years
made their homes in Russia, the language
| of W which thev did not speak; also many
| of the residents OF Alsace- Lorraine who
| had not yet acquired the German Ian
| guage.
To Hit (R.) of Illinois, who inquired as
| to the status of the Swiss, who had no
distinctive national language, would they
be shut out according to the gentleman 8
| construction OF the law, Barthofdt said
| three languages had obtained recognition
| in Switzerland, and immigrants from that
country would choose among them.
Many members interrogated Barthoidt
with a view to demonstratins that the
| language clause wonld not work such dis
advantage as he imagined. To all of
| them ne said his object was to perfect the
measur so as not to expose desira BILE i'm
migrants to the jeopardy involved in the
| preseut form OF the bill.
Several suggestions were made as to the
| best manner in which to secure this end,
| but friends of the bill found none OF them
acceptable.
Referring 80 the statement that the bill
| was intended to reach specially the Rus
sian Jews, Bartholdt said:
"If in this dawn of the twentieth GEN.
| tury nv constituents should ask me to
! Join in further prosecuting them | would
| lay down my duties here, return to my
sanctum and write editorials against such
an inhuman proposition" Applause.
G. w. Stone (R.) of Pennsylvania advo-
Gated the adoption OF the con nference re-
port, saying that if it were not adopted
Congress would do nothing at this session
toward the restriction of immigrants.
MANY mem bers, he said, received tele-
grams like the one he sent to the clerk s
desk, and had read from a steam boat
agency in Chicago requesting constituents
to wire their Congressman to vote against
the immigration bill under threats that
an affirmative vote meant defeat for re-
election.
The demand for the passage of the bill
had been made by the National Conven-
tions OF the Republican and Democratic
parties, and, further. the immigration of
recent wears ntered into disastrous COM
petition with the workingmen of the
country, forcing them to either take low
wages or to abandon their labors alto
gether.
If the test proposed in the law had been
in effect the past year 1t would have kept
out 68. l63 immigrants from Russia, Italy
and Austro-Hungary, from which coun-
tries generally the undesirable class came,