The Saint Paul globe., 1897-03-04
A STALWART VETO.

President Cleveland closes fifty an ad-
ministratiOn in which he has made the
veto power one of the great safeguards
OF the peoples rights and liberties by
stamping with his disapproval the
un-American and undemocratic immi
grafton bill Every man with na-
triotic heart in his bosom will rejoice
that this abominabIe measure has fall
en- under executive disapproval
The objections of The president
to the measure are those which
were pointed out in the Globe at
the time of its passage, and which sug-
gest themselves with force to every
man not blinded by partisanship or
slavishly subservient to empty the
ory. The first count against it is that
1t sets up futile and improper test.
Moral worth and education do not nee
essarily cOexist. A law might keep
illiterate men out of the country and
still admit all species of rascals Of
dangerous character. If we are to re-
verse the policy that has governed
since the nation was founded. and cease
to offer free admittance to the peoples
of other lands. let us at least adopt a
regulation that will exclude the moral
ly unworthy, instead Of this empty and
superficial test of ability to read twen-
ty-five lines of the constitution.
The second count is the unjust. IN
friendly and unnecessary prohibition
of free intercourse between this conn
try and its neighbors on this conti-
nent. The immigration bill deserved
doubly to die the death from the mo-
ment that its advocates succeeded in
tacking onto it a clause prohibiting
the passing to and fro across our bor-
ders Of men engaged in occupations
that might require them to labor in
one country and be domiciIed in an
other The claim that we cannot con-
pete with Canadian labor, against
which this section purports to be aim
ed, is untenable and silly 1t is a mere
bit of exasperating hostility. which. as
fail to provoke reprisals. It would
bear, in many instances, as hardly
upon us as upon our neighbors. and it
could not fail to become the beginning
of long series of petty assaults and
equally petty retaliatory acts that
would excite and perpetuate unneces-
sary hostility between us and our
neighbors.
The last count, aside from any OBJ
lection to the principle of restricting
immigration itself, is made by the pres
ident in his objection to the vague Ian
guage in which the bill is coucbed. As
he says, it is desirable above all things
to use words capable of a strict and
definite legal Construction when a
statute declares an act to be crime.
In this law it was made an offense
for a Canadian, for instance, to come
regularly or habituaIly'' into the
United States. An incident in this
crime was returning from time to
time" AS Mr.. Cleveland says. these
expressions do not Hadmit of judicial
construction, because they were not in
tended for practical application, but
merely to tickle. the public ear, and
to provoke retaliation among our
friendly neighbofs. The whole scheme
of the bill was utterly and undeniabIy
bad. 1t is the one bit of practical work
to which this congress can point at
it's present session, save the passage
Of enormous appropriation bills with
innumera bic jobs belonging to them,
and it falls beneath the righteous
sword of the veto. Mr.. Cleveland in the
last days Of his term has served his
country we'll and vindicated American
ism and sound reason against the as
saults of partisanship and insincerity