The Portland daily press., 1897-02-03
COUNTRY DEMANDS II.
Senator Lodge Jon the immigration
Bill.
BIRDS'' NOT CONFINED
TO CANADIAN BORDER.

The Nicaraguan Canal Continues to Have
Its Troubles-Proposition For Conn
mission-House and Senate Will Meet
February 10 TO Count Electoral Votes.
Washington, February Pin the Senate
today Mr.. Chandler offered resolution
declaring that 1T is the sense of the
Seuate that the United States should not
permanently acquiesce in the single gold
standard; that the efforts of the govern
ment in all it's branches should be steadi-
" dirscted to secure and maintain the
use of silver as well as gold as standard
money, with the free coinage of both,
under a system Of bl-metallisrn to be
established through International agree
ment or with such safeguards of legisla-
tion as will ensure the parity in value Of
the two metals as fixed ratio: furnish
a sufficient volumeyof metallic money
and give IN immunity to the world of
trade from violent infuctuations in ex-
change.
He asked that the resolution go over
and said that he would call it at an early
day. A resolution calling on the score
tary of state for information as to the al
legged Killing at Sagua La Grande. Cuba,
of the son of NJ. b. i4ope, an American
citizen, WAS offered by Mr. lodge and
agreed to.
Mr. Morrill,, Republican Of Vermont,
asked unanimous CONSENT to have taken
from the calendar an passed, the House
1,.r1 hi thai GU 10 of nto vii n
LIQUORS in the Capitol building. ObJec-
fion was made by Mr. Hill. who said
that he desired to examine the provisions
of the bill.
A conference report on the immigra-
tion bill was laid before the Senate. Mr..
Gibson, Democrat OF Maryland, made a
point of order against it, that the con-
ference committee had exceeded is powers
by ths injection of new matter.
MIR. Longe in charge of the conference
report asserted that there was nothing
in the conference report in the way of
subject matter, which had not been abso-
luteiy before the two houses
At 2. m. the discussion was inter-
rupted through the presentation of the
Nicaraguan Canal bill, as unfinished
business.
Mr., Nelson, Republican of Minnesota.
insisted that what people mosJ wanted
now was not legislation about Cuba or
Nicaragua Canal or the petty matter
of Immigration, but the passage Of
voluntary bankruptcy bill. He trusted
the bankruptcy law would not be allowed
to be side-tracked. sat was his point of
order.
ssThe Chair sustains the point of Or
der, - said the Vice President. Mr.. Mel
on sat down relieved.
Mr.. Lodge went on with his araument
in support of the conference bill. Refer
ing to the Corliss amendment, which ap-
plies to the general employment of aliens
in the United States, he said that
the people did not realized
how great the evil was. 1t
did not come alone from the influx of
Canadian working people every summer.
He spoke of them as 'sBirds of Passage"
"Do they not leave behind them the
work they have one heref'' Mr.. Hawley
asked.
"Those men come into this country
said Mr.. Lodge, "and go out of it, con.
tri buting nothing to its support, paying
no taxes and carrying back with them
money they earned. The work to which
the Senator refers can be as well done by
American citizens ana tax payers, IS well
as by liens. j" Compared with the :" Birds
of Passsge'' from ITALY, Poland and other
European countries the influx of people
over the Canadian border is as nothing.
The number of Italians who went back
to their own country after working here
during the spring, summer and autumn
was III ,000. Every dollar they earned
thry carried away with them.
"Under that system the contract labor
laws are made nm absolute nullity
turn in the autumn, that is the great
evil. It is the evil the contract labor
laws were intended to prevent. Nobody
would think of repeating those laws, al
though they failed to cure the evil. We
exclude nobody by this bill. We simply
say if you want to come to the United
Stntes you must learn to read, in some
language, the constitution of the country
where you expecu tn live and to sign your
name TO the oath Of allegiance you mean
to take
Mr.. Lodge said that last year over
rs, 900 persons had come to the United
States who could not read or write No
body supposed If the steamship COM
pauies were required to take suoh people
back, they would bring them here in the
first instance. So the act would be en-
forced on the other side and there would
he none Of those heart rending scenes of
separating husband and wife SO strongly
uCp1OtOOs
The total immigration last year was
343, GOO. The better portion OF it went
west, the worst portion remaining in the
great cities. The other day in New York,
when two hundred additional men were
called for to remove snow from the
streets, twu Thousand human beings
fought and struggled for work tickets.
every immigrant Mr.. Lodge coD-
tinued, "whom you bring into rhis
country adds to those struggling mobs of
men who will fight for chance to earn
a dollar and n half day.
Mr.. Lodge spoke with great indigna-
tion of the kilograms sent BY Claussepius
and Company. as agents of the North
German Lloyds in opposition to the bill.
'There,' u said he, ''is great company.
foreign corporation subsidized by a
foreign government, with its agents in
this capitol, and calling on their agents
to send threatening dispatches to mem
ners calling upon them to vote against
this bill Now they have circulated re-
port that the President means 20 veto the
bill That report comes from the same
source. This measure is part of the policy
from which more may be hoped than
from the tariff or currency measures or
bankruptcy bills. 1t involves matters
that lie at the very root of American