325.73 
 C16i 
 
 Joseph Gumey Cannon. Immigration: 
 
 Speech of Hon. J.G.Cannon ... in the 
 House of Rep's, March 24, 1916. 
 
 (
 
 ILIIMOIS HISTORICAl SURVEY
 
 SLLlHOiS HS.is"CKi^^t. 50kVEY
 
 
 IMMIGRATION. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OP 
 
 HON..JOSEPII G.CANNON, 
 
 of illinois, 
 In the House of Representatives, 
 
 Friday, March 24, 1916. 
 
 The House in Committee of tbe Whole House on the state of the Union 
 had under consideration the bill (H. R. 10384) to regulate the immi- 
 gration of aliens to, and the residence of aliens in, the United States. 
 
 Mr. CANNON. Mr. Chairinun, I have in manuscript largely 
 what I desire to say, and this is the third time in my life that I 
 have ever had a manuscript. I do not intend to read it entire. 
 I will, however, place it substantially in the Recokd if I have 
 leave to extend my remarks, which I now ask. 
 
 The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Illinois asks unani- 
 mous consent to extend his remarks in the Recoed. Is there 
 objection? 
 
 There was no objection. 
 
 Mr. CANNON. And before I either read or talk further, be- 
 fore I forget it — ai d I will refer to the gentleman later, before 
 I sit down, if I do not forget it— let me say a word to the gen- 
 tleman from ]\Iassacxiusctts [Mr. Gardner] with reference to 
 his position touching this bill. It is wonderful how some people, 
 who, upon all other subjects, from my standpoint, are, as they 
 ought to be, wise in the mnin, can stumble touching some vital 
 questions, especially touching iumiigration. The gentleman from 
 Massachusetts has been opposed to immigration as far back, I 
 know, as 1907, when the law substantially nov/ on the statute 
 books was enacted, and when llie literacy test reported from the 
 committee was in the bill, but not as finally enacted in the bill, 
 and since that time he has been consistent. 
 
 Oh, he is a good protectionist. He tears passion ir.to tatters 
 when it comes to protection, and yet he starts out with the 
 story of a man who was getting $10 a week or $12 a week Avho 
 would like to have $1G a week. " How can you expect to get 
 §16 a week when people can come over here and compete with 
 you and work for $10 a week?" And yet he is not consistent 
 when 300,000,000 people new in contest upon the other side— 
 34307—15334 
 
 UlMV€»snYOF 
 
 aUHOIS LiBRARf 
 
 la URBANA-CHAWPW^^'*
 
 substantially nil of them will be there, and their children, for 
 a loni;. lonj;' time — manxifacture and ship their products to the 
 United States and come in competition with that man he talked 
 to who was setting $12 a week, they working at half the wage 
 he is receiving. And, O, my southern friends, you are agonizing 
 about this comi'etition from immigrants who you seek to keep 
 out, and yet you stand for free trade and let in the products 
 of those 300,000,000 people abroad, and then you turn around, 
 not consistent, and make the same argument that the gentle- 
 man from -Massachusetts makes. 
 
 So nuich for that. I have lived almost 80 years. [Prolonged 
 applause.] I date back fairly well in ray recollection to 1846. 
 I was then a lad of 10 years of age, living on the AVaba.sh. 
 My parents were pioneers from North Carolina to the Wabash. 
 They were Quakers and small landholders in North Carolina — 
 ray father, a Quaker by adoption, and my mother, from George 
 Fox down, by inheritance. They left North Carolina, bearing 
 testimony against slavery, as hundreds and midtiplied thou- 
 sands, I might say, like them did — they and Moravians and 
 other small landholders. What for? To get away from servile 
 labor that was performing similar l:ibor which they performed 
 into a country where servih^ hi.l)or did not exist. [Applause.] 
 
 And yet I am not hero to dwell greatly on ancient liistory 
 except as it illustrates present conditions and is germane to this 
 bill. Now, so far what I have said is not in the manuscript. 
 We all belong to the human race. I am glad to belong to it. We 
 are divided into great racial divisions. The Caucasian race 
 takes in all those people, 300,000,000 strong, who are waging 
 that desperate war, such as the world never saw before, on the 
 other side. I am not afraid of the Caucasian race, whether it be 
 French, German, Irish, Scotch, English, or Slav; and as to the 
 Italian, I am not afraid of it, whether it is literate or illiterate, 
 so long as it substantially by labor lives in the sweat of its 
 face, supports its family, makes a small saving, and cares for 
 and educates its children; and in this country it must educate 
 its children, because in our common schools 20,000,000 of those 
 children are compelled to go to school, whether their parents 
 assent or not. and become literate, whereas their parents, many 
 of them, were illiterate. 
 
 Mi-. KONOP. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield? 
 
 Mr. CANNON. Yes. 
 
 Mr. KONOP. Is it not a fact that the children of the immi- 
 grants educate their children far better than the native Ameri- 
 cans do? 
 
 Mr. CANNON. Oh, I do not think that is a fact, stated so 
 broadly. Yet it is true, from my own observation in Indiana and 
 34307—15334
 
 8 
 
 in Illinois and from what I read generally, tlmt the childreu of the 
 immigrants, the second generation of them — the first generation 
 came to this country — it is true that they are quite equal in the com- 
 mon Rcliools and the high schools with " o\ir people," as wo call 
 tlieni, whose parents came hero three or four or five generations 
 ago; quite as competent, and quite as wise, and quite as anxious 
 for education, and quite the equal of the ancient " first families " 
 that came to this country, some of them 300 years ago. hut 
 not a great many, and many of them 100 years ago, and many 
 50 years ago. 
 
 Now, the human family is a peculiar one. Man naturally is a 
 religious animal. I believe the gentleman from Massachusetts 
 is a direct descendant of some one of the people who came over 
 in the Mayflower. A gi'eat people they were. Why? Because 
 there was no place on the Continent of Europe or in Great Britain 
 where a man could have freedom of religion and conscience 
 without persecution. [Applause.] Well, they came over and 
 had a pretty hard time. They were the "common people, the 
 Puritans ; but no sooner did they get over here than they wanted 
 to have a close corporation [laughter], and they did not want 
 anybody but Puritans ; others were not encouraged. 
 
 PIRSr GUARANTY OF HELIGIODS FREEDOM. 
 
 It ran along that way for several generations ; but early there 
 began to be protests against immigration that was not Puritan. 
 There was old Roger Williams, that old Baptist, you know, who 
 did not agree with the Puritans. In civil affaii's he wanted 
 everybody to obey the law, but in religious affairs he wanted 
 every individual in Massachusetts Bay and everywhere to have 
 freedom touching his religious views, without persecution. 
 Well, they banished old Roger. He went down to Providence 
 and Rhode Island Plantations. I said that on my mother's 
 side from George Fox they were Quakers. AVell, there was one 
 branch of them, the Folgers, the Coffins, the Macys, and others, 
 who were residents in Massachusetts. They went to Nan- 
 tucket, because they had to choose between going there and 
 being hanged if they stayed in Slassachusetts. [Laughter.] 
 So there you are. 
 
 Roger Williams, the Baptist, went down to Providence and 
 Rhode Island Plantations, and he secured a charter from King 
 Charles the Second, wlio, if I recollect aright in my reading of 
 history, succeeded the Protectorate. That charter guaranteed to 
 him and all people in that colony under that grant religious lib- 
 erty. The historian says — I have not verified it, but I have no 
 doubt it is true — that in all the history of the world from the be- 
 ginning of time there never before had been written into law any 
 enactment which guaranteed religious freedom. 
 34307—15334
 
 A little before that a liberal charter was granted to Calvert, 
 Lord Baltimore, the Catholic. Under the leadership of Calvert 
 they organized a government in Maryland, and the Toleration 
 Act was passed, which gave religious freedom, and the historian 
 records the fact that the few Puritans who were in Virginia, 
 wliere the Church of England was the leading church, the State 
 church, went to Maryland because of i>ersecution in Virginia. 
 Oh, there is much of insl ruction if you will run back a little 
 bit in the history of the settlement of this country. Our fore- 
 bears, worthy as they were, made their mistakes. The his- 
 torian tells us that INIaryland was called the Sanctuary. Well, 
 in the fullness of time, tliere being much disagreement about 
 immigration and much of persecution in most of the colonies — in 
 the fullness of time came the Ilevolution ; and then it was that 
 the Irishman, the Scotclnnan, the German, the Hollander, and 
 the descendants of the Pilgrims came together as one man, 
 with La Fayette, Von Steuben, Kosciusko, and Pulaski aiding 
 Washington and hi:j generals in military strategy, and shoulder 
 to shoulder they won out and obtained their liberty. [Applause.] 
 
 And, lo and behold, after the Confederation, when they came 
 to frame the Constitution in 17S9, in a convention presi<Ied 
 over by Washington, they wrote into that Constitution, where 
 it stands to-day and has stood from that time to this, the 
 guaranty of religious liberty and a divorce between church and 
 state, and so it has remained until this day. [Applause.] 
 
 A step further. Immigration was invited. It came. A groat 
 many immigrants came from abroad. There were complaints 
 once in a while. About 181G there were people agreeing with 
 my friend the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Gaeunku], 
 and agreeing with many gentlemen from the South and the 
 West. I am not abusing them, but it was thought that there 
 were almost too many coming, and that they were poor — many 
 paupers, and so forth — the same complaint that you have 
 now, although it is only a complaint now, because but few 
 paupers or undesirable people are coming now from abroad, 
 since 1907, when the present law was enacted. There was a 
 good deal of flurry just 100 years ago. But about the same time 
 when western New York was a rich and unpopulated land, and 
 Oliio invited immigrants, whole villages, townships, and cities 
 were substantially depopulated by that stream of emigration 
 of our kind of people who went West. Common labor could 
 not be had. Skilled labor was not very plentiful, and then 
 again immigration was courted and invited, and it came in 
 
 reat streams. Why was that? It was because there was 
 nobody to do the conunon labor tliat was absolutely necessary 
 
 to be done. 
 
 34307—15334 
 
 o
 
 THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 
 
 It went on until about 1836 or 1837, and they kept coining 
 and coining, sent over by Governments and by organizations. 
 Agents were sent over, because we needed tlie labor. That waa 
 some time prior to 183G. They came and helped build the rail- 
 roads and dig the canals and do the common labor. But here 
 In 1836 or 1837 the native-American movement was organized, 
 and a demand was made which was promoted throughout the 
 length and breadth of the country against that immigration. 
 The organization demanded that the naturalization laws be i*e- 
 pealed and that the ports of the country be closed against all 
 immigration. My friend the gentleman from Massachusetts 
 [Mr. Gaeuneb] wants to close the ports for 10 years, but then 
 it was demanded that they be closed entirely. 
 
 Those agitators of 1837 had more excuse for their opposition 
 than have those of to-day. There had been years of assisted 
 immigration. 
 
 In England the parish officers sold houses belonging to the 
 parishes to secure the funds to aid emigration to America. In 
 1828 the health officer of Baltimore, in his annual report, de- 
 clared that many people had come from foreign ports who were 
 absolutely destitute. A year later he mentioned " some lame, 
 blind, and others in a state of idiocy," and told of the arrival 
 of immigrants whose passage had been paid by the parishes 
 in England. Again, in 1830, he described the condition as de- 
 plorable, with " the halt, the lame, and the blind " among the 
 immigrants. The American consul at Jamaica was visited in 
 1831 by the captains of American ships who complained of a 
 law which compelled them to carry away one pauper for each 
 hundred tons of cargo or pay a fine of £100 currency. 
 
 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 So the native Americans again sought to check immigration 
 and naturalization, but the internal improvements which we 
 had inaugurated called for labor beyond the home supply ; we 
 had begun to build canals and railroads. The contractors on 
 the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the Chesapeake & Ohio 
 Canal could not secure in this country the unskilled labor 
 necessary to carry on those great works; so they turned to 
 Europe. They sent agents to Great Britain and Ireland and 
 imported Avorkraen. They contracted to pay those men ?12 a 
 month and board, and the men contracted to work out their 
 passage. 
 
 The historian of the times admits that the open door was 
 
 abused ; that England, Ireland, Scotland, and other countries 
 
 emptied their poorhouses and jails and shipped their paupers 
 
 and convicts to America. New York put up the bars against 
 
 34307—15334
 
 a 
 
 convicts and was tirsed to deny admission to paupers. In that 
 day Congress and tlie country loolced to the States, and insisted 
 tliat New Yorlj, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Maryland 
 close their ports to convicts and paupers to protect tlie country. 
 The agitation begun in 1837 against inuuigration ran along 
 until the forties, when great floods destroyed the crops in Ger- 
 many, when multiplied thousands were stricken with poverty, 
 were without subsistence, and there was a terrible condition, 
 and again emigration was promoted by Germany. Just a little 
 later came the potato rot in Ireland, where a whole people were 
 starving. Then, a little later — and I will bunch the three to- 
 gether — came the revolution of 1S4S, when, as I understand it, 
 Mr. UouENi-.EUG, that revolution having failed, your father came 
 with Schurt/. and Sigel and many others to this country, 300,000 
 strong. [Applause.] Well, they were welcome. We were very 
 .sorry for the Irish and the Germans — especially for the Iri.sh — 
 because they were in abject want. You know charity made 
 great contributions, and the United States furnished the ships 
 to carry the cargoes of food across the oceans to them. Con- 
 gress was appealed to, but Congress did not respond, and the 
 reason it did not respond, assigned then, and honestly assigned, 
 was a condition somewhat similar to that which we have now. 
 The Treasury was enjpty and they did not have the where- 
 withal to appropriate the half million dollars that had been 
 asked for. [Laughter.] 
 
 Those who came here found work, wages, and food, and 
 prospered. They wrote back to friends of the opulence of 
 America, where the people had three and four meals a day, 
 with meat for everybody ; they said that bullocks' and sheep's 
 heads were thrown away and there were no empty bellies in 
 this land of plenty. So the stream of aliens continued to come 
 year after year from Ireland and Germany. The Irish gener- 
 ally settled in the cities of the East, while many of the Ger- 
 mans came in colonies and pushed on to the West. Chicago 
 has one-third of its population made up of aliens. New York, 
 Boston, Philadelphia, and other cities in the East and St. Louis 
 in the West had larger foreign population in percentage than 
 they have to-day. These new immigrants lived in colonies, 
 spoke their own languages, had their own social customs and 
 amusements, read their own newspapers and books, and had 
 their own military companies, uniformed as in the land of their 
 birth, so that it was said that an assembly of these military 
 companies on training days resembled a mimic review of the 
 armies of the world. 
 
 It ran along, and now we come to a time that I recollect. 
 Mr. Chairman, liow much time have I consumed? 
 34307—15334
 
 The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman has consumed 22| minutes. 
 
 Mr. CANNON. I am like the gentleman from California, I 
 have hardly begun ; but I must hasten along, because there 
 are some interesting things that I want to say. I have the 
 permission of the House to print, so I will jump along. 
 
 THE KXOW-XOTHING MOVEMEXT. 
 
 The native American opposition broke out anew and became 
 a powerful political organization threatening the supremacy of 
 the old parties. Its popular name, the Know-Nothing Party, 
 was due to its secrecy and the professed ignorance of its plans 
 by those identified with it, for no member would admit that he 
 knew anything about it. It worked in secret, all movements 
 directed from a central agency. It proscribed not only aliens 
 but all native Americans who refused to cooperate with it. 
 
 I recollect it. I Avas a tolerably husky lad at that time, 20 
 years old, and since then I have frequently thanked God that 
 I was not old enough to join it. Probably if I had been old 
 enough I would have joined it, because it abounded greatly on 
 the Wabash. [Laughter.] Its blows were delivered in the 
 dark. It proposed that none but native born should be eligible 
 for public office. Its hostility to the alien ramified, until it 
 proscribed religious as Avell as political organizations, developed 
 antipathies toward churches as well as toward foreign born, 
 encouraged riot and religious persecution, which resulted in the 
 burning of churches and convents, and it created divisions in 
 other churches until it almost appeared that the Christian 
 religion had become a Babel of warring sects instead of a great, 
 harmonious army following the ^Master. What wotild have been 
 the outcome of the antagonisms encouraged by this new develop- 
 ment of native Americanism, much of it less than two genera- 
 tions here, no one knows had it not been absorbed or side- 
 tracked by the great antislavery movement which led to the 
 Civil War. 
 
 UNION OF ALIENS FOB NATIONAL DEFENSE. 
 
 That great American tragedy developed the fact that there 
 was no alien sentiment in our population. The Irish, the Ger- 
 man, the Italian, the Scandinavian, and tlie Greek societies in 
 .the North became military units in the Union Army, and they 
 contributed no small part in the preservation of the Union. 
 The men who followed Sheridan and those wlio fought with 
 Siegel made history in that war, and it is said that Jefferson 
 Davis attributed to the aliens of the North the defeat of the 
 Confederate armies and the preservation of the Union. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 We have had no such violent outbreaks against the alien 
 immigrant since the Civil War as those that rerurrod froin time 
 34307—1.5334
 
 8 
 
 to time in the generation preceding that war. We have con- 
 tinued to find work for all our own people and for millions 
 from abroad. "We have increased our population from 31,000,000 
 in ISGO to 300,000,000 in 1910. and our national wealth from 
 $16,000,000,000 to $187,000,000,000. We have created new em- 
 pires in the West, made conquest of mountain and desert, and 
 ha\e developed a homogeneous union out of the most discordant 
 contributions of. the world to testify to the vitality of the prin- 
 ciples on which this Government was founded. 
 
 ALIEN CONTRIBUTIONS TO PROSPERITY. 
 
 The alien immigrant has contributed to this resiUt, and I 
 liave been unalile to see any more danger from the alien of 
 recent years than from those who came in the early days of the 
 Republic. The Italian, the Hungarian, the Pole, the Lithu- 
 anian, and the Itussian Jew are just as anxious to work as 
 were the Irish and the German 100 years ago, and they are 
 developing into Americans more rapidly, because we have 
 found belter means to educate the immigrant and make him 
 understand what this Government means. Should this Natio!\ 
 be forced to defend itself against any other power on earth I 
 have not the slightest doubt that the alien part of our popula- 
 tion would, without exception, bear its share in the defense of 
 the Government as it did from 18G1 to 1805. A literacy test 
 in the past would have shut out millions of people who helpetl 
 to develop tills continent and build this Nation, and I believe 
 the future may be .iudged by the past. [Applause.] 
 
 Who are the aliens in America? They are so large a part of 
 the Nation that we would not be a Nation of 100.000,000 with- 
 out them. A recent census report estimated that in 1900 the 
 population resulting from immigration since 1790 amounted 
 to more than one-third of the whole, or from 25,000,000 to 
 30,000,000 out of 76.000,000 as the total population, and that 
 they had produced $40,000,000,000 of the total wealth, which 
 then was less than $100,000,000,000. 
 
 IMMIGRATION GOVERNED BY DEMAND FOR LABOR. 
 
 The tide of immigration has risen and receded in respon.se to 
 the demands for labor in this country, particularly for unskilled 
 labor. The Commissioner of Immigration cx[U'e.sses the opinion 
 in his report that a great part of those who give their occupa- 
 tions as farmers and mechanics come to accept un.skilled labor, 
 not from choice, but because there is a constant demand for 
 unskilled labor in this country that can not be supplied at home. 
 It is work, not the wage, that now, as in the past, throws a 
 great part of this unskilled labor to the immigrant. He begins 
 at the bottom, where he does not compete with native labor, 
 and he does not come into competition with our own labor until 
 3-1307—15334
 
 lie has risen in the scale by industry and intelligence to produce 
 sljilled Ifibor. 
 
 Whenever this tide of immigration has risen to numbers that 
 have alarmed native labor, or there has been a depression in 
 business, the tide has receded. In 1S72 we had a very large 
 immigration, but in 1874, after the panic, immigration dropped 
 to less than one-half of what it had been. In 1892 there were 
 623,000 immigrants, and in 1895 only 280,000. Mr. Gompers, in 
 his report to the American Federation of Labor in 1894, said 
 that there were 3.0(X),000 unemployed in this country. 
 
 In 1905, 1906, and 1907 there were more than 1,000,000 immi- 
 grants each year, but in 1908, after the business depression, the 
 number of immigrants fell to 782,000. 
 
 Mr. Morrison, secretary of the American Federation of Labor, 
 is reported in the hearings of this committee as estimating that 
 there were between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000 unemployed last 
 year. The net immigration of 1915 Avas 43,000. In the last 
 six months of 1915 the net gain by immigration was 2,392, and 
 in December there were 570 more departures than arrivals. 
 Tlie Commissioner of Immigration says : " These figures show 
 quite clearly that the decline in immigration had begun prior 
 to the outbrealv of the European war and was probably a re- 
 flection of industrial conditions in the United States." 
 
 WHENCE COMES DEMAND FOR nESTRICTION. 
 
 Tills demand for the restriction of immigration comes largely 
 from sections of the country which receive little immigration ; 
 the Southern States receive only 2 per cent. 
 
 Mr. HARDY. If the gentleman will allow me, is Texas in- 
 cluded in the Southern States that he mentions? 
 
 Mr. CANNON. Yes. 
 
 air. COOPER of West Virginia. Is West Virginia included 
 in the .statistics? 
 
 Mr. CANNON. I think not; still I will not answer certainly. 
 These statistics were gathered for me. I have respect for tlie 
 leaders of the great labor organizations, l)Ut I sometimes tliink 
 they become unduly alarmed over this question and fail to 
 understand the real .sentiments of the people whom they repre- 
 sent. We have here petitions from the United Jliners' Union, 
 and yet tlie majority of tlie miners are immigrants who are 
 aiding to bring their friends here and secure work for them. 
 It is the same in many other branches of labor, and I have lieen 
 nnablo to find the same hostility to the immigrant in tlie ranks 
 of labor that is repre.sented by the leaders of the lalior or- 
 ganizations. There has always been a kindred feeling in tlie 
 ranks of labor, which extends the hand of fellow.ship to new- 
 comers. 
 
 34307—15334 ^
 
 10 
 
 PRESENT INCREASE IN rOPULATION. 
 
 What reason is there for greater restriction now when we 
 have practically no immigration? The increase in population of 
 the United States in the census decade was the lowest recorded 
 since the Government was organized. From 1790 to 1800 the 
 increase was 35.1 per cent ; in the next decade, 36.4 per cent ; 
 the next three decades, 33 per cent ; from 1840 to 18G0, 35.5 
 per cent ; from ISGO to 1870, 22.6 per cent ; from 1870 to 1880, 
 30 per cent ; from 1880 to 1S90, 25.5 per cent ; from 1890 to 1900, 
 21.2 per cent ; and from 1900 to 1910, 21 per cent. The down- 
 ward tendency will probably be greater in tlie present census 
 decade than in the last decade. 
 
 President Lincoln, in his message of 1862, estimated that the 
 population of the United States in 1910 would be 138,918,526, 
 or 40,000,000 greater than it was recorded by the last census. 
 He saw in an increase of population a boon for the country, but 
 some of our people to-day are less optimistic and see only danger 
 in tlie growth of population. I can not agi'ee with them, for 
 the development of the great resources of this country depend 
 upon its population. 
 
 The forests, the iron ore, the coal, and the prairies have 
 been here for imtold ages, but America only became the richest 
 Nation on earth when thei'e were people here to develop and 
 utilize these natural riches ; and, let me tell you, brawn has 
 played quite as great a part in this development as brain. 
 While I want to see all our people educated, I haA-e often found 
 as much brain action in those who could neither read nor write 
 as in the products of some of our colleges. The State prisons 
 of New York have as many college and academy graduates as 
 they have of the illiterate [laughter], and the head teacher at 
 Sing Sing reports that many of those who possess ability to 
 read are unable to understand the meaning of wliat they read. 
 I prefer understanding to such a literacy test. [Applause.] 
 
 We have corrected the mistakes of the past, and no longer 
 may the mentally, morally, or physically deficient enter our 
 ports; nor may they come under contract, nor in the old, 
 crowded condition of immigrant sliips. We liave now well- 
 considered laws to guai'd this country from the immigrant when 
 he becomes a charge on our own people ; we admit only those 
 who may contribute by labor to the upbuilding of the country, 
 its industries, and its wealth. The literacy test has not in the 
 past, as applied to our own people, produced better and more 
 efficient workers, especially in the shops and mines and on the 
 farms. I do not believe it will improve the quality of our im- 
 migration. 
 
 34307—15334
 
 11 
 
 Some gentlemen here fear that the close of the European wars 
 will increase the tide of immigration, but I do not so believe. 
 Europe will have need for all her able-bodied men to make up 
 for the ravages of war. Our laws now prevent the coming of 
 those who would become a charge upon this coimtry. 
 
 WHO AEE TUB NATIVE A&IEUICAXS? 
 
 But who are the native Americans? I have for years tried 
 to find the native element in our population. I recently turned 
 to a report of the Census OfRce, under the title of "A Century of 
 Population Growth," in which is given a list of the family 
 names which appeared in the First Census in 1790. This does 
 not give all of the names of the more than thirty himdred 
 thousand people living then in the United States, but it does 
 pretend to give all the family names that represented 100 or 
 more people, on the assumption that the " heads of families iu 
 1790 were the founders of the Republic," and that these names, 
 numbering 27,337, would be " the basis for our American gene- 
 alogy." There were then thirty -one hundred and seventy-two 
 thousand four hundred and forty-four white people in the 
 United States, and less than 30,000 family names. These were 
 the native whites in this country when the Constitution was 
 adopted and Washington became the first President. 
 
 How many of us can trace our lineage back to those first 
 American families, and how many of us are compelled to trace 
 our lineage back to the alien immigrant? I tried to trace the 
 membership of this House back to that American "Almanac dc 
 Gotha," and I could not locate one-third of you. [Laughter and 
 applause.] There are 135 IMembers of this House whose family 
 names can not be found in the First Census of the United 
 States. These 135 Representatives represent the alien immi- 
 gi'ants to this country, but who will deny that they have Ameri- 
 can names? I found the name of the gentleman from Massa- 
 chusetts [Mr. Gardner], who is one of the later pioneers of this 
 movement, written in 15 different ways, and that may justify 
 his position. [Laughter and applause.] I found the name of 
 the chairman of the Committee on Immigration and the autlior 
 of this bill, but few of the other members of the committee can 
 trace their lineage back to the first families. I was able to 
 find my own name there spelled in six different ways, from 
 Cannon to Canine, but I have other historical records that 
 some of my ancestors were driven out of New England long 
 before this First Census on pain of having their ears cut olf 
 if they remained; so I have no particular pride in finding my 
 name among the fir.st families of the Republic. I am willing 
 to be put down with the aliens of this Hou.se. [Laughtoi-.] 
 34307—15334
 
 12 
 
 The Senate is not better represented in that old list than the 
 House. Wliilo my friend [Mr. Garuner of Massachusetts] is, 
 as I said, represented by 35 different spellings, I have been un- 
 able to find the name of his distinguished father-in-law, the 
 senior Senator from Massachusetts, who is one of the most bril- 
 liant and cultured men in public life. That ought to be a con- 
 solation to some of you. If Senator Ix)dge is an alien, who 
 among us may not be proud of the title? [Applause.] 
 
 The Congress of the United States is not the only place where 
 scions of the first families do not monopolize the membership. 
 There were no McKennas, no McReynolds, no Pitneys, no Van 
 Deventers, and no Brandeis for the membership of the Supreme 
 Court ; no McAdoos, no Burlesons, and no Houstons to sit 
 around the Cabinet table. Business, commerce, manufacture, 
 science, literature, art, and labor, as now represented in our 
 great American family, would have lost in nomenclature if not 
 in development had the first Congress of the United States en- 
 actetl such legislation as this and closed the ports to the alien 
 immigrant. 1 can find in that list of first families in 1790 no 
 Agasiz, Edi.son, or Westinghouse ; no Carnegie, llarriman, Hav- 
 emeyer, or Mackey ; no Astor, Belmont, Lorillard, or Leiter ; 
 no Funston or Pershing ; no Watterson or Pulitzer ; no St. 
 Gaudens or La Farge ; no Gompers or Morrison ; no Billy Sun- 
 day or Mary Pickford. 
 
 Mr. SIEGEL. And thei-e was no Hughes. 
 
 Mr. CANNON. I did not look far enough to find out. 
 
 The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman from Illinois 
 has expired. 
 
 Mr. SIEGEL. I yield to the gentleman from Illinois 15 
 minutes more. 
 
 Mr. CANNON. These are a few of the names which would 
 never have appeared in American history had Congress in 1790 
 seen fit to legislate against the alien inunigrant. But there is 
 one other name absent from this old list of first families with 
 which we have all become familiar in recent years, for it has 
 appeared in the public prints more, perhaps, than any other 
 associated with stirring events in both military and civil life; 
 at the head of a regiment of rough riders, as governor of New 
 York, as Vice President and President of the United States; 
 as lion hunter, explorer, naturalist, discoverer of the Kiver of 
 Doubt, as idol of many people who call themselves the true 
 Americans of this composite people ; the name of Roosevelt 
 does not appear in any form, synonym, or root in the list of first 
 families. [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 Who, then, are the native Americans who have for 100 years 
 poriodicn'ily grown hysterical about putting up the bai'S to 
 34307- -1. -.331
 
 13 
 
 protect tliemselves against alien blood, and then opening wide 
 the gates to welcome iuiniigrution to an enlarged field of labor 
 in this melting pot of the world, which has for 300 years been 
 pouring from its crucible a new composite American to stand as 
 a type both like and unlike those of the older civilizations from 
 which the virile blood of America has been drawn? [Applause.] 
 
 SERVILE LABOR. 
 
 Before I sit down T want to ask why is it — and I call the 
 attention of the gentlemen from the South to that — why is it 
 that the gentleman from Alabama reports this bill? Why is it 
 when only 2 per cent of the immigration that comes from abroad 
 goes south of Mason and Dixon's line? I think I can exi:)lain it 
 without abusing anybody. I do not abuse anybody. I was born 
 in North Carolina, and I have a warm feeling for that State 
 and for its climate, and my mother's eyes would fill with tears 
 \\Iienever she talked about it. You had servile labor and you 
 had a white aristocracy. Labor was not considered honorable 
 by the men south of Mason and Dixon's line. There would have 
 been no struggle if it had not been for the fact that on the 
 southern bank of the Ohio labor was servile and not considered 
 honorable, while on the north side the labor was performed by 
 American citizens. 
 
 Mr. QUIN. Will the gentleman yield? 
 
 Mr. CANNON. I will yield to the gentleman, if he will be 
 quick. 
 
 Mr. QUIN. I think the gentleman is mistaken about servile 
 labor in the South ; a man who worked was considered just a.s 
 good as anybody else. 
 
 Mr. CANNON. And yet you take the mountainous spots, and 
 ir was a common saying that the negro slave was cared for in 
 his old age, and although he did not vote he looked down upon 
 the poor white with disdain. Take Dixon's book. Leopard's 
 Spots. It is an overdrawn picture of the conditions before the 
 Civil War. I was acquainted somewhat with the immigrants 
 that came from the Southland to Illinois and Indiana. It was 
 not very lovely for the white man down there that did not 
 own slaves. But that is all behind us. It is wonderful how 
 well you have done, but think of it. The hum of the spindles 
 is being heard, the mines are being opened, your lumber is 
 being marketed, and with it all there has been prosperity. 
 
 Good heavens ! If you could get 20 per cent or could have 
 received 20 per cent of the immigration that the Northland has 
 been getting since the close of the Civil War, if it could have 
 gone down there, you would have been 50 years ahead in your 
 material development, and I believe 50 years ahead in every 
 34.307—15334
 
 14 
 
 kind of development of where you are now. [Applause.] It 
 will come in time, and Godspeed the time! 
 
 QUALIFICATIONS FOR VOTING. 
 
 But, Jlr. Chairman, I have some very interesting ficrnres 
 here which I desire to call to the attention of the committee. 
 I get these figures from the World Almanac — and you can not 
 dispute what the World Almanac says, you are estopped. 
 [Laughter.] I presume it is correct. I gathere<l these statis- 
 tics from that puhlication last night. In the State of Alahama 
 an alien who has declared his intention, or taken out his first 
 papers, as it is called, and who has lived in the State for two 
 years, is made a voter. 
 
 Mr. BURNETT. Mr. Chairman, the gentleman is mistaken, 
 and if the World Almanac says that it is mistaken. He has to 
 be a naturalized citizen in order to vote. 
 
 Mr. CANNON. How long has that been the case? 
 
 Mr. BURNETT. Ever since the new constitution of 1901, 
 and possibly further back. 
 
 Mr. CANNON. Thank God, there is progress there. [Laugh- 
 ter.] I am merely taking these from the World Almanac, and 
 I am glad that the gentleman has interrupted me. 
 
 Mr. BURNETT. Oh, I knew that the gentleman did not in- 
 tend to misrepresent anyone, and I desire to call his attention 
 to the fact that Indiana is one of the States that he has in mind. 
 
 Mr. CANNON. Oh, yes; I am coming to that in a moment. 
 Take Arkansas : First papers and one year's residence is all 
 that is necessary to entitle a man to vote. Is that correct? 
 Now we come to Indiana — Indiana, a State in which I grew up, 
 of which I am proud, and I live within 6 miles of the western 
 border now ; Indiana, with her great Democratic representation 
 in this House, solid two years ago; Indiana, composed of our 
 kind of people and so represented — and what do we find the case 
 to be there? An alien on declaring his intention to bect)me a 
 naturalized citizen, if he lives in the State for six months, is 
 entitled to vote. Oh, judging from the votes of some of our 
 Indiana friends. Great heavens ! [Laughter.] Why do you not 
 take the beam out of your own eye and do what you can to cure 
 alleged abuses, rather than to come in here and vote for and 
 advocate this literacy test? Now comes Kansas : A declaration of 
 intention and a residence of six months let these illiterate people 
 vote there. Missouri — show me ! A declaration of intention 
 and a residence of one year permits this illiterate alien to vote 
 there. 
 
 The World Almanac has this note at the head of this table 
 of statistics: 
 
 .34307—15334
 
 15 
 
 CommunloatPd to tho World Almanac and corrected to date l)y th9 
 attorneys general of the respective States. 
 
 Ami now conies Nebraska: Halt! First papers and six 
 months' residence entitles a man to vote. Is tliat rifilit? Tiiink 
 of it! The liome of William Jennings Bryan! [Laii.;;hter.] 
 Texas: A great State. Some one said that it is largei tlian 
 Germany. One year's residence and first paper, so the World 
 Almanac says, entitles the illiterate alien to vote. 
 
 ALIEN LABOR FOB SOUTH AND X?:W ENGLAXD. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, before I forget it I desire to call attention to 
 
 a particularly vital matter in this bill, and I desire to read it 
 
 now. I will ask Jlembcrs to turn to page 3. Speaking of the 
 
 poll tax, it is providetl : 
 
 That the said tax shall not lie levied on account of aliens who enter 
 the United States from the Dominion of Canada, Newfoundland, the 
 Republic of Cuba, or the Republic of Mexico for a temporary stay — 
 
 Does that let in the factory labor for a temporary stay in 
 the State of Massachusetts, I will ask the distinguished gentle- 
 man from that State [Mr. Gakdner]? I want to ask the gen- 
 tlemen from Texas, does that let in Mexican laborers from the 
 Kepublie of ^Mexico when you desire laborers to pick your cotton 
 and harvest your crops? I am reliably informed Mexicans cross 
 the border there periodically for agricultural labor. I guess it 
 does ; I guess it does. 
 
 Mr. SI.AYDEX. Mr. Chairman, if the gentleman desires me 
 to answer that question I will do so, but I do not want to take 
 up the gentleman's time. 
 
 Mr. CANNON. Very well. I will be very glad if it can be 
 answered, because the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Bvrnett], 
 in his remarks upon the adoption of this rule, said that the 
 present IMexicun war, in his opinion — I think I quote him cor- 
 rectly ; or threat of war, at least — the condition down there on 
 the border, which caused the death of citizens in Texas and of 
 our soldiers, was due to the fact that there was no literacy 
 test. 
 
 Mr. GALIJVAN. That is what he said. 
 
 Mr. CANNON. ]\Ir. Chairman, I want to tell a little story if 
 I can in my time. I knew Judge Holman of Indiana very well. 
 I served with him for many years. He was one of the most 
 distinguished men who ever served in Congress from that State ; 
 a perfect gentleman, an able legislator, but he had the reputa- 
 tion of being the " watchdog " of the Trea.sury. Years before 
 he died once in a while I woidd meet him, and we would take 
 a drink together. Now, I can take a drink, and it will not 
 affect me much, but if he ever took one or two he became ex- 
 
 34307—15334
 
 16 
 
 ceedingly bright, and he would reminisce. [Laughter.] One 
 day he met an old friend of his from Vermont who had served 
 with him in former years, who was second auditor under Grant ; 
 I forget his name. He shook hands with us, but he did not 
 drink; he would not drink at all. Holman said to this gentle- 
 man, " Oh, I recollect our service with very great pleasure. We 
 were both called watchdogs of the Treasury. So we were, 
 so Ave were, but we always had sense enough not to growl when 
 our friends were around." [Prolonged laughter.] 
 
 The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman from Illinois 
 has expired. 
 
 Mr. CANNON. Oh, just one minute more. 
 
 Mr. SIEGEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield two minutes more to the 
 gentleman. 
 
 Mr. CANNON. I have enough here to talk three hours, but I 
 want to apply that story. There is to be no head tax of $8 for 
 people Avho come in from Canada or Mexico and these other 
 places — temporarily ! [Laughter.] 
 
 Mr. Chairman, I am proud of this country ; I am glad to have 
 been born in this, or perhaps I had better say in the last, gener- 
 ation. I would like to live to see the swing of the twentieth 
 century and what it will bring. Nature is kindly ; I can quit 
 whenever the man with the scythe comes, but I desire to say 
 tliat I have this faith, that we will grow stronger and stronger, 
 and that we will continue to become so and to live under the 
 Constitution of the United States which guarantees property, 
 liberty, freedoiu in religious opinion, with legislation that shall 
 cover the rich and poor, the great and small, the high and low, 
 everyone within our borders, native born or naturalized, like 
 the grace of God, and that imder it we will make our laws 
 strong enough to restrain the strongest and to protect the 
 weakest, and that for more centuries than I can say the great 
 Republic will grow and grow and continue to retain as it ought 
 to our privileges and our civilization. [Prolonged applause.] 
 34307— 1.'5334 
 
 WA.SUINOTO.N : nOVBUNMBNT I'UINTI.NC OKFICK : 191«
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 3 0112 031888719