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 IMMIGRATION BILL-EXCLUSION OF JAPANESE LABOR 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. ANTHONY MICHALEK 
 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
 
 Monday, February 18, 1907 
 
 if if 
 
 "WASHINGTON 
 
 1907 
 
 '283
 
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 SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. ANTHONY MIOHALEK 
 
 The House having under consideration the conference report on the 
 hill (S. 4403) to amend an act entitled "An act to regulate the immi- 
 gration of aliens into the United States,"^ approved March 3, 1903 — 
 
 Mr. MICHALEK said: 
 
 Mr. Speaker : While there are some provisions in this bill 
 which are of doubtful value and the necessity of which 1 can 
 not at this time see, yet I believe that the measure in other re- 
 spects is an improvement upon our present immigration laws, 
 and I shall therefore vote for the adoption of this conference 
 report. 
 
 I do not favor the head-tax compromise; and if it were not 
 for the fact that the parliamentary situation is such as to pro- 
 hibit the offering of any amendments, I should move to reduce 
 this tax from four to two dollars, which is the amount of the 
 head tax under our present immigration act. Also to strike 
 out the section the enforcement of which is left to the scien- 
 tific (?) "guess" of the examining surgeon, as to whether per- 
 sons of poor physique can or can not earn a living. This pro- 
 vision and its practical effect and operation will unjustly affect 
 a certain virile, though not physically robust, race. 
 
 I am glad to note the absence of the educational-test amend- 
 ment from this bill, the incorporation of which, in my judgment, 
 would unreasonably restrict desirable immigration and not have 
 any material effect in barring undesirables. 
 
 The provision for the creation of a commission to investigate 
 this subject and report its findings- to Congress is a step in the 
 right direction and ought to result in a harmonious solution of 
 this question. 
 
 7283 8 
 
 ^-^^ - 
 
 ±mm
 
 While many of us in and out of Congress tionestly dififer in 
 our opinions on various phases of this immigration question, it 
 will perhaps not be amiss for me to remind you and the coun- 
 try in general in this connection that nothing is gained, and a 
 great deal of friction caused, putting it briefly and bluntly, by 
 the indiscriminate and lamentably ignorant classification of 
 certain nationalities of eastern and southern Europe as " Da- 
 goes " by certain writers and professional reformers in the 
 guise of slum workers. 
 
 These people seem to have and preserve a stubborn mental 
 antipathy toward a white person not born in this country, and 
 what is more to be regretted, are prone to make him feel like 
 an alien at every opportunity that presents itself, although in 
 thought and feeling he may be a better American than the one 
 who traces his ancestry to the landing of the Pilgrims. 
 
 Let us not draw our conclusions of the foreign element in 
 our midst by impressions of them created when they first land 
 or are here a short time. Let us readjust those first impres- 
 sions and conclusions to their relation to us as a nation that 
 the powerful influence of Americanization inevitably brings. 
 
 This so-called white immigration problem is, in my humble 
 opinion, a question largely of proper distribution. I am glad to 
 see that there is in this bill a provision authorizing the estab- 
 lishment of a bureau of information for the special purpose of 
 dealing with this most important phase of this question. I 
 sincerely hope that it will accomplish its purpose. 
 
 Now, Mr. Speaker, this report would not have been agreed 
 upon by the conference committees had it not been for the inter- 
 jection of the Japanese question. With regard to the Roose- 
 velt amendment and the reasons that caused its insertion, I 
 regret to note that the big stick has dwindled, sir, to the mag- 
 nificent dimensions of a toothpick. [Laughter.] 
 
 Now, I ask you, Mr. Speaker, and you gentlemen of this 
 House, by what law of human reasoning based upon the logic 
 of the situation can we, the greatest nation of the West, kowtow 
 to the little pampered bully of the East [applause on the Demo- 
 cratic side], whose self-asserted greatness lies solely in his 
 
 7283
 
 highly developed sense of imitation and in his recent success 
 in the art of glorified murder, which is the plain term for war? 
 
 The SPEAKER. The time of the gentleman has expired. 
 
 Mr. MICHALEK. Just one moment more. And in common 
 justice to lalx)r 
 
 The SPEAKER. The gentleman's time has expired. Does 
 the gentleman from New York yield? 
 
 Mr. BEXXET of New York. I should like to, but can not, as 
 I have promised all the time I have. 
 
 Mr. JAMES. I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman 
 may have further time. 
 
 The SPEAKER. Is there objection? [After a pause.] The 
 Chair hears none. 
 
 Mr. MICHALEK. Mr. Speaker, at the last session of this 
 Congress I have sat and listened to and read several speeches 
 of gentlemen who declaimed loudly against the immigrant from 
 Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. I have heard these peo- 
 ples, with centuries of civilization and culture behind them, de- 
 nounced as unfiL-£ or American citiz enship and as tending to cor- 
 nipt our morals, lower our ideals, and debase our national life, 
 and through the infusion of their blood bring about the mental 
 and physical degeneracy of the people of this country. 
 
 And yet we are confronted with the spectacle of a nation 
 hardly emerged from barbarism treated with a consideration by 
 this nation that seems to imply some wondrous superiority of 
 this branch of the yellow race over the white races. 
 
 And, strange as it may seem, I heard no denunciation or even 
 a criticism of the Japanese by the Memt>ers of this House who 
 so feelingly portrayed the evils of this European immigration 
 and its detrimental effect upon the American people. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I am for the State of California as against any 
 race or nation, because it is an American State and a part of 
 the United States. I am with the people of California, because 
 this Japanese question is the Chinese question with another 
 name. [Applause.] 
 
 Whatever may be said in criticism of the San Francisco 
 school oflScials' attitude on the school question, it can not be 
 7283
 
 6 
 
 contended that their demands were any violation of any treaty 
 between the United States and Japan. 
 
 In my opinion the Federal Government has no constitutional 
 right to interfere in the management of the schools of any 
 State ; and its interference in local matters is hardly conducive 
 to the peace and well-being of these United States. 
 
 The Japanese nation demands the surrender of the rights of 
 a sovereign State to control its own affairs. Rights, Mr. 
 Speaker, guaranteed the people of California by our Constitu- 
 tion. 
 
 As far as I know there has never been denied to the Japanese 
 the privilege of education ; there has only been denied the right 
 to attend the same schools with the white children of Cali- 
 fornia. 
 
 And shall we blame the people of this State, the fathers and 
 mothers, for objecting- to the enforced association of their 
 daughters with Japanese young men? With the offspring of a 
 nation whose moral standards are at variance with those that 
 western civilization prescribes? 
 
 Mr. Speaker, the demand of the people of California for sepa- 
 rate schools for white and Mongolian children is primarily a 
 local issue. 
 
 The demand for a rigid Japanese exclusion act, not only by 
 the people of that section of this country, but by the great mass 
 of American people in other sections, is a national issue that 
 affects the very existence of every wage-earner in every State in 
 the Union. 
 
 It can hardly be disputed that Japanese immigration affects 
 the interests of our wage-earner in precisely the same manner 
 as do the Chinese, with this added danger: That the superior 
 sense of imitation and adaptability of the Jap enables him to 
 compete in the skilled trades, whereas the Chinese scope of 
 activity is generally confined to the coarser trades. I maintain 
 emphatically that the interests of the American workingman 
 are of greater moment, of greater importance, than the interests 
 or needs of a few corporations or individuals desiring cooly 
 labor. 
 
 7283
 
 Now, it seems to me that in common justice to the laborer of 
 this country the Japanese ought to be placed in the same class 
 as the Chinese and excluded. However, Mr. Speiker, this ques- 
 tion can not, this question will not, be settled by this delight- 
 fully vague amendment. 
 
 It will be settled, sir, when the American people, through 
 their representatives, will come to a realization of the fact that 
 the policy of excluding all Asiatic labor is just as essential, 
 just as important, just as justifiable as our adherence to the 
 Monroe doctrine. [Applause.] 
 7283
 
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