186 



CONGRESS. (CHINESE EXCLUSION.) 



will meet the approval of the members of the 

 House. 



" Then came the next question, Mr. Chairman, 

 Should the exclusion of the Chinese be extended 

 to the colonial possessions ? Now, the committee 

 can see in one moment that the conditions ex- 

 isting in, for instance, the Philippine Islands, are 

 totally different from the conditions existing in 

 the United States. Here we have a large body 

 of intelligent, educated, industrious laborers, and 

 we owe it to them that they are not subjected to 

 any unfair competition from men brought here 

 who live on a different scale, who are willing to 

 work for less price, who are content to live on 

 a lower degree of comfort and civilization; but 

 the members of the committee can see that 

 those conditions do not exist in our colonial pos- 

 sessions. 



" There is in the Philippine Islands, for in- 

 stance, no body of educated, industrious, intelli- 

 gent laborers, and the question was, What is the 

 best thing for the interests of the Philippine Is- 

 lands? And, Mr. Chairman, that question is by 

 no means as free from doubt as is the question 

 of the introduction of Chinese laborers into this 

 country. But we felt bound, Mr. Chairman, and 

 it is the doctrine, it is the principle, of the Repub- 

 lican party of, I think, all members of Congress, 

 regardless of party to do for the Filipinos what 

 within reasonable limits they themselves ask 

 should be done. The committee was convinced 

 that the desire of the Filipinos themselves was 

 that they should not be subjected to the further 

 competition of Chinese labor; that they were not 

 ready to compete with them, and certainly they 

 are not, and for that reason the committee 

 has reported, by the bill before this committee of 

 the whole, that Chinese laborers be excluded 

 from the colonial possessions of the United States 

 upon the same terms and in the same manner 

 that they are excluded from the mainland of the 

 United States. 



" Now, Mr. Chairman, a word or two more 

 about some provisions of detail in this bill that 

 I wish to explain very briefly to the committee. 

 The chairman of the Committee on Foreign Af- 

 fairs said that we have taken in its general out- 

 line the Kahn bill, which was introduced in be- 

 half of the members from California. The ques- 

 tion of Chinese exclusion is more important in 

 California than in any other part of the country, 

 and it was our endeavor in every way to cany 

 out the desire of the California delegation to 

 make this law a law which should not only say 

 that Chinese laborers should be excluded, but 

 should furnish the means and the appliances and 

 the requirements for making that exclusion effec- 

 tual, which should check the fraudulent intro- 

 duction of Chinese into this country. 



" There were, however, two or three questions 

 of detail in which the committee differed from 

 some provisions of the Kahn bill, which I desire 

 to submit to the judgment of the committee of 

 the whole. By your judgment we will be guided. 

 The Committee on Foreign Affairs had but one 

 desire, namely, to have a bill which would be 

 most effective, most judicious, most wise, to 

 carry out the principle of Chinese exclusion, but 

 on questions of detail we all have our judgment. 

 Now, there are substantially .three questions 

 which I shall state very briefly to the members 

 of the committee. The first was this: The bill 

 provides that the Chinese shall be excluded from 

 the Philippine Islands. 



" Then the bill as it was introduced not the 

 committee bill provided that the Treasury De- 

 partment should appoint officials who should go 



to the Philippine Islands, who should there make 

 a registration of all Chinese in the Philippine Is- 

 lands or any other foreign possession, who should 

 carry out the enforcement of this law in refer- 

 ence to Chinese landing and the preventing of 

 their landing. In reference to the removal of 

 Chinese from one possession to another, Mr. 

 Chairman, we did not regard that provision as 

 judicious, and I feel confident that the committee 

 will agree with us. What would be the necessary 

 result? Why, Mr. Chairman, it would take 

 10,000 employees of the Treasury Department. 

 Ten thousand employees would* have to be 

 shipped from San Francisco to the colonial pos- 

 sessions, to the foreign possessions of this coun- 

 try, to take charge of making that registration, 

 to take charge of that detail. 



" Now, what has the Committee on Foreign 

 Affairs done? The Government has appointed a 

 Philippine Commission, thoroughly familiar with 

 all local questions. Gov. Taft, the head of that 

 commission, appeared before the Committee on 

 Foreign Affairs and gave his evidence. He is in 

 thorough sympathy with the exclusion of the 

 Chinese. What he said before the committee had, 

 I think, more effect than what was said by any 

 one else in leading the committee to the conclu- 

 sion that the exclusion of the Chinese from the 

 Philippine Islands was judicious. We have re- 

 ported in our bill a brief provision, embracing 

 half a dozen lines, in which we propose to author- 

 ize and direct the Philippine Commission to take 

 such measures as may be necessary to carry out 

 the provisions of this bill as to the exclusion of 

 the Chinese from the islands and to attend to 

 registration or whatever else may be requisite 

 with reference to the regulation of this subject." 



Another point of difference was on the proposi- 

 tion of the original bill, that the Treasury De- 

 partment keep a record of Chinese children born 

 in the United States or its dominions. The com- 

 mittee, in view of the fact that a permanent Cen- 

 sus Bureau has been created, regarded this provi- 

 sion as needless. A third point of difference was 

 in regard to the employment of Chinese seamen. 

 A minority report recommended the provision of 

 the original bill, forbidding their employment on 

 American ships, but the majority report favored 

 a provision forbidding their landing at an Amer- 

 ican port, no matter on what ship they sailed. 

 Mr. Perkins said: 



" First, I should say, gentlemen, that among 

 the restrictions against the unlawful landing of 

 Chinese we have in this bill a provision that 

 when a ship comes alongside any wharf or dock 

 of the United States on which are Chinese cool- 

 ies who are not to be landed, the steamer must 

 give bond in the penal sum of $2,000 for every 

 Chinaman on board, to see to it that the China- 

 men whom they have on board do not get on 

 land that the ship that brings them carries 

 them away. So, certainly the provision is strin- 

 gent enough to keep these ships having Chinamen 

 on board men employed on the ships from al- 

 lowing them to land. If a ship has Chinamen on 

 board who are to be landed, then there must be 

 the certificates and the necessary papers to show 

 that they are Chinamen who are entitled to land; 

 but this proposition refers to ships having 

 Chinamen on board who are not to land. There 

 must be a bond signed by the steamship com- 

 pany, with the penalty of $2,000 for every China- 

 man on board who is not to land, that 'he shall 

 not be permitted to land. 



" All ships, when they come to our harbors, 

 must submit to this law. So as you see, gentle- 

 men, these Chinamen employed on the ships that 



