The law does not fix a property, income, or educational qualification,
does not insist upon a knowledge of a trade, nor impose a tax. In other
words, we have at present a more or less effective police regulation of
immigration, but we are not pursuing a policy of restriction or
limitation.
[Sidenote: Un-American Discrimination]
As to the Chinese, we have made an exception, and one that fails to
commend itself to many. Grant that there is much to be said in favor of
the proper restriction of Chinese immigration, especially on the ground
that the immigrants would come only to earn money and return home, not
to become Americans; that there can be no race assimilation between
Chinese and Americans; and that such bird-of-passage cheap male labor is
a detriment to the best interests of the country. All the force in these
arguments applies equally to a large proportion of the immigration from
southeastern Europe which is admitted. The laws should be uniform. The
right to shut out the Chinese coolies is not questioned; but if these be
debarred, why not debar the illiterate and unskilled laboring class that
comes from Ireland, Italy, and Austria-Hungary? The Chinese certainly
can fill a place in our industries which the other races do not fill
equally well.
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