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3710
Mr. McALEER.   Mr. Chairman, I do not wish at this time to speak 
on this bill, but perhaps later on I may say something on the subject.   
I find there are a large number of gentlemen on this side anxious to 
be heard, and I will yield to the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. 
ROBINSON] . Mr. WILLIAMS of Mississippi.   Before the gentleman 
from Indiana begins, I would like to suggest that an attempt be 
made to make another agreement as to the time. Mr. KNOX.    I 
thought that would have to be done in the House.   I will say that if 
there is no objection we will act as if the agreement was made, and 
when we come into the House again I will ask unanimous consent. 
Mr. ROBINSON of Indiana.   I will ask the gentleman from 
Massachusetts to make the request that he made this morning. The 
gentleman from Colorado was under a misapprehension. Mr. KNOX.   
I will do so, and in the meantime we will act as if the request had 
already been made and granted. Mr. ROBINSON of Indiana.   If the 
gentleman does not make the request I will do it.   The gentleman 
from Tennessee was going to do it. Mr. KNOX.   Very well, we will 
follow it as if it had already been granted. Mr. FINLEY.   Mr. 
Chairman, I would ask if the committee can not now rise and let 
that agreement be made in the House. The CHAIRMAN.   The 
Chair is of the opinion that the committee has the power to control 
the time. Mr. KNOX.   Then, Mr. Chairman, I will ask unanimous 
con-Bent that the remainder of the time be controlled by the gentle-
man from Pennsylvania [Mr. McALEER] upon that side of the 
House, and by myself upon this side, and that the time be equally 
divided. The CHAIRMAN.   The gentleman from Massachusetts 
asks unanimous consent that the remainder of the time be divided 
equally between the two sides of the Chamber, one-half to be con-
trolled by the gentleman from Massachusetts [ Mr. KNOX] and the other 
by the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. McALEER]. Mr. KNOX.   
And that gentlemen who make remarks have permission to extend 
their remarks in the RECORD. The CHAIRMAN.   The Chair is of 
opinion that the committee has not the power to do that.   But the 
House having made no order as to the time, it is in order for the 
committee, by unanimous consent, to agree to the proposition of the 
gentleman from Massachusetts.   Is there objection?   [After a pause.]   
The Chair hears none, and it is so ordered. Mr. McALEER.   Now I 
yield one hour to the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. ROBINSON]. Mr. 
ROBINSON of Indiana.   Mr. Chairman, in these troublous times of 
acquiring and governing outlying island possessions and efforts at 
once to sustain the Constitution the interest of labor seems neglected. 
I yield to no man a superior regard, but am willing to concede to 
each an equal regard, for labor as that which I have myself. Here 
and now we have our opportunity, not by promises, but by 
performance, not by words, but acts, to show our fidelity to that 
great cause not only in the Hawaiian Islands but here at home. I 
approach this subject of labor in those islands with feelings of 
sadness as well as of responsibility. The American Federation of 
Labor on December 19, 1890, in convention assembled at Detroit, 
Mich., resolved as follows:
We affirm our previous position on this question, namely, that there must be no 
slavery or serfdom by ownership or contract tolerated under the American flag, 
and that we will make anyone whose action shall in any way militate against this 
principle of human freedom responsible for such action in every legitimate 
manner open to us.
On the 7th day of July, 1898, a joint resolution of the House of 
Representatives and the Senate was approved by the President. 
Among other things, it provided "that the said Hawaiian Islands and 
their dependencies be, and they are hereby, annexed as a part of the 
territory of the United States and are subject to the sovereign 
dominion thereof;" and "the municipal legislation of the Hawaiian 
Islands not enacted for the fulfillment of the treaties so 
extinguished and not inconsistent with this joint resolution, nor 
contrary to the Constitution of the United States nor to any existing 
treaty of the United States, shall remain in force until the Congress 
of the United States shall otherwise determine; "and further, that "the 
President shall appoint five commissioners, at least two of whom 
shall be residents of the Hawaiian Islands, who shall, as soon as 
reasonably practicable, recommend to Congress such legislation 
concerning the Hawaiian Islands as they shall deem necessary or 
proper." Under this resolution the President appointed Senators CULLOM, 
of Illinois, and MORGAN, of Alabama, and Mr. HITT, of Illinois, of this 
country, and ex-President Sanford B. Dole and Judge W. F. Frear, 
of the Hawaiian Islands.   A hundred thousand dollars was 
appropriated to carry out the purpose of the resolution.   The resolution 
also provided that "there shall be no further immigration of 
Chinese into the Hawaiian Islands."

That commission, after an excursion to the islands, filed their 
report in December, 1898, and with it presented a bill with their 
recommendation, which is the same as the bill presented by one of  the 
commissioners in the Senate and one of the commissioners in the 
House of Representatives.   Never before has a commission 
presented a measure to either body with provisions so un-American, so 
hostile to the genius of our institutions, as the bill recommended by 
this commission. The bill now before the House is that bill torn to 
pieces and dismantled by the committee, and, save on the subject of 
contract labor, it might be identified as American. This Hawaiian bill 
nowhere and in no wise protects or encourages American labor, here 
or there, and this policy is in keeping with the actions of this and 
last Congress dating back from this hour to the hour of the 
admission of the Hawaiian Islands.   It is time to call a halt and to 
make an inquiry. You of the majority have done nothing, absolutely 
nothing, to prohibit the importation of contract labor into the 
Hawaiian Islands, because influences there and here believe they can 
exploit them for commercial ends - the only motive that moves them 
- better by contract labor, and I will prove it. You call caucuses to 
pass party measures.   Why not go to some extremes to protect labor 
and destroy this infamous contract-labor system? On the contrary, you 
provide by section 10 of this bill "that all obligations, contracts, and 
rights of action shall continue to be effectual," and that "penal 
proceedings shall be carried on, "etc.. without destroying the slave 
contracts already existing.   Are they so inviolate that you dare not 
put your finger upon them? This means that 40,000 laborers' 
contracts shall be continued in force and that the penal proceedings 
to enforce them shall continue; that slave men and women shall be 
imprisoned for failure to keep a civil contract.   It means that 
involuntary servitude shall exist in the mills and on the plantations; 
that involuntary imprisonment with a felon's stripes shall be the 
remedy for enforcing civil rights between the favored masters of 
Hawaii and the cringing contract-labor slaves.   It means that yon 
would crucify labor on the cross of landlordism and money in 
Hawaii. True, the Senate amendment, which I hope will prevail 
here, strikes these contracts down. Yielding to the distinguished 
chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, than whom none is 
more popular here or in his State, the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. HITT] 
- yielding to him the highest character for probity and goad 
intentions, ability and skill as a lawmaker, and as to his colleagues on 
the commission in the Senate 1 say the same, yet - I measure my 
words - these three American lawgivers, as commissioners, were 
seduced and buncoed by their Hawaiian conferees and by the 
influences on the islands. Passing over the wining and dining of the 
commission over on those delightful islands by the notables and the 
government officers, I pass to the result of the inspiration 
produced, as reflected in their report.   First, on page 17, they say:
The question whether white labor can be profitably utilized in the sugar 
plantations is yet a problem, but the planters are preparing to give such labor a 
trial, and some of them believe it will prove superior to the labor of either 
Chinese or Japanese. S. M. CULLOM, Chairman.
Most remarkable language for an American commission.  Again they 
say in this report, on page 2:
The commission visited several of the most important Islands of the Hawaiian 
group in company with persons representing important agricultural and 
commercial interests and others representing the government.
Under this influence they found, in the absence of any repre-
sentatives of labor, that white labor "is yet a problem," not yet 
solved, but that some think that white labor will prove superior to 
"Chinese and Japanese labor." Disagreeable as it is, the proof is clear 
to me that those in power here and interested in profit and dollars in 
Hawaii seek to have this Government sanction the contract-labor 
system, and will claim, as the proof shows they do claim now, that 
only by contract labor can Hawaii be worked.   It is probably more 
profitable to work the islands thus, but it remains to be seen whether 
this Congress will put money above manhood, contract slave labor 
above free labor.   If so, better for labor that those islands had never 
rose from the bottom of the sea, or that some volcanic convulsion had 
sunk them, than that they should have been a part of our territory 
and be a constant menace to our labor. The bills introduced in 
Congress by the representatives of that commission and set out and 
recommended in this report are outlandish and un-American, and 
amount to a rape and destruction of American labor. Those who are 
ready to pass a bill to exclude the best class of immigrants from this 
country had better scan well the policy that has invited undesirable 
oriental contract labor to our islands and the system of slave 
contracts by which they are held. We were told in both Houses as a 
reason for annexation that the climate was temperate and salubrious, 
the soil fertile, and that

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