o earn an honest livelihood by labor. That is the
correct principle. I think we did, during the war, go to the
extreme in one direction to induce people to come among us to share
our benefits and advantages, and we gave the reasons why we did
so; but now the period has arrived when men of all parties, all
conditions of life, all creeds, ought to be willing to limit and
regulate immigration, so that only those who are able to labor and
toil in the ordinary occupations of life and to earn a livelihood
should be allowed to come. It is a high privilege to enter into
American citizenship. Neither a pauper, in the strict legal sense
of the word, nor an imbecile, nor one who has a defect or imperfection
of body or mind which lowers him below the standard of American
citizenship should be allowed to immigrate to this country.

The most important measure adopted during this Congress was what
is popularly known as the McKinley tariff law. I had not given as
much care and attention to this bill as other Senators on the
committee on finance had, nor did I participate in its preparation
as fully as they. When the Mills bill came to the Senate in 1888,
the work of preparing amendments to, or a substitute for, that bill
was intrusted to Messrs. Allison, Aldrich and Hiscock. Their work
was submitted to the full committee on finance, and, after careful
examination, was reported to the Senate, and was known as "the
Senate bill" to distinguish it from the "Mills bill," for which it
was substituted. When the McKinley tariff bill came to the Senate
on the 21st of May, 1890, it was referred to the committee on
finance and was there submitted to the same sub-committee that had
considered the Mills bill. The McKinley bill, as amended by the
committee on finance, was in substance the Senate bill of 1888.

It is not necessary here to refer to the long debate in the Senate
on the McKinley tariff bill and the amendments proposed in the
Senate. The result was a disagreement between the two Houses and
the reference of the disagreeing votes to a committee of conference,
of which I was a member. When the report of the committee of
conference came before the Senate I made a long speech justifying,
as I thought, the public policy involved in the proposed tariff
taxation. I stated that the sub-committee named was entitled to
the credit of all the labor expended on the bill, that as a member
of the committee of ways and means or on finance I