Now, about the Chinese exclusion. The number of Chinese now in this country is, if I remember aright, some sixty or seventy thousand. So far from there being a great influx of the Chinese, the fact is that the number has steadily decreased. There are fewer Chinese than there were ten years ago, fewer than there were twenty years ago, fewer than there were thirty years ago. Unquestionably some scores of cases occur each year where Chinese laborers get in either by being smuggled over the Mexican and Canadian borders, or by coming in under false certificates; but the steps that we have taken, the changes in the consuls that have been made within the last few years in the Orient, and the effort to conduct examinations in China before the immigrants are allowed to come here, are materially reducing even the small number of cases that do occur. But even as it is the number of these cases is insignificant. There is no appreciable influx of Chinese laborers, and there is not the slightest or most remote danger of any; the whole scare that has been worked up on the subject is a pure chimera. It is my deep conviction that we must keep out of this country every Chinese laborer, skilled or unskilled—every Chinaman of the coolie class. This is what the proposed law will do; it will be done as effectively as under the present law; and the present law is being handled with the utmost efficiency. But I will do everything in my power to make it easy and desirable for the Chinese of the business and professional classes, the Chinese travelers and students, to come here, and I will do all I can to secure their good treatment when they come; and no laboring man has anything whatever to fear from that policy. I have a right to challenge you as good American citizens to support that policy; and in any event I shall stand unflinchingly for it; and no man can say with sincerity that on this, or indeed on any other point, he has any excuse for misunderstanding my policy. You have spoken of the immigration laws. I believe not merely that all possible steps should be taken to prevent the importation of laborers under any form, but I believe further that this country ought to make a resolute effort from now on to prevent the coming to the country of men with a standard of living so low that they tend, by entering into unfair competition with, to reduce the standard of living of our own people. Not one of you can go farther than I will go in the effort steadily to raise the status of the American wage-worker, so long as, while doing it, I can retain a clear conscience and the certainty that I am doing what is right. I will do all in my power for the laboring man except to do what is wrong; and I will not do that for him or for any one else.