POEM THAT KILLED A BILL

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 1889, 7 April 1913, Page 3

POEM THAT KILLED A BILL

RECITATION IN CONGRESS. A dramatic scsne occurred in the House of Representatives at Washington when the Immigration Biil, imposing a literary t< - •! all aliens seeking admission ;ie United States come up for .. ~u consideration. Mr Moore (Pennsylvania) declared that if it was placed on the statute books the bill would exclude 250,000 foreigners and deprive the Exchequer of £200.000 in taxes, besides costing the Administration an additional £200,000 annually. Mr Moore recited with much pathos a poem entitled "An Appeal to Congress from those to be shut ont," from which the following is selected : We've dug your million ditches; We've built your endless roads: We've fetched your wood and water And bent beneath your leads. We've done the lowly labour, Despised by your own breed; And now yon won't admit us Because we cannot read. Your farms are half deserted Up goes the price of bread. Your boasted education Turns men to clothes instead. We bring our picks and shovels To meet your greatest need; Don't shut the gates upon us Because we cannot read. The poem completed the conversion of the House, which upheld President Taft's veto, thus rendering futile the Senate's acceptance of the bill.