Mike Honda: “I, too, would like to add my thanks to the leadership, specifically to Chairman Lamar Smith. Mr. Speaker, I rise today…”

“I, too, would like to add my thanks to the leadership, specifically to Chairman Lamar Smith. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 683, a resolution expressing the regret of the House of Representatives for the passage of laws that adversely affected the Chinese in the United States, including the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act. A century and a half ago, the Chinese were used as cheap labor to do the most dangerous work--laying the tracks of our transcontinental railway and building the California delta levees. They strengthened our Nation's infrastructure only to be persecuted when their labor was seen as competition and when the dirtiest work was done. In 1848, when gold fever spread across the Pacific Ocean, many thousands of young Chinese came in boats to Gold Mountain, to California. In 1861 to 1865, there was waged a Civil War in this country. There were over 50 Chinese Americans who battled each other in this Civil War, a battle which went unnoticed. In 1863, the construction of the transcontinental railway commenced. With the discovery of silver in Nevada in 1865, many of the white workers left the railroad to search for silver. To fill the labor shortage, Charles Crocker, one of the big four investors of the railroad and the man responsible for constructing the western portion of the railroad, began hiring Chinese immigrants. Crocker's famous justification was, They built the Great Wall of China, didn't they?…”