Congressmen from the western states pressed the case on Capitol Hill, and the following October a “Joint Special Committee” of the United States Senate convened in San Francisco. Witnesses testified from all sides of the issue: backers of the exclusion movement, civic leaders, clergymen and local politicians, and agricultural and railroad developers. A “scientific” witness testified as to the inferior status of the “Mongolian race” in the hierarchy of human types. A civic-minded San Francisco matron asserted that Chinese were depriving young “boys and girls” of chances for decent jobs, with dire social consequences. Missionaries, ship captains, and old China hands offered views on the qualities of China and her people.