Speech #520151373

Mr. Speaker. that the cardinal features of existing law should be given a fair trial. I know that the demand has come to Congress from various sources for a more restricted immigration law. I make the frank admission that the committee has been conservative in its action. but this conservatism has been based upon the conviction that if the spirit of the law as it now exists was rigidly enforced many if not all of the evils complained of would be remedied. The committ6e has faith to believe that the measure now before the House. supplementing the action of the last Congress. will be found to meet most. if not all. the requirements of the situation as it now exists. and I submit that a fair trial at least should be given it. Let us from time to time. if it shall be necessary. amend- and if possible improve existing law. rather than enact a sweeping measure which might and probably would be fraught with greater evils than those sought to be remedied. The chief objection to the proposed measure on the part of my friend from Maine is that the bill makes no provision for an educational test to be applied to intending immigrants. Mr. Speaker. I yield to no gentleman on this floor in appreciation of the benefits which come from education. however limited it may be. I wish most earnestly that every nativeborn citizen and that every man and woman who comes to our shores might be able to read and write at least. and if they might be further informed I should be correspondingly glad. But. sir. as I view the problem of immigration as it presents itself today. the demand of this country now is not especially for educated labor from abroad. Our own skilled laborers seem sufficient to meet all present demands in this direction. What the country most needs so far as immigration is concerned is. in my judgment. a class of men of brawn and muscle to assist in agriculture and in the line of their work to aid in the development of the almost boundless resources of the great West and South. In these lines of labor. while education of some sort would be a most desirable matter under any conditions. it does not seem by any means an absolute necessity.