Speech #590162031

I have not the figures here now. but I think there are less than 10.000 people of foreign birth out of two million and a half people in Georgia. Yet here are these perishing and languishing industries. all calling for them and demanding them. and we have this slight opportunity. this door which has just recently been opened. and here itis proposed to shut it in our faces. in spite of what I have said to Senators twice beforeand which I say againthat 20 per cent of the spindle� in the South are idle because of the lack of labor. and there is no other place to go for it. Our white population has been exhausted. and the negro population can not be utilized. and unless we can do something in the way of getting foreign immigration. there is no opportunity for it. While I would go as far as any man to exclude the undesirable. and while I do not propose to open any door to contract labor. I simply ask that the law as it stands today may remain. that we shall not be put in the position where the Government of the United States. in the face of such representations as these. will turn to us a deaf ear and say. "We will hear nothing of it. and do nothing for you." We are not asking. I repeat. to have the law changed.