Speech #590162959

Every consideration of public policy and equita*ble treatment of American labor requires that some effective restraint should be placed upon the ignorant hordes that are today pouring in upon us from nearly every quarter of the globe. In my opinion State selection. under conditions which will guarantee perfect independence and freedom in selecting the good and passing by tile undesirable. is the most effective scheme of accomplishing this desirable restriction. The people of my State would rather. in my judgment. struggle along with the hard lal)or conditions they have there today than to open the doors of that State to unrestricted immigration. They are especiilly opposed to the introduction into that State of inmmigrants from southern and eastern Europe. and I am advised that no immigration bill can likely pass our legislature which does not expressly provide that State agents abroad shall not solicit and induce to come to the State any except persons of Celtic. Scandinavian. or AngloSaxon origin and extraction. The South must have more labor. and it is willing to get it abroad since it can not get it elsewhere. but it wants those who are to come selected with it view to safeguarding its citizenship from further race and class problems. This State method of stimulating immigration obviates the difficulty which has confronted us heretofore. It secures. by the process of judicious and discriminating preferences and exclusion. the kind and class of immigrants we want and excludes in a measure those not wanted. We would get a class of people who would come to us. not as the Italians of southern Europe. not as the Huns and the Poles come. with the purpose of returning just as soon as they can make a little mdney. not as the Chinaman or the Japanese come. with the purpose of going back as soon as he has exploited our labor markets. but with a fixed purpose when they come of staying. with a fixed purpose of making this country their home. with the purpose of adopting our customs and our habits. of learning our language. of assimilating with our people. of intermarrying with them and becoming a part of a homogeneous whole. with a purpose of making thenmselvqs true and loyal citizens of our country. ready to defend its flag. and able to comprehend and understand the genius of its free institutions. That is the kind of labor and Immigrants we want. If you let down the bars. if you permit corporations to go and bring in immigrants as they may desire. either directly or through a State agent. by furnishing to the State its immigration fund. that can not be accomplished. and the immigration we are likely to- get in the South will largely be of a kind that we do not want. that will not help us. that will become an element of discord and disturbance. further complicating the social and labor problems which now. unfortunately. vex and distract us. For that reason. Mr. President. so far as I personally am concerned. I am satisfied with this report. because I think it leaves to the States all the power in this regard that is needed. and all that the State has to do is to take up the burden itself and not ask somebody to bear it under an agreement or contract that they shall have an advantage. As it does this. it accomnplishes that purpose which I say our people have of safeguarding this influx of immigration against the admission of that element that we think would be dangerous to our society and to our civilization.