Speech #620197716

Chairman. I move to strike out the last two words. The question raised by the gentleman from Illinois is an exceedingly important one. and It throws a new light upon the immigration question. We have been providing very largely for the reception of immigrants at the port of New York. It is a question whether we should concentrate all of the immigration business at any one port. We have other immigrant stations along the Atlantic seaboard and along the Pacific coast. We have long frontier lines along the border of Canada and the border of Mexico. and there is great difficulty with regard to the tracing of immigrants along the border lines. Sometimes. it seems to me. Mr. Chairman. it would be a good thing for this Congress to take up the question of the distribution of the immigration as it comes into the ports of the country. The vast amount of it. as the gentleman from Illinois said a moment agb. comes into the port of New York. That is the undisputed fact. When we received a million immigrants a year the great proportion of them came into that port. They centralize there largely and take their departure from that point to points of destination throughout the country. But the congestion of population in the large centers. in the great municipalities. arises largely from the tendency to not properly distribute the business. A bill is now pending before the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization which proposes to abandon even the bureau of distribution we now have. and this I am opposed to. The concentration of the foreign element in the great cities is a problem with which the best thinkers upon the subject of immigration have been endeavoring to deal. They generally believe that a proper distribution and assimilation of these immigrants would be a good thing. not only for the commercial but for the agricultural interests of the country. that It would be a good thing in the way of opening up certain undeveloped sections of the country. of improving the natural resources. and doing that heavy work which. usually falls upon the backs of the newcomers to this country. I am glad the gentleman from Illinois has raised this question. It is broader than that of the amendment which is now before the House. It is a question as to what Congress ought to do to properly distribute the immigrants who dome here. Immigrants and commerce come together. and we ought to provide for their distribution so that they will not be concentrated at one or two points in the country to the great disadvantage of all other points.