Speech #620267063

Would these figures give one the impression that there is an oversupply of labor in America at the present time and that the labor markets are flooded? Most assuredly not. What. then. would be the result were we to enact this proposed legislation. which its supporters state would bar out at least 250.000 immigrants a year? Where. then. would it be possible to secure people to fill these positions? As concerns the literacy test incorporated in this bill. let me quote here a portion of an editorial in the New York American with reference to these restrictive measures: It is doubtful if a more deceptive and unworthy measure ever passed the American Senate than the DillinghamBurnett immigration bill. with its Root amendment. It is smooth and harmless upon the surface. as corrupt legislation always Is. And Its foolish educational test. which would have kept the mother of Abraham Lincoln out of the country. is designed to keep out of our country millions of honest. earnest. sincere men and women that the country needs. And the Washington Post had the following to say in its editorial columns regarding this bill: If the United States made any pretensions to being a country dedicated exclusively to the "upper classes. the erudite. and the fastidious. the immigration bill which has been included in the Democratic program for the present. session would be an accurate reflection of such sentiments. If. however. the United States is to remain what it was Intended to tea haven for the oppressed. the lover of liberty and freedom. the toiler. and the ambitious--then the present bill is a step backward toward an exclusiveness which. If exercised 100 years ago. woold have paralyzed the growth of the Nation. The illiteracy test would have robbed the country of some of its strongest and greatest men. Some of the ablest lawyers at the bar. the noblest humanitarians. the best and most progressive .business mell of today are the progeny of parents who could neither read nor write when they canie to the United States. The country needs as many halthy European immigrants as will come here. and the only tests that should be applied are those of health and morality. Again. let me quote from an editorial appearing in this same pa per : If the same test were to be applied to common laborers in the cotton States. that section would be paralyzed industrially. as the North will be to no small extent if the Burnett bill becomes a law. However repugnant total ignorance in the foreign born may be. the second generation finds them well on the road to assimilation. It is amusing. Mr. Chairman. to find that the great objections that are made to immigration as a rule come from gentlemen who reside in sections of our country to which no immigration goes. As an examplle of this. I wish to refer to some figures which I have. showing the foreign population in the districts of three of the prominent supporters of this bill.