Speech #620267212

In other words. population determines values. The more people the higher the value of land and property. We have not sifted the facts connected with immigration up to something like 20 years ago. Until that time people came in. � nd the supposition was that the vast majority came for the purpose of bettering their condition. in other words. they were people imbued with energy and a desire for aiding themselves. As Bismarck once said. "Immigration does not consist of the poorest classes of Europe by any means." By that the great German statesinan meant to say that the man who is able to raise enough money to defray the expenses of the trip to the New World for himself and family is not a pauper in the sense in which we accept that term. ie must be a man of some push and energy. and these. I submit. are the very qualities which count in life and which we welcome to these shores. From my study of the subject. extending over 40 years. I believe I can truthfully say that even today the vast majority of the immigrants come with the idea in their minds of bettering their economic condition. We are all agreed. I believe. that immigration has been a great boon. if not the greatest. to this country. and that of all the factors which have contributed to its wonderful growth and development none has been more important. Even today immigrants or the sons of immigrants are performing half of the real hard work of the country and they assimilate so rapidly that the second generation are as good Americans as we are. And in the whole history of the country no instance can be cited of any serious trouble caused by lack of assimilation or nonassimilation. There have been labor troubles. yes. but they were always of an economic and not a racial nature and merely proved my contention. often made on this floor. that if an immigrant findsand he discovers this soon after his arrivalthat he has to pay American prices for American goods. he will also demand American wages. It is my deliberate judgment that if you seriously restrict immigration. and this is the avowed purpose of this bill. you do not solve a problem. but you create a new one. and a problem much more serious than the one you complain of now. But I shall speak of this phase later. One of the arguments in favor of restriction is the possibility of overcrowding the United States.