Speech #630133210

Therefore I say. Mr. Chairman. our doors should be open to all those who are of good character. healthy and strong. and desirous of earning a good living. and if a literacy test must be made it should be applied at the time of naturalization. when sufficient time has elapsed to give the immigrant an opportunity to prove his purpose by taking advantage of the opportunities here offered him.. Again. the argument is advanced of overcrowded conditions in certain of our cities. caused by this influx of humanity from foreign shores. According to this bill. we are willing to spend. perhaps. more than a million of dollars in increasing the force of immigration officers so as to take care of the immigrants after the manner provided for in the bill. I say. why not use this money to establish a bureau which will have for its purpose the advising and directing of the immigrant. shielding him from impositions. and. instead of allowing all newcomers to settle in these few congested districts. aiding in distributing them in those parts of the country where we most need their help. There can be no doubt that we have great need of such labor as these people who are coming to our land can and will do. Our nativeborn citizens are seemingly too far advanced to do the manual labor which our immigrants perform willingly and well. for the mere fact that a man is illiterate does not imply that he is unable to work efficiently and faithfully. We are right in excluding the morally or physically unfit from our land. but until It can be said that all our territory is filled and that we have no more need of manual labor in the further development of the land. we will not only be doing an injustice to future immigrants. but to our own citizens as well. by refusing admission to voluntary immigrants who come here in the hope of realizing their ideals of freedom and who hope to find here the opportunities for advancement denied them in their mother countries. So much has been said on this subject that I conclude my brief remarks by referring to and indorsing the able argument of the gentleman from Mfinnesota . appearing in the RECORD. page 2601.