Speech #630359590

The farmers never asked any such declaration. They did not need it. and they will not be fooled by it. It was the law before the act was passed. and no court ever has held or would hold otherwise. here is a strong feeling among our people that our immigration lrtws should be mtde much more stringent. While we sympathize with the oor and needy of every land. we must look to our own preservation and the preservation of our own Institutions and ideals. and. as a matter of selfdefense. we must protect ourselves from those of other nations whose mode of living. aspirations. Ideas of government. ideals. and beliefs are inimical to those which have made us great. While recogni4ug that ignorance is not necessarily a badge of dishonesty. viciousness. or undesirability. our people are satisfied that on the whole the higher the average of education and intelligence of our people the better for their happinesK.. stability. and progress. Our farmers and our laborers especially have strongly urged the passage of more stringent immigration laws. In the Sixtysecond Congress a bill was passed meeting tire sentiment of the country. but it wras vetoed by the President. and became quite an issue in the cinpaigu of 1912.- It was thought the views of Mr. Wilson were certain and well known. In his History of the American People. volume 5. ptge 212. he says: The census of 1890 showed the poinrlatlon of tire country increased to 62.622.230. an addition of 12.456.467 within tire decade. Immigrants poured steadily iu as before. bit with in alteration of stock which students of affairs marked with uneasiness. Throughout the century men of the sturdy stocks of the north of Europe had made Up tire main strain of foreign blood which was every.year added to the vital working force of the country. or clte tuen of the Latiuallic stocks. of France and northern Italy. it now there came. multitudes of men of the lowest class from the south of Italy and men of the meaner sort �16108 out of Hungary and Polandmen out of the ranks where there was neither skill nor energy not any Initiative of quick intelligenceand they came In numbers -whichncreased from year to year. as If the countries of the south of Europe were disburdening themselves of the more sordid and hapless elements of their population. the men whose standards of life and of work were suc" as American workmen had never dreamed of hitherto. Te people of the acific coast tad clamored these many years against the admission of immigrants ont of China. and In May. 1892. got at last what they wanteda Federal statute which practically excluded froin the United States all ChInese who had not alieadv acqtilred the right of residence. and yet the Chinese were more to be desired. as workmen. if not as citizens. than most of the coarse crew that came crowding Inevery year at the eastern ports. On September 5. 1912. after his nomination for the Presidency. he is relported il the papers to have said. it an address bMfore the Association of Foreign Language Newspapers in New York City. September 4: I am speaking to rom as also Amerlonns with myself. nod lust its much American as myself. and if we all take the American point of view. natuley. that Wee wait Ailierictta life o1ept to its 1alidtulo. and that only the standards of American life shall be standards of restriction then we ate il upon a comlon ground. not of tlhse who criticize imigration. bit those who declare themselvs Americans. * * * Of course. if the immigrants are allowed to come In tninstructed hosts and to stop at the ports where they enter and tihre to compete Int on oversuinplied labor market. there Is going to be unhappiness. there Is going to lie deltrloration: there Is going to be everything that will be detrimental to the Immigrant. From these statements the peoplehad a right to believe that the President was in sympathy with the sentiment of the coontry nd with the bill which had passed Congress atndt which the Immigration Comtnission and practically every disinterested and thoughtful student of the question believed would accomplish the very result which he says should be accomplished by restriction and without Injury to any specially deserving people. What is his attitttde now? A bill passed the House and came to the Senate tnd was referred to a committee which. after much deity. reported it favorably.