Speech #630380547

Mr. President. I want to state deliberately. as a fundametital proposition. that the doors of immigration to this country should never be closed to the man or to the woman who is compelled to flee hither because of intolerable conditions imposed upon him or her by reason of political belief or conviction. It will be a sorry day for us. the champions of liberty. the people whose proud boast is that liberty of conscience shall always be recognized and the right to exercise it enforced. when we say to those to whon that liberty is denied. whether of religion or of politics: "You may not come here and thus escape conditions which history tells us are the most terrible which tyranny can impose upon the human race." Therefore. Mr.. President. I Want to see a literacy test sufficiently broad to permit political and religious exiles to come to this country. provided they are otherwise admissible uder theprovisions of our immigration laws. I take it. therefore. that the amendinentto the pending amendment suggested by the Senator from Missouri is a very pertinent one and ore which should be incorporated into the pending amendment. So much forthe amendmeft itself. While I am on my feet I want to say a word or two with refdrende to the general sub ject covered by the pendihg bill.The purpose bf it is not only commendable. but its -ccomplishffit. in my judgment. is demanded b the politiftl -and the ihdustrial conditions 6f this coffmitr. and I ain hot suie but that iestrictions bthei" thanthiose ofa lfteracy cham acter should have been inc6rporated in this bill. to the end thit immi346! I gration might be still further limited. Our immigration during the last few years has been from southern and southeastern Europe. from certain sections of Asia. and to some extent from -Russia. and the great percentage of it comes to us not because of dissatisfaction with religious or political conditions at home. -but because of our better. industrial conditions. It is attracted largely by the advertisements of steamship companies and by the other activities of those companies. to the end that dividends may be earned from their operations. and it therefore has assumed almost entirely a commercial aspect. some features of which. in my judgment. are of a most meretricious character. In other words. we are not any longer. so far as immigration Is concerned. so much the asylum..for the oppressed as the paradise of those who by their cheap labor can better their condl.tion. Not only so. Mr. President. but many of them come not Intending to incorporate themselves into the body politic. not intending to acquire a new home across the sea. where their children and their childrens children may subsequently identify themselves as citizens thereof. but intending simply to make suflicient money to enable them to return to their native land .and occupy thereafter. relatively. a position of comfort and of -independence. As a consequence the genuinely permanent labor in this country Is and has been for some time subjected to a drastic competition. which has not only created widespread discontent. but which has very materially lowered our standards of living. and consequently our standards of morality. for you can not have a constant horde of immigrants. inspired by *the prospect of abundant labor to be obtained through successful competition with our labor here. without producing just such conditions. I think a great percentage of the industrial discontent of this country. a vast amount of the idleness and lack of employment. Is due more to the enormous numbers of immigrants coming from these new countries. whose nativity and habits of life. through the indurated processes of generations. make them difficult of assimilation. than to any and all other causes combined. The old immigration. so much to be desired. and which has done so much to establish and. make permanent the Industrial and political institutions of this country. coming from countries whose people are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. coming from the countries of northern Europe. has almost disappeared. so that its thin current which now reaches our shores and has reached them for a number of years is scarcely perceptible. They have been supplanted by the greater and more sluggish tide of immigration to which I have referred. who have brought In their wake political and industrial consequences which make the question of the further continuance of this policy one of the gravest. if not the gravest. of the hour. � Mr. President. some time ago I saw in one of the magazines an article treating of the general question of immigration which .throws a great many side lights upon It as well as upon other conditions in this country. One of them attracted my attention .very earnestly. because it demonstrated by statistics that during the last 20 years the percentage of Immigrants who became agriculturists in this country was almost negligible. while the Scandinavians and Germans and English and Irish and French and Scotch. who made up the greater portion of our Immigration in times past. were very largely devoted to agricultural pursuits. The new class of immigration flocks into our cities and becomes consumers of the necessities of life instead of producers. thus largely adding to the disproportion between them and directly affecting the almost equally important problem of the high cost of living. If It be true that with our vast domain. needing settlement and cultivation. and for which reason more than any other the Immigrant has been in the past welcomed to our shores. then It is equally true that a class of immigrants which avoids that particular industry and does not add to the development of the material wealth of the Nation. but enters into our crowded cities and communities. there to be corrupted by the political life of American municipalities. and to compete successfully with American labor by degrading it. should be discouraged not alone by a literacy test but by other tests. This class of immigrants has been encouraged by the great corporate employing interests of the country. which. combined with the activity of the shipping companies. has made the pursuit a great and profitable one. and at the same time. as I have stated. has introduced into this country a Pandoras box of evils. the first evidences of which we have suffered from and will continue to do so in increasing proportion. I do not believe any man should be permitted to come to this country as an immigrant who simply proposes to use our opportunities here in competition with American labor and then return. I do not think he should be permitted to come here at all. The present practice permits such immigrants to come in overwhelming floods when the demand for them is great. to reduce the general standard of wages and of living. and to leave when that demand recedes. only to return when it shall reappear. It necessarily unsettles established business and industrial conditions. necessarily creates profound discontent and dissatisfaction. and necessarily lowers. and permanently lowers. those standards of American life which. after all. are the distinguishing features of our civilization. and which make it so nch higher and so much better than that of other countries. Mr.