Speech #640066210

The tradesunions fear not only the. competition of numbers but the rivalry of large masses of foreign workers not familiar with the language and easily exploitable. But that is where organized labor is. on the wrong track. Organized labor. with its nmagnificent record of accomplishment. permits itself to play into the hands of the unreasoning chauvinist and of tile most reactionary laborhating element. in the vain hope that labor will improve its condition by limiting the working population of the United States through restrictive immigration. There would be just as much logic in limiting population by prohibiting childbirth. Every child added to the poor lans family is a burden which weakens the power of resistance of the worker to oppression. I know tlat the trusts and the corporations have their own designs in seeking free and unrestricted Immigration. I know that steamship companies have by alluring advertisements been stimulating immigration into certain industrial sections of the country. although the extent of the practice is exaggerated. But this is not the kind of immigration that I am fighting for. I am opposed to immigration artificially stimulated in the interests of capital. I will join you in adopting the most rigorous rules to prev2ent greedy capital from taking advantage of helpless immigrants. I will certainly go the limit in prohibiting the importation of workers which has for its object the breaking of strikes or the crushing of organized labor. No. I will go a step further. and I will demand that the power of the Congress of the United States be invoked to prohibit the transportation of strike breakers. whether native or foreign. from one portion of the United States into another. The truth is that normal immigration automatically regulates itself. If times are good. relatives from abroad are induced to come to America. If times are bad. relatives are warned to stay away. Thus the beginning of every panic is followed by an increased emigration from the United States. and there is no surer sign of returning prosperity than an increasing tide of immigration. A study of membership of labor unions and of strikes teaches the same lesson. Improving times are accompanied by larger union membership and by a growing number of strikes. I speak for the immigrant who. being a victim of religious. economic. or political oppression. seeks access to the United States to impr6ve his condition. If he is illiterate. it is so much more reason why an opportunity should be given to hini to give to his child the light which was denied to the parent. See with what avidity tie children of the immigrant rush to your schools. As long as the schoolhouse exists there need be no fear of the illiterate. Come to the. city of New York. withl its schools. and colleges and universitiesi. withi its evening extension courses.. with the bestfree lecture system in the world. and you will. realize what the American school is doing for the Immigrant. I put my faith in the American school. The trouble with the average representative of organized labor is that he is incapable of that broader vision which sees above and beyond the narrow needs of the moment.