Speech #640216935

President. it seems to me that this legislation. above all other ilmmigration bills that have been presented to the American Congress and engaged the attention of this body. rests on two sound fundamental propositions: First. that. as a rule. so far as we can accomplislI it. so far as we are permitted by existing international obligations to do so. it shall be the fixed and settled policy of this country not to invite. and wherever we can avoid it not to permit. ilmigration into this country from any race or the iienihers of any race who are not capable of assimilating with our Own people and becolmIng a permanent part of the American body politic. The second fundamental upon which this bill rests is. in my judgment. equally as sound. It is that in this free Republic of ours. where the perpetuity of our institutions and the success of our Government depend upon the enlightenment and iatelligence of the people who constitute its electorate. it is right and proper that we should require of immigrants who come to -our shores the possession of a certain amiount of intelligence. just as in a majority of the American Commonwealths we require our own people before they may become aad. remlain voters of the Republic that they shall be possessed ofa certain amount of intelligence. So. Senators. the. propositions of this bill fundamentally are but two:. First. that hereafter. if this legislation shall be enacted. it shall be the fixed and settled policy of the American people not to permit immigration on any extended. scale from members of any race who are not capable of assimilating with our own. whose sons and daughters are not of a blood and lineage which will fit them for intermarriage with our own sons and daughters. and. second. that we will seek to exclude from this country as far as we can. do it. by tests that are exceedingly reasonable- at first and ought to be made more rigid as time progresses. the vast mass of ignorant. unlettered-. uneducated. and unintelligent persons. who have in the past invaded this country from other shores. Air. President. objection was made at the last session of Congress to the consideration of this. bill on the ground that it was pr6ssed when immigration into our country had been greatly decreased ns the result of the. great foreign war. that there was no necessity for legislation of this kind. whatever might be said on that subject under different conditions. and at a different time. That argument did not appeal to me when it was made. and it does not appeal to me. now. I have always been taught and I havealways believed that an. ounce of preventionis- worth a pound of cure I have always thought and I have always believed. as I now think and believe. that the proper time to prepare. against an emergency of this. sort is when we have the power and the opportunity to prepare: against It. regardless of whether the Immediate danger Is pressing and patent or not.