Speech #640218081

Mr. President. I desire to correct an impression conveyed by myfriend the Senator from INorth Dakota as to my attitude in respect to this particular class of immigration which comes from Russia. AustriaHungary. the Balkan States. and Italy. and which the Immigration Commission termed the new immigration. as contrasted with the immigration which came in such large bodies prior to 1880 and to 1882. The position taken by the commission was that the latter immigration had come in such numbers that the common labor market of the United States was overcrowded. They found that adoptingthe literacy test or. reading test as a restrictive measure would naturally decrease this particular flow of immigration perhaps 30 or 35 per cent. and in that way they would relieve the overproduction of common labor at the seats of the great basic industries in the United States. where that labor was not only competing against American labor but where it existed in such abundance that it was competing against itself and reducing wages to a point where the laborers were compelled to live under conditions which were certainly unAmerican. If we could reduce that. the conditions would be satisfactory. America needs labor. There is no question but that tIle industries of America have grown to a point where they need foreign labor. and if we had a proper amount of it. so that wages could be fairly maintainedI am speaking now of the conditions before the European war. of course. as we found them in 1909there would have been no effort to restrict immigration. I was not in favor of it when I came to the Senate. I only became in favor of it when I discovered these conditions. As has already been demonstrated. a considerable portion of this immigration consists either of unmarried men or of men who have left their wives at home. indicating that they are here only for a temporary purpose. It was to stop that class from coming. as far as possible. that the amendment was proposed by the Senator from Missouri yesterday. I could not favor the amendment as it was then offered. because of its form. but I thought the object of it was good. - I simply wished to make this explanation so that my position on this subject might be understood.