Speech #660273428

We are confident. however. that the most careful investigation would disclose that whatever has been done for the relief of the distressed in eastern Europe has been most laudable. It would be a orry day in American history if our country. that has heretofore been an asylum for the persecuted. were to slam its doors in the faces of those who have been and continue to be the victims of oppression. persecution. and discrimination in the lands in which they live. When the literacy test was adopted. an exception was made as to its application in the cases of those who were subjected to discriminatory laws and regulations. as well as to overt acts of persecution because of their race and religion. A reading of the majority report would lead one to believe that this truly American policy is to be departed from and that the very fact that a people has been subjected to suffering of an unexampled character should be made the basis of adverse legislation. Thus the majority has called attention to the fact that 80 per cent of the passengers coming on the steamship Rotterdam and 90 per cent of those coming on the Note Rochel are Jews. We are credibly informed that is due to the fact that those steamers sailed from ports which were accessible to the Jews coming from the various parts of Poland. just as the immigrants arriving on steamers leaving from Italian ports bring Italians. and those front Scandinavian ports those of Scandinavian descent. Representative Siegel had occasion to speak to many of the immigrants arriving on the Rotterdam in the presence of three other members of the committee. He found that practically all of them were women and children who were coming to this country to rejoin the heads of their families and other near relatives in the United States. The children were especially intelligent and would unquestionably within a very brief period be thoroughly assimilated. The allusions to the Jews contained in the majority report are offensive. although we can not believe that they are intentionally so. We would not refer to these allusions were it not for the fact that they have a tendency to create in this country an atmosphere of prejudice against all immigrants and because of the further fact that there has recently been conducted a secret and malicious propaganda designed to arouse prejudice against the Jews in various parts of the United States. We point to the fact that although the Jewish population of the United States does not exceed 3.000.000. not less than 225.000 Jews served in the Army and Navy of the United States during the late war. thus supplying a quota much greater than their numbers would have required. They served honorably and faithfully.