Speech #660274602

I move to strike out the last word. I feel like apologizing at this hour of the afternoon for trespassing upon the patience of the committee. but I feel very sincerely that the committee. probably without mature consideration. has made a great mistake in adopting the amendment proposed by the gentleman from Illinois limiting the operation of this suspension to 14 months after the passage of the act. which. in effet. limits this operation only to a period of 12 months. If we are confronted in this immigration question with a serious peril and a menace to the countryand I feel sure that we arethen I think we should not attempt to limit the period of suspension to 14 months. I feel sure the committee has not overdrawn the picture inl stating in its report as follows: The flow of immigration to the United States is. now oin in full flood. The need for restrictive legislation is apparent. The accommodations at Ellis Island are not sufficient for the avalanche of new arrivals. larger cities have not houses for them. work can not be found for them . and. further. the bulk of the newer arrivals are of the dependent rather than the working class. I submit this question to your intelligent judgment. If we have a situation which we are seeking to correct. is it reasonably probable or apparent that within one year. in this period of economic reconstruction and adjustment. we will have advanced so far in this country that all of these objectionable features will have been eliminated. or is it not more humanly probable that instead of the conditions at the expiration of a year being as they are now pictured by this committee they will be infinitely more aggravating? The latter is my deliberate judgment. and if you are to enact a suspension of immigration for the protection of the interests of the American people. it seems to me that it should not be met by us purely on the principle of a temporary stopgap. but that in view of the facts with which we are confronted the time has come when the American Congress should have the courage to enter upon a perinanent policy of preventing the indiscriminate admission of aliens into this country. You pass this bill and put it into effect only for 12 months12 months passes very rapidly in the legislative annals of the country and the economic progress of the countryand before the expiration of next summer the Committee on Immigration are going to have this very same identical problem to solve. The House of Representatives and the Congress of the United .States and the Executive are going to be confronted with even more aggravated conditions than those with which we are confronted in reference to this grave. acute question today. and it seems to me. gentlemen. to be the part of wisdom. of prudence. of reasonable foresight. to follow the firm conviction and judgment of the majority of the committee who reported this -bill. and when a separate vote is demanded upon the Mann amendment to vote that amendment down and let this bill stay in its effect as was provided by the committee.