Speech #680073969

We had an army of unemployed. and as a temporary expedient we tightened up on our restrictive features. But that emergency has passed. Less than a year ago. when we were on the upward swing industrially. captains of industry and farmers were demanding the complete abandonment of all restrictive legislation on Immigration. The cry went out that there was imminent danger of a labor shortage. seriously handicapping the Industrial and the agricultural development of our Nation. What has happened since then to justify swinging to the other extreme. as is now proposed by the passage of the Johnson bill? Let us take a longtime view of things. Let us not tie our tands in such a way that we will be denying ourselves the use of man power which can be absorbed now and which may be required in still greater number and quantity with the coming montlhs. Let us not too rashly and too lightly abandon the policy laid down by the founders of this Republic. which policies. so far as immigration is concerned. made possible the greatest development ever witnessed by any people and by any nation in history. That the opendoor policy in vogue for more than a century and a quarter has been a boon to our economic development is known to every student of economic history. During. the very period extending from about 1880 down to the World War and down to the present in a modified form. when immigration was at its height. our country experienced unparalleled material prosperity. The wealth of the United States In 1880 was estimated at about $43.642.000.000. In 1920 it reached the astounding figure of $290.000.000.000that is to say. the per capita wealth increased from $870 to $2.689. in the very period when we were admitting immigrants at the rate of about 430.000. In fact. in some of the prewar years immigration hit the million mark per annum. whereas the proposed bill would admit under 162.000. During this period of unrestricted. or only partially restricted. immigration our country witnessed an unprecedented development of our foreign commerce. The annual average for the fiveyear period ending 1880 was only $650.000.000. The average annual value of our exports for the fIveyear period ended 1.922 was close to $6.000.000.000. This marvelous material development both in the increase in our national wealth and the increase of our foreign commerce has been made possible only through the addition of our man power. brought about by a free and wise immigration policy. Of one thing we are absolutely certain: That our former immigration policy did not stand in the way of the most unparalleled material development experienced by any nation in the worlds history. I repeat. let us not too rashly and too lightly abandon the policy laid down by the founders of this Republic.