Speech #680074734

Mr. President. I have no prejudice against the foreigner that in years gone by came to our shores with his mind made tip to. become really and truly one of us. putting aside for good and all his allegiance to his native land . but when the foreign stock. as it does now. exceeds in numbers our native white American stock. it is time to call a halt on all immigration. I fully realize that our very ideals and principles. of which we are justly proud. are the result of admixture of races. but it has become increasingly evident that the foreign stock is already so large that its assimilation will require many years. There is grave danger to our country from immigrants who live in their own groups. read papers in their own language. work. live. and vote in their own groups. and not as Americans. Many appeared before our committee as representatives of racial groups and nationalities. and their principal arguments against the bill were based on the claim that it discriminated against the country of their birth. I want to compliment the Secretary of Labor. Although he himself is an Immigrant. he is an American citizen and is thinkjag about America. Eixcept our Government representatives and the Californians who appeared before our committee. hardly any came as Americans urging what was best for America. In my own State onesixth of the farm laborers have left within two years. and many friends of mine. some of them with large plantations and facing a shortage of labor. have urged me not to support restrictive immigration. so that foreigners would continue to come to supply labor for the North and East and our labor would not be molested. We can not lose sight of the future when we consider this measurethe very salvation of our country is at stake. This will not be the same America unless we change our immigration policy. We must think of our grandchildren and consider only the future of America. It is well known that every nation in the world. except the United States and possibly a few others. encourages emigration of the least desirable of its citizens or subjects and strives to keep the most desirable within is own borders. As a result some of our immigrants have been of a kind not calculated to improve our stock. In saying this I am not unmindful of the many splendid men and women that have come here and helped in the development of our country. There was plenty of land to share with them then. and they came in numbers that could be assimilated. but not so at this time. Half our white people. as I have stated. are now of foreign stock. a large per cent of them do not speak our language or understand our Government. The time has come when we should prohibit any Immigration for at least five years. except the unmarried children under 21 years of age. fathers and mothers over 55 years of age. and wives or husbands of former immigrants that have become citizens of the United States. If we would do that. It would offend no one.