Speech #680075831

I have said. Mr. President. that the question of the restriction of immigration is an American question. In finding a solution we should tolerate no alien dictation. The force of this is apparent in this quotation from Secretary of Labor Davis: I knowSays Secretary Davisthat some foreign countries are anxious to keep at home their young. robust. sturdy men to maintain their man power. and that many are willing to permit the departure of the old and infirm and the diseased. I was frankly told by a high official of one Government in Europe that his country was interested in immigration to tile United States In so far as it helped to dispose of the " old men and the rubbish." Mr. President. I am more interested in maintaining high standards of American manhood and womanhood and the traditional quality of American citizenship. I am opposed to helping foreign governments shift their pauper problem to the Americat taxpayer. I do not want to see the population of our alnshouses. our hospitals for the Insane and mental defectives. iand our prisols and institutions of correction crowded with the paupers. the social and mental defectives. and crilinals of European gox ernments that are brutally frank in their Interest that we keep our standards of immigration sufficiently lax to etlble thlem " to dispose of their old men and rubbisll. " A (ommilon argument against restricted immigration Is that America. needs labor. In its study of the question the House of Representatives Committee on Immigration finds thatThe prospe:ity of the United States does not depend upon additional undill(d alien laborers. Industry and activity have survived the slackened immigration caused by the European war and the quota law. tie two covering a stretch of almost 10 years. and the United State- ias had one period of great employment during that time. Our gain in po1ptlation through natural sources is large10.000.000 from 1910 to 1920. Mr. President. the finding of the House committee disposes of the argument that a need for laborers should dictate a lax imniigration policy. Proponents of. that argument should remember that we propose to restrict. not to exclude. immigration. The finding of tile House committee strips the labor argument bare and reveals it as a subterfuge of a small but ruthless group of American employers that want cheap labor to com)ete with wellpaid American workers. thus to undo the achievement of the American worker in establishing a living wage anti a decent sldard of living. These wouldbe exploiters of cheap European labor are eager seekers for protection of tile domestic selling market and quite as eager advocates of a freetrade labor market. Agreed a8 we are. Mr. President. that immigration must be restricted. algreed its we are that it Is a question to be deterimineI solely in the interests of America. the question becomes a choice of methods. TIhe expeience ol past years teaches us what groups of Immigrunts tlost easily and naturally are assimilable within our citizenship. That experience teaches us the wisdom and desirability of selective restriction.