Speech #680076426

Mr. Speaker. there seems to be this pronounced distinction between the foreigner that comes to Tennessee and those that are attracted to the big population centers. Our foreign born immediately and in good faith renounces his alliegance to the fatherland. he learns our language. adopts our customs. sends his children to our public schools. exhibits a real and honest appreciation of our governmental activities. and just as soon as the law will permit he applies for American citizenship. This type of foreigner very soon takes rank with our very best citizens. and as a rule in a very short while his nationality is submerged in the great process of amalgamation. You Will find no sign or symptom of Bolshevism or anarchy in the character or conduct of this class of foreigner. and the red flag is just as repugnant to him and his sensibilities as it is to our own native born. There is still another phase to this immigration subject which should challenge the patriotic consideration of the Congress. and that Is the labor. side of the proposition. We all recognize that immigration affords the strongest source of competition for the American that "eats bread in the sweat of his face." Every foreigner of the laboring class that enters our ports limits to that extent the opportunity of the American laboring man for industrial livelihood. A great hue and cry that has made the very welkin ring has gone up from the capatilistic interests of this country to the effect that there is a shortage of labor. and that our immigration policy must be modified to meet this demand. which they have denominated a great national emergency. So far as I am concerned I am opposed to subjecting the American laboring man to competition with the pauper labor of Europe and Mexico. I take the position that it is better for the country. for business and for society to have two jobs for every workingman than to have two workingmen for every job. and this proposition epitomizes one of the vital and outstanding equations of the immigration problem. While discussing the Immigration problem In this Chamber on December 11. 1920. I took occasion to accord to a certain secret organization proper credit for its part in the awakening of the public conscience of America to the dangers of unrestricted foreign immigration. This order is the Junior Order United American Mechanics. and its part in this campaign for a safe and secure America has been very conspicuous Indeed. I want to again today invite your attention and the attention of the whole country to the invaluable contribution which this stalwart organization has made to the sum total of what we have or may hereafter accomplish in the way of rescuing America from the " dumpingground" and "meltingpot" menace.