Speech #680081373

However much I may desire to encourage and pronmote the welfare of the citizens of foreign lands. I desire much more to conserve the interests and promote the welfare of the people of the United State!.. and in casting my vote for this bill I believe I am contributing imaterially to the welfare. the development. and the ultimate glory of our common country. and that is and of right should be the paramount consideration and controlling motive of every Member of this House. I have in the past given the Immigration question considerable study because it has long been evident to every thoughtful student of the problem that it is one of the live issues and an outstanding factor in our national life. It is fundamental that a nation may at will determine the conditions on which aliens may be admitted within its borders. It is for America to determine how many immigrants shall come and from where they shall come. It is not the province of those in foreign lands to say what quota each race or group shall have. To grant this privilege is to abandon our sovereignty. I believe that we shold have a rigid. restrictive immigration policy. It is a mistake to receive more immigrants than we can assimilate. Tllie fact that many aliens have come into our midst. enjoyed the blessings of our benevolent Government. engaged in business pursuits. accumulated fortunes. and yet have never renounced their allegiance to the government uli(ler which they were born and have never become naturalized citizens of the United States. should suggest to this Congress the importance of restricting immigration and ]ermitting only aliens to comae who in good faith are willing to be assimilated. become cilizens of this Republic. and cooperate in its uphuilding. in voting for this bill. 11 do not consider that I am discriminating against tny races or groups of people. ] recognize the fact that different racial groups in and out of the United States are .lamoring for this quota or that quota. It is impossible to grant the request of one group wilhout denying the demands of other groups. So. all things considered. I believe that the census of 1890 furnishes the fairest and most equitable basis by whihit to determine the number of imluigranlts that may come each year from the several foreign countries. Then. again. it is my conviction that the bill does not unjustly restrict the number of immigranls because. under present coulditions. I think that the nimnber lpermitted to colme under the penling bill is all that we can properly assimilate. We can not escape the fact that a very considerable number of immigrants coming in recent years and some few who came prior to 1900 have not shown a disposition to become citizens or to obey our laws. We have too many nativeborn Americans who are not good citizens and who do not obey our laws to encourage tile coming of others of the same class from foreign lands. I am not referring now to the honest. lawabiding foreigners who constitute the great majority of our imuigrants. but I am referring to a very considerable part of late arriving immigrants who do not measure up to the standards of citizenship which prevail either in the United States or iii the nations from which these immigrants came. I am not unmindful of the fact that foreigners and aliens cooperated with the American patriots in establishing our Government and in achieving our independence. nor have I forgotten the great army of honest. industrious. intelligent. lawabiding immigrants who in the last 100 yeams cuine into onr midst. became good citizens. helped to develop our great natural resources. and materially assisted in the preservation and upbuilding of our glorious Republic. To all such I give all lonor and praise. That class of immigrants has always been welcome. that class of itmmigrants will. within the limits of this bill. always be welcome. and by this restrictive legislation. we are seeking to establish a system or policy by which the best type of immigrants from these outlying nitions may be admitted and the worst type denied admission. May I say here that much of the opposition against immigration results from the fact that many of the Immigraits coming to the United States in the last 25 years have brought with them their Old World ideals. their Old World standards of living. and their Old World belief in government. or belief in no government. and they have. in many instances. stood aloof from our people. segregated themselves in colonies. made it a point to associate and conduct business operation only with one anothertliat is. with members only of their own race. and as t result these groups are not being assimilated and are not ieing fiMolded into citizenship. The Irish n :.l the (lerinans. tile Scotch and the Scandinavians. wh. aile ti lie United States. as a rule attached themselves to. the soil. lhy Wvent into tile great Mhississippi Valley. into the undeveloped Western States. They became a part of the people in that great region. They touched elbows with their American neighbors. They imbibed the spirit of our institutions and developed into good citizenship. contributing materially to the Upbuilding of our Nation. But many of the immigrants in recent years have herded themselves together in the great cities on the Atlantic seaboard and are living the same life that they lived in the old country. If these immigrants of recent years had distributed themselves over the United States. touched elbows with the American people. honored and respected our laws. learned our customs. and cooperated with our native people the assimilation would have been much more rapid and the objections to imimigration would have been less pronounced. In early days the immigrants crossed the Allegheny Mountains and settled in the great undeveloped West. By the will of Bryan Mulamphy. a wealthy Irish citizen of St. Louis. a large trust fund was created. the income from which was to be used to aid indigent immigrants passing through St. Louis on their way to settle in the West. This fund aided materially thousands of poor immigrants who became good citizens and contributed materially to the development of the Middle West. While most of these immigrants were poor. their poverty could not be charged to indolence. but it was the result of unjust oppression that for centuries had alilicted the Irish race. They came into this new environment. they made good. and they were desirable immigrants. Let me also remind you that many of the early German Imimigrants represented a very high class of intelligent citizenship. Many of them like Carl Schurz.