Speech #680081375

In either case. though the mountains and the rivers and the seas remain the same. one nation has fallen and another has risen in its place. History is replete with tragic examples of this truth. If we believe then. as I do with all there is within me. that America must be preserved. not only for itself but for leadership among the nations to the ways of peace through an example of orderly government based on justice and the right of the people to rule. we must be for restricted immigration as proposed in this bill. Our institutions of government are- drawn from certain historic sources and crystallized in our Constitution. These ideas and practices. both of old history and of present years. have been likewise more similarly developed in some foreign countries than in others. and it is entirely reasonable to believe. and borne out by experience. that we can assimilate into our citizenship more readily and with less change to ourselves and our institutions immigrants from such countries. From countries with vastly different traditions and institutions of government we can take immigrants less rapidly. regardless of their good intentions. because there is more to make over in thought and manner of living. Those of their blood or ways of thinking may argue that they are just as good. and their very argument proves what I say. It is for us to decide how rapidly. if at all. any people may be admitted here. with our first thought being for the preservation of our own America and American institutions.