Speech #680081375

One of the greatest statesmen has said that a majority is the only true sovereign of a free people. It Is our only sovereign. and it therefore makes a vast difference to us what that majority is. both now and in the future. and it is for us to decide while we are still that majority. The 1.890 census was taken as the basis of quota immigration in this bill not to discriminate against any other nations except as that means discrimination for America. Older immigration was from countries having institutions of government more similar to our own. and it is surely just as important to give as full consideration to the older stock of the country as it is to the new. Opponents of this bill seem to think that because through the open door of our hospitality for the past 20 or 30 years there have poured the vast hordes of south and eastern Europe and western Asia. these peoples have thereby gained a right that is paramount over that of the descendants of those who have fought not only in the last war but in every war. who have occupied not only the crowded centers but have also gone on to conquer the mountains and the forests and the plains of all America. There are no rights in this except those of America. All else are privileges which we have given. The danger of too free giving has been made plain even in this debate and in the demands upon the American Congress by great organizations of the foreign born. in the membership of some of which American citizenship is not even required. This presumption should be our warning and show us the path of duty while we have still the opportunity of following it. The instinct for national and race preservation is not one to be condemned. as has been intimated here.