Speech #680083470

Mr. President. I should like to have a philosophy upon which I can base my position on the very important question of immigration. and I should like that philosophy to have some justification. at least in my own mind and conscience. The question of immigration is the most important domestic question. certainly. before the Nation. Upon the determination of that question rests the future of America in a very vital way. The future Ideals of America are involved in the proper solution of that question. Our industry and our agriculture can not hope to escape the effect of the immigration measure finally adopted by the Congress. Indeed. the question is one that underlies and overshadows all other questions. I do not agree that the unrestricted immigration to which we were once accustomed presented but one evil. and therefore that Immigration legislation must take into consideration tile correction of one evil only. I heard the distinguished Senator from Alabama today in the Senate declare that our immigration legislation was primarily based upon a consideration of American labor and the standards of American labor. That his statement is true. certainly in part. no man would deny. but I do not think that the policy of unrestricted immigration presents a single evil. It undoubtedly is true that under the policy of unrestricted immigrat ien the total number of immigrants coming into the country reached the enormous total of 3.200.000 in one year. This mass. of course. made itself felt upon the body of American laborers. made itself felt upon the standards of American life. made itself felt upon the American homeunquestionably so. About 1880. however. and certainly as late as 1890. the character of the immigrant himself had changed. and instead of the natural infiltration of the immigrants coming to this country seeking a new and a better home. we had the unfortunate and disagreeable experience of opening our doors or of continuing to hold them open to vast numbers of immigrants who were coming not into a virgin and a growing and a young nation but into a nation already settled. which had already reached the stage of comparative manhood. So. Mr. President. there were two evils. Onewas presented in the sheer number of immigrants coming. and the other in the character and in the class of the immigrants coming. About 1880. and certainly as late as .1890. as I have just said. the immigrant coming to this country established his own quarter. he eqtablished his own section. he established his own institutions. he established his own printing presses. In fact. he solidified himself. and out of his solidity grew a form. consciously or unconsciously. of aggression. and this was precisely the cause of the restless and unhappy mood and attitude of the old or native stock.