Speech #680083519

Every argument as to the undesirability of races is removed. every argument as to the undesirability of certain citizens of different nations is removed the moment we establish tribunals judicially to examine and pass upon the qualifications of the individual: So that we are brought here face to face with the naked proposition of excluding people who will make good citizens and who our own tribunals have declared will make good citizens. I repeat. that is the last word in knownothingism. and I use the term "knownothingIsm " in the political sense in which it was employed when knownothingism raised its ugly. vicious. and ignorant head In the United States. with the result that one political party went out of business. There can be but one justification for a restriction upon immigration. and that is that the individual coming here is not fit to live here after lie gets here. But when we have set up our own tribunals and have judicially examined into the ciracter of the applicant and have determined that lie is fit to live here after he gets here. and then exclude him. we are doing a very absurd if not a very wicked thing. Mr.