President. we will get no farm labor that way. We will not get the very labor we need. We will get labor selected for us either by the countries from which the immigrant comes or selected for us by the immigrant himself. Why should we not. in the application of this selective principle. apply it first so that nobody will be able to come in unless lie is suited to some special requirement of this country until our requirements are all filled or supplied? Why should not America. declaring itself in favor of selective immigration. apply a principle of selection fitted to its needs and its requirements instead of applying the selective principle only upon the tests of admissibility which relate to the moral. the mental. and the physical condition of the immigrant alone? Without this preference. we have no provision in this bill that enables us to apply the selection further than to ascertain whether the immigrant is a strong. ablebodied man or not. and if he is. we have to take him. I want to deny to the consuls that right. and I want the Congress to say what kind of people we shall admit. and I want to give the farmers a preference in the admission of immigrants. That is the character of my amendment. and I have taken up this time to discuss it because in my section of the country this is a vital question. I want no man to charge me with being in favor of unrestricted immigration. I want no man to charge that in offering this amendment I have proposed in any way to violate any principle of restrictive immigration as it has been defined in the past and as It may be defined in this bill. I ask nothing outside of it. My people ask nothing outside of it.
Keywords matched
immigrant immigration immigrants