Speech #680220850

This is not an Ideal dream of mine but something that is based on knowledge of the fact that in the British Isles there are thonsands of as fine men and women of the agricultural classes as ever crossed the ocean and who. I firmly believe. could. With -properly directed effort. be brought to untilled farm lands of New England provided our immigration system was so shaped that it would aid instead of hampering such a project. as is now the case. But In my opinion it would not be necessary or even desirable to limit sources of desired immigration to the British Isles. for I am told on good authority that there is an oversupply of splendid farm families in Sweden and hlolland. and perhaps to a lesser extent In Switzerland and Denmark and although their languages differ from ours. they are highly skilled in dairying and other branches of agriculturxe which are mostly practiced in New England and are a kind of people who would fit into our population without frIction and into our ways without difficulty. just as they have always done in other parts of the United States. However. if it were deemed desirable to attempt to bring a few families from any of these countries to those abandoned farms and pretentious houses over in Addison County. and you were to ask me how it could be done. I would be compelled to say that it would be highly Impracticable under our present immigration laws and system. It is true as I have said that the law gives some preference to persons skilled in agriculture in the matter of quota vises or permits. but If you formed an association to bring them over. very likely they would be debarred as assisted aliens. and if you told a Swiss farmer that he could have occasional work in a cheese factory after coming hero he would be excluded as a contract laborer. The State of Maine experiment to which I have referred is an attempt to get such people by overcoming existing barriers. but even if this is done the numerical restrictions impiosed under the quota law may delay their coming to .an extent which will bring failure instead of success in the end. Under the new law no Immigrant can depart for the United States without certain documents issued by an American consular officer. and the consul may refuse such document to any applicant who in his opinion could not be admitted to the United States under the laws. This was a long step in the right -direction. but the consuls still lack authority to select admissible immigrants according to their merit or because they might be wanted to fill some particular need in the United States. It is a case of first coie first served. and a shoestring peddler going to the crowded East Side in New York would get a vis If he came first. even though it meant denying permission to a splendid Italian stonecutter coming to Barre to fill I real need. if the latter happened to be next in line. Such obvious foolishness results from the fact that our immigration laws have been fxamed for the purbose of keeping out aliens whom nobody seems to want and the country does not need. but unfortnnately. and in my opinion unnecessarily. they also prevent the coming of the very kind of people everyone would welcome and who are or may be actually needed on Vermont farms or elsewhere. What is the remedy? To my mind.the remedy lies in the direction of a law under which It would be possible for the State of Vermont to demonstrate to the Bureau of Immigration or some Federal authority its need for a certain number of immigrant farmerslet us say enough families to repopulate those Addison County farms with a view to developing or stimulating cheese making in that vicinity. Let us further suppose that at the same time the American consulate general at Geneva has on file the applications of a hundred Swiss farmers and cheese makers who. with their families. want to come to Americaand according to the latest record 5.000 Swiss people are now awaiting their turn to get the muchcoveted permission to come. the delay being due to the fact that the annual quota of Switzerland is. only 2.081. and not more than 208. or 10 per cent of the yearly total. may come in any one month. A full description of the opportunities available for farmers and cheese makers in Addison County would be forwarded to Geneva through the Department of State. and the consulate general in turn would present such opportunities to the applicants on his list who seemed best adapted to fill them and if they still desired to come. viscs would be granted to them. It would require study. work. patience. and perhaps some money to carry out a plan of this nature. but if it succeeded in repopulating. even a part of the deserted farms in Vermont and other New England States with thrifty folks of stocks from which real Americans can be made the time and effort would be well spent. and perhaps some part of the $227.000.000 resources of our Vermont banks could be profitably and helpfully invested in the project. For the past 10 years I. have belonged to an organization in Washington the membership of which is limited to 20. and is made up of men who are in immediate contact with the great economic and social problems of the Government. I was selected as a charter member of the club probably by reason of the fact that I was the only person around Washington who persisted in spending all his time in studying the immigration problem and its relation to the economic. political. and social welfare of the country. Among the members are representatives of various bureaus of the Department of Agriculture. and I have often discussed with themthe relation of Immigration to agriculture and the possibility of making a better adjustment between the two. One of these men. a westerner who is counted as one of the greatest authorities in the whole field of agricultural economics. makes the general statement that in. the country as a whole there has been an excess of production. which has been detrimental to a greater or. less extent. He is firmly of the opinion. however. that we have reached a stage where in most branchesof agriculture production is about equal to consumption or market demands. and that there is danger of the pendulum swinging too far the other way if the present trend continnes.