Speech #710020030

As has already been suggestedand I do not desire to be guilty of tautology. though sometimes the law itself may be guiltyour forefathers were framing a government to be of the people of the United States. They were carefully safeguarding the interests of our country by providing that no man not a nativeborn American. however able. however conscientious. however distinguished in the pursuit of his vocation in life. could ever become President of the United States. that no man not a citizen for nine years could become a Member of this body. how. ever intelligent he might be. that no man not a citizen at least for seven years could be a Member of the other body of this Congress. They were seeking to provide that those who came here and underwent the processes of naturalization to identify themselves with our country. to become voters and qualify themselves to take a part in it. should at least havebeen here a sufficient length of time to have become amalgamated with our population and understand something of our Government. and we must conclude that they were seeking to build up a harmonious document and a harmonious nation. Let us project the imagination of our forefathers. Let us specify Madison. for instance. and Morris. who were in the Constitutional Convention. Suppose they had been sufficiently imaginative to have projected their intelligences 140 years in advance. and to have comprehended the situation that now exists in the United States. It has been estimated that there are some seven to eight or nine million unnaturalized noncitizens of the United States. I do not like the word "alien." It carries with it a sort of opprobrious implication. an implication of enmity. which I do not like to impute. and yet it is a perfectly understandable expression. What ever may have been their design. their intention in coming to the United States. whether legally or illegally. there are some seven or eight million of people who have come to this country within the last few years who are not citizens of our country. who may never become citizens of our country. and In the State of California. represented so ably by the senior and the junior Senators from that State. there is a considerable proportion of the population that never can become citizens of the United States. and In the constitutional provision of the State of California for an apportionment of members of the California legislature they are ex eluded from the count and from consideration In determining the representatives In the branches of the legislature of that State. Not only does that include those who come here legally under our immigration law. but it Includes those who are smuggled in by the thousands. and they may be as many now as those who have come in legally. if the testimony of the Secretary of Labor is correct.