Speech #710021501

I will modify it in line with the suggestion of the Senator from New Mexico. and now I would prefer to proceed with my remarks without being called upon to answer any further questions so that I may conclude what I have to say. I want to call attention to the fact that the Department of Labor has invited our attention to the number of immigrants who illegally entered our borders last year and they have asked for aid and assistance to prevent illegal entry in the future. The Secretary of Labor whom. instead of criticizing. I desire to commend for his work In the position which he holds. has expressed himself all over this land as favoring methods which will permit the Nation to determine whether a man who has come to America from a foreign land has entered our country legally or illegally. There is nothing strange about the amendment and nothing revolutionary. It is merely a proposition suggesting that we utilize the machinery which is at hand to get as much information as we can to determine the facts with reference to the entrance of immigrants into the country. Statistics show there are 14.500.000 aliens in our land today. Many of them can not speak the English language. They come from countries with various kinds of governments. It is my judgment. and I have offered a bill for the purpose. that if the Congress would do its duty it would absolutely prohibit the entrance of a single immigrant into this land for the next five years While we take stock of our present citizenship. with the view of educating the foreign born for their own good and for the welfare of our country. I do not wish to be understood as criticizing the statement made by the Senator from Massachusetts on yesterday. I said in the beginning that I did not intend to do that. I desire. however. to quote from statistics with reference to services rendered by nativeborn Americans and those who were foreign born. After the statement made yesterday on this subject. I sent for the report of the provost marshal general In order that I might find for myself whether the nativeborn citizens of this land of ours were shown to be recreant to their duty when the call of war sounded in the land.