Speech #710249580

In a summarized way. the memorandum declaresThat the direct and tangible benefits of the $315.000.000 building program. as well as the normal building needs. should accrue to the citizens of the country. and that aliens should not be given a preferred status at any time. and especially during unemployment depressions. That on American institutions American labor. with preferment to exservice men. should be given priority over aliens. That the practice of employing cheap alien labor. willing to work for greatly reduced wages. and unattached to any of the principles which the American workman has stood for in the way of high standards of working and living conditions. has resulted in direct discrimination against the American citizen workman. his family. and the community in which he lives. and constitutes a serious threat to stable labor conditions inthis country. That the pitch of resentment against present practice. which permits the employment of aliens on national construction works when there is an ample supply of idle and capable American labor runs highest when it is realized that in the construction of a veterans hospital many veterans have been denied jobs because the construction rolls were filled with the names of aliens. That the aims of the government construction program should assure against.a monopoly of the benefits of labor by aliens. and that a fair and equal and benefiting distribution of these benefits should accrue to American citizens in the States where the work is performed. with preferment to the veterans of our wars. That no contractor should bring with him on a Federal construction job a cheap. itinerant. bootleg labor supply when unemployment exists among the qualified citizens of the State where the work is performed. That the United States should not be less solicitous in its protection and preferment of its citizens than foreign countries. practically all of which have rigid laws against the employment of nonnationals. irrespective of whether the work is for the State or private parties. That the policy of foreign governments is to avoid unfair competition by cheap alien labor which might result in lowering the standard of conditions attained by national workers. and that the whole aim of their systems is to see that aliens do not receive preferential treatment to the detriment of the national worker. That the United States. by its lack of policy of preference for Americancitizen labor on national construction works. is injecting a serious factor of disturbance in those States that have preference policies for the American citizen. Some of the larger States are California.