Speech #710316533

If you only could read the reports and hear the testimony. you would not vote for this bill. You would vote a hundred times against it. I make this promise now. gentlemen: I am willing to vote to suspend immigration and close our doors. but for Gods sake let the little babies and the old people whom the Republican platform promised to unite come in. You are now completely destroying the promise. and I hope the people of this country will remember this condition. For your information let me also present to you some statistics which I was able to obtain from our own State Department after considerable difficulty so as to be in a position to enlighten you as to the details of this proposed measure. Bear in mind. gentlemen and ladies. that we are seeking to pass this legislation for the sole purpose of relieving unemployment. It is therefore important for us to find out just how many competitors in our American labor market can come in under our present immigration laws. I have before me a letter from the State Department dated January 15. 1931. which shows that during the month of November. for instance. a total of 76 quota visas were issued against the Polish immigration quota. In the month of December. 1930. these Polish quota visas amounted to 165. and as of July 1. 1930. the total demand from Poland for visas within the class of all legal preferences was in excess of 23.000. and in spite of that the monthly issue of visas does not exceed 165. All the visas that were issued were issued only to preferred immigrants. No immigration which was not in the preferred class has ever been able to come into the United States so that the only ones to whom visas were issued were wives. minor children. and parents of American citizens. If we are to cut down the quota it is not going to affect any new blood from immigrant countries who may enter the United States but these very fathers. mothers. wives. husbands. and children of immigrants who are now in the United States. How can any sane person claim that an aged parent or a minor child under the age of 18 or the wife of an American citizen may in any sense be deemed to be a competitor in the American labor market? These people are wholly innocent of any design to take away jobs from citizens of the United States and. of course. can not possibly combat with any one of us.