Speaker. I regard the measure now before the House of Representatives with mixed and contradictory emotions. I believe it is necessary to put further temporary restrictions upon immigration as a matter of justice to American workingmen who are altogether too numerous for the jobs that are available in these parlous times and who should not have their chances of securing employment jeopardized by an influx of laborers from foreign lands. I believe also that it is not fair to the foreigners that this high tide of immigration should continue because when they come they do not find the paradise of prosperity their imaginations had pictured but a dead sea of disappointment. I find. therefore. that I am in perfect accord with the main purposes of this bill but I do protest that it is not as considerate as it should be of the ties of family. I believe that our immigration laws should recognize the sanctity of the home and the sacredness of family ties and should make most liberal provision for the reuniting of families. Every argument of kindliness and humaneness protests against families being kept asunder. While the life of the pending bill is limited to two years and while it recognizes the preferences that heretofore have existed in favor of relatives. it so reduces the quotas that in my judgment it will operate to shut out some immigrants who might well be allowed to join their relatives in this country. To keep these relatives separated for two years is to my mind a gross injustice. I had expected to offer some amendments to take care of this situation.
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immigration immigrants