Speech #740063744

So we welcomed these folks who lived in foreign countries. We beckoned to them to come over here. Between these accretions of excess births and the immigrant population that came from foreign shores. we gradually became a country of 125.000.000 people. Mr. Chairman. if I recall the figures correctly. from 1820 to 1870 we gained approximately seven and a half million new people from other countries. From 1870 to 1900 we gained approximately 12.000.000. From 1900 to 1920 we gained approximately 15.000.000. They were coming in at the rate of seven or eight hundred thousand per year until in 1918. because of the war and because of the restrictions that had been imposed. the immigration gradually tapered off. and I think in that year dropped down to 18.000. Then because of restrictions that have been imposed since that time. it has not increased very much. apd I believe. as a matter of fact. last year we had a net loss when the emigration and the immigration were counterbalanced. Now. for the purpose of clarity. because some of these controversial questions are going to come on this floor again from the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization. let us first of all have a clear picture as to what constitutes an immigrant. It might be said. very generally. that anyone who comes from a point outside of the United States. who is not a member of a diplomatic or ministerial family. who does not come here for the purpose of working under a treaty. who is not in transit through this country. and probably a few more may be considered as immigrants. A lot of these people want to come to America at the present time and I am very happy to say that somehow we have become nationally conscious of this problem and the time is not far distant when the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization is going to be one of the most important and outstanding committees of the House. There are certain things that. manifestly. make us conscious of this problem. In the first place. we have ten or eleven million people out of work. Obviously. we do not like to see anybody come from foreign shores and displace one of our own people and take away from him a job and the incident bread and butter that goes along with it. Secondly. we have these problems of subversive doctrine. preaching the destruction of our institutions and our form of government. setting themselves up resolutely against the maintenance of law and order. These are the things that have gradually come up. and coupled with the desire of those who have a deep and abiding interest in this country to maintain a certain purity of the social structure. it has made us immigration conscious. It started in a rather aggravated way back in 1913 and gathered momentum as we went along to 1924. As you recall. they set up the socalled "National Origins Act ". which limited the number of people that could come from foreign shores. If I remember correctly. the first quota was around 357.000 and along in 1923. 1924. 1925. and 1926. we virtually received the full quota from foreign shores. Then. in 1927 the quota was reduced to 150.000. which. when finally corrected. amounted to just a little over that amount. However. the State Department has been operating under a kind of temporary order. which provides that the consuls in various foreign countries should not. and cannot in reality. issue a visa to anyone who wants to come to this country unless he can satisfy this provision that we call the publiccharge requirement. If he attempts to come here and does not have sufficient funds or the assurance of a job quite outside of the pale of contract labor. the consuls are operating on a program whereby they refuse to give a visa to these people. and this is the only thing at the present time that is stopping a great influx of people from other countries. But this is not our real problem at the present time. Our problem is not concerned so much with those who come in under the quota. because by legislation we can cancel the quota altogether. but our problem Is concerned more nearly with those who come in under a nonquota status. and this includes virtually all the people residing in the countries in the Western Hemisphere.