Speech #740208255

It seems to me that those who had the privilege of hearing it will find it impossible to vote against the bill. The facts presented by him refute the arguments submitted by the opponents of the measure. and demonstrate that opposition to the bill is without merit and is founded upon a misunderstanding of the bill and the objects which it seeks to accomplish. Efforts have been made by those opposed to the bill to convince not only the Senate. but the country. that the measure we are considering is an immigration bill. and that it will undermine our restrictive immigration policy and open the gates of our country to an influx of aliens. I do not want to be critical. but I respectively submit that the campaign waged against the bill and the propaganda spread throughout the country have not been free from insincerity and have aroused wholly unjustifiable .fears upon the part of many patriotic American citizens. The opposition to the bill has not infrequently rested upon the assumption that those who supported it were. perhaps. lacking in devotion to American ideals. if not to patriotic impulses. Undoubtedly. the erroneous and fantastic statements which have been circulated are responsible for much of the opposition to the bill. Members of several organizations who have indicated opposition to the bill. have been misled as to its purposes and to the results which will follow its enactment into law. As I have stated. it is not an immigration bill but a deportation bill. Instead of the measure being injurious to labor or harmful to the American people. it will prove highly advantageous and beneficial to every field of activity and every branch of industry. Instead of liberalizing or broadening our immigration laws. it provides further restrictions. it will remove from the United States at least 20.000 aliens who are found in all parts of the United States. many of whom are competing in the fields of labor with American citizens. For a number of years the Department of Labor has urged a measure of this character in order that thousands of aliens who under existing law cannot be deported may be removed from our shores. . Mr. President.