Speech #750229494

I trust this resolution will be adopted by a unanimous vote. Mr. Speaker. a great deal of the difficulty which this resolution seeks to correct has grown out of a lax if not a deliberately negligent and unsympathetic administration of our immigration laws. When I first came to Washington. on March 4. 1919. we had practically no immigration policy. Upon my own request. the Republican leadership placed me on the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization. and I have remained on it ever since. being at present the ranking minority member. Due to my seniority and rank on the committee. under the procedure of the House. I will autamatically become chairman of this important committee when the. political complexion of the House changes. if I should be at that time in Congress. And I confidently predict that if that change in congressional complexion does not come in the election this fall. it is sure to come in 1940. and for good and sufficient reasons. too. which I shall not undertake to discuss here today. As I stated before. we had no immigration policy prior to 1919. We were admitting aliens from every part of the globe except Asia. and America had become the dumping ground and melting pot for every character of mankind except Asiatics. and quite a few of them had managed to get in before the Exclusion Act was passed. We were admitting aliens by the hundreds of thousands without any regard whatever to their qualification for American citizenship. We were admitting the aged. the Indigent. the halt. the lame. and the blind without any method whatever of selection or even inspection. We were admitting thousands of criminals. thousands of persons suffering from malignant. infectious. and contagious diseases. thousands of Communists. anarchists. and syndicalists. One of the chief reasons which inspired my ambition to come to Congress was to help stop the indiscriminate flow of immigration to this country. Mr. Speaker. we have hundreds of thousands of good citizens in this country who were born abroad.