Speech #760214609

Mr. Chairman. the resolution before us for action is nothing more nor less than a resolution to divorce Mme. Perkins from the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization. It has for its sole purpose the separation of Mine. Perkins from that Bureau. Nine out of every ten Members of this House will vote for this resolution in order to remove the Bureau from under the influence and mismanagement of Mine. Perkins. not because they feel the Bureau should be placed in the Department of Justice. The move to transfer some 2.500 to 3.000 welltrained. highgrade employees of the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization to another Department in order to get it away from Mine. Perkins reminds me of the old story about Mahomet and the mountain. because it proposes to move the mountain rather than to move Mahomet. the mountain in this case being the Bureau with its employees. its millions of case records. its files. and its whole equipment. and Mahomet in this case being Mine. Perkins. Rather a foolish thing to do. do you not think. when the desired result could much more readily be brought about by removing one persom Now. if it is a good thing. a desirable thing. to divorce Mine. Perkins from the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization. why would it not be a good thing to divorce Mine. Perkins from the Department of Labor. a department that has to do with carrying out our labor laws. that has to do with establishing labor policies. a department that can show and has shown partiality as between labor organizations? Why not divorce Mine Perkins from the entire Labor Department as an essential defense preparation measure? I will leave that thought for the gentleman from Michigan to elaborate upon. because he knows much more about that angle of this matter than I do. This move to transfer the Bureau under the plea that it is needed in order to tighten up the enforcement of the law in connection with spies and undesirable aliens Is a move to fool the American people as to the basic need for this change. It gives a wrong impression of the situation. The trouble is nothing that a transfer will cure or can cure.