Speech #790057570

Surely we do not wish to compel Americans to compete with this class of labor. As a result of this unAmerican policy our country. prior to 1940. was flooded with foreign agricultural and manufactured products as never before in its historyproducts produced and manufactured in foreign countries with the lowest possible standard of living. We restricted the immigration of European races in order to protect our American standard of living. But we imported. under trade agreements and otherwise. hundreds of millions of dollars worth of manufactured articles from Asiatic nations. articles produced by human slavery and human misery. We excluded the Asiatic because of his low standard of living. and at the same time we permitted the articles that his labor produced under unsanitary. brutal. and inhuman conditions to be sold in competition with articles manufactured by labor under the American standard of living. In fact. by importing these goods we invited. we imported. the oriental. the lowest standard of living. for Americans. We will soon have millions unem.. polyed. and yet we are to import the very things that these men and women should be producing under an American standard of livingnot under an Asiatic standard. Why prevent our own people. who will be inwant. from producing and manufacturing these articles in order to enrich a few importers and international dealers? . We submit that this is the work of madmen.