Speech #790106204

We do not want their system of political government or their system of business enterprise. We have developed a system of government and a system of domestic enterprise in this country that has surpassed any that the world has ever known. Our hearts go out in sympathy to the downtrodden people of other countries. but the way to help them is not to open the gates of immigration here. and have their systems of government and economy drag our system down to their levels. The great charter of our American why of life. our domestic happiness. and our protection of our people against foreign standards of living. and other matters. was the Immigration Act of 1924. Among other things. that act was intended to protect the American worker against the competition with lowpaid foreign labor. You know the story. In some foreign countries the laborers are paid a few cents a day. Without our immigration laws. those foreign workingm:n would come to the United States and drive down the rates of pay for our own people. To permit a breakdown of our immigration laws would be a tragedy to American labor. It would have to compete with the lowwage scales in vogue in these other countries. Our high standards of living would be destroyed. This .bill before us is just an entering wedge that will lead to these results. It may look harmless. but it is dangerous. for it strikes a blow at our longestablished immigration policy to protect the workingmen in this country. Mr. Chairman. the committee was not unanimous in reporting out this bill. There were members of the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization who opposed this bill. Those members were Congretsmen A. LEONARD ALLEN.