Speech #800185291

I appreciate that hurdle or barricade which is in the way. but certainly the United States could negotiate with other countries a treaty dealing with this subject. and It could be submitted to this body for ratification. and under such a treaty I think we could fairly well take care of the matter. Or if there is a legal imperfection to such procedure we could initiate in the Congress legislation calling on the Chief Executive to meet with other nations. and say that we would commit ourselves in advance to accept a certain number. provided other nations similarly circumstanced with the United States would do likewise. In other words. there are many ways in which we could have tackled the barrier which now stands in the way of the accomplishment of a solution of this problem. to wit. our immigration laws. I was only calling attention to the fact that we did not do anything about it. and thus we lost this great opportunity in the way of bargaining power. In my opinion. it would have helped many thousands of these unfortunate peoplefar beyond the number contemplated to be helped by this billif we had gone about the matter differently.