Speech #800198180

Scotland. Wales. and a few from Norway. Notwithstanding that report. we permitted immigrants to continue to come. and we know that it was due to the immigrants that we permitted to reach our shores that our Nation has become the greatest in the world. Those immigrants started to work our lands. which at that time were selling at a dollar or $2 an acre. Now they are worth $300 or $400 an acre. They have worked our mines. They have worked our forests. They have built up our Nation and made it the greatest manufacturing Nation in the world. so that today we are supplying nearly half of the world. if not more. with food and the necessities of life. machinery. and other manufactured products. During the First World War there were professional immigration restrictionists whom. I remember very well. endeavored to make the country believe that it was not safe. in view of the large number of immigrants in our midst. What was the result? During the First World War. as well as in the last war. those men. both the first and second generations. have clearly demonstrated that they were patriotic. that they were law abiding. that they loved our country. and they did everything asked of them. They gave the country their full support and cooperation. so that there is no man who can truthfully and honestly charge that they have not proved their worth and their loyalty. In view of that fact. I feel we should disregard some of the poisonous propaganda on the part of the professional restrictionists who. for personal and selfish reasons. have created in the minds of otherwise wellmeahing people and danger in the admission of immigrants in the past. and to the few in number that are permitted to enter now. In years gone by. through untrue propaganda eminating from these misguided restrictionists. it has been charged that most of these immigrants remained in New York. It is true that many of these people did remain in New York and it is because of this factor that New York became the greatest city in the world. We never hear any complaints from the citizens of that State against them. but the objections and opposition invariably comes from gentlemen and States where they have no immigration and do not actually know the value and benefits accrued from the useful activities of these immigrants. Of late. the only opposition is coming from a few organizations that have been fed propaganda by these professional immigration restrictionists who make their living by sending out this poisonous information. On the other hand. nearly every church. civic. and labor organization is in favor of admitting. without these many restrictions. these suffering men. women. and children. Of course. under the provisions of this bill. very few immigrants outside of these displaced persons will be able to be admitted to the United States as the quotas of all countries. outside of Great Britain. Germany. France. and a few other of the larger countries. are very small and few of their nationals will be permitted to enter after the enactment of this bill.