Speech #810076600

The first is that Guatemala has that requirement in regard to admitting displaced persons. that they must be employed on a farm within 60 days after coming to that country. which I think is a constructive plan and a wise precaution. The second point is that in the critical years back in 1933. when the population of this country had been attracted away from the farms by big wages in the cities. and was congregated in the industrial centers. there was so much unemployment and times were so bad that the administration. particularly Harry Hopkins. and the Relief Administration was so apprehensive that there would be bread riots in these industrial centers. such as are on the eastern seaboard. that Congress had to hurry and appropriate money to rush to the relief of the unemployed of the country by making huge relief appropriations. If we bring in these people we should place them on farms so that we would be relieved of the necessity of bringing laborers in from Mexico and Jamaica. in a plan running counter to our policy as expressed in the immigration laws. to work in agriculture pursuits. I hope that the committee will support this amendment and see to it that when we bring in these people they do not go into the congested industrial centers. the populous centers. to become a burden in times of financial stress. but go out on farms where they can become selfsupporting and be a stabilizing in.fiuence in our national economy.