Speech #810076611

In our deliberation. we must not be unmindful of the fact that the elimination of these concentration camps. and other socalled zone facilities. will remove from the American taxpayer their upkeep burden. which the experts tell us amounts to well over $200.000.000 a year. As you all know the majority portion of the expense involved in maintaining th2se displacement areas is carried by Uncle Sam. which means the average American citizen. There is no intent here of breaking down our immigration barriers. All of the usual tests of fitness will continue to be applied and there is very little likelihood that the wrong kind of immigrants will be admitted. The requirements of financial guaranty. employment. and a suitable place to live. without deprivation of any American in these respects. make it practically impossible for newcomers to become public charges. The careful screening by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Military Establishment will insure immigrants of good moral and physical wellbeing. There is no danger to our quota system and no threat of an excess of immigration beyond our power to assimilate. A great number of these people have a long agricultural background. If we distribute them wisely and widely. according to their skills. we shall have adequate room for them without unbalancing our own economic and social stability. These prospective immigrants are the kind of people who prized freedom enough to have suffered for it deeply and. in many cases. such as the members of the armed forces of the Republic of Poland. they fought side by side with our own soldiers in common cause against the scourge of dictatorship. In advancing our position of world leadership. in these hesitating days. we can speak more convincingly for freedom everywhere when we have done our utmost to give real freedom to those now faced with totalitarian extinction. Let us implement our European recovery program with this further demonstration of willingness to assume a just obligation toward these persecuted refugees. They are the kind of people in whose behalf the original American tradition of asylum was established and whose immigration to these shores has enriched our country from its earliest days right up to this hour. I heartfully urge you. my colleagues. to enact this bill into law without further delay.