Speech #820200456

This proposal keeps the 10percent limitation for 10 months of the year. but wisely frees the last 2 months. Let us consider. briefly. some of. the arguments advanced by the advocates of a restrictive policy. We are told that millions of persons in Europe are trying to come to the United States. that we must solve our own economic problems before accepting further immigration. and that the new Immigrants will take jobs away from American workers. These arguments simply do not stand up in the light of cold facts and logic. In the first place it must be clear that we would not be overwhelmed by a deluge of new immigrants under the unused quota proposal since the number who may enter the United States each year is still limited to approximately 150.000 persons each yeara figure which represents less than one onethousandth of our total population. Controlled immigration is established as an integral and necessary part of American policy. and few would propose that we abandon that. policy. The suggestion that we must postpone new immigration until some of our economic problems are solved is convenient but hardly convincing. In the first place. we have always had urgent economic problems. and undoubtedly always will have them. We learned during the 1930s that immigration automatically declines as a result of economic depression. Now. in a period of manpower shortages. full. employment. and high prosperity there is even less validity to this argument. The charge that new immigrants will take jobs from American workers stems from the old days of mass immigration when there was a tendency for immigrants to accept lower wages and inferior working conditions. But in these days of strong unions. full employment. and -Government safeguards. these dangers have largely disappeared. The arguments in favor of a closeddoor policy have been repeated over and over again since the days of John Adams in spite of the fact that our periods of greatest expansion have invariably coincided with our periods of greatest immigration. The record shows the role which immigrants have played in pushing our frontier west and in building the industrial machine which is the greatest the world has ever seen. We know that immigration is good for the country in terms of national wealth. national culture. national productivity. and national defense. We know that the new skills brought by immigrants can create new industries. that new blood and new cultures enrich the creativity of our land. We know that the five States with the largest populations of foreign bornNew York. Massachusetts. Rhode Island. New Jersey. and Michiganare also among the most prosperous of all the States. Without the immigration of our past. it is safe to say that our country could never have risen to the position of leadership which it commands today. For example. it has been estimated that if it had not been for immigration since 1789 our population today would be approximately 85.000.000. or a little more than the population of Japan. Population experts have pointed to Americas declining birth rate and have predicted that our population would become static by 1970. When this prospect is contrasted with the predictions of rapid increase for the populations of countries like Russia. the danger to our world position becomes apparent. The question of immigration is so basic to our welfare. so basic to our international relations. and so basic to the growth and development of this country that we must make every effort to place the national need above personal prejudices in considering this legislation. I am confident that the Congress will keep its eyes on the future. I believe we will demonstrate to the world that we are the kind of land which can grow and develop dynamically and generously.