There can be no doubt that not only the period of our Nations greatest growth. but also the period of its greatest prosperity. was during the time when immigration was on a very large scale. I do not claim that the condition was due entirely to immigration. It may have been due to development of our natural resources. or it may have been due to many other causes. However. the fact remainsand I believe it to be incontrovertiblethat over a substantial period of time the greatest growth and greatest prosperity the United States has ever experienced was during the period of greatest immigration. But we are not advocating immigration on the scale that existed in the 1880s or 1890s. No one has suggested that. We are advocating very moderate. carefully screened. selected immigration. We do not want subversives to come into the United States. We do not want criminals to come here. We do not want men and women who have committed acts involving moral turpitude to enter our country. We want them screened. But we do not want to make entry by desirable immigrants impossible. we do not want to do an injustice. and we do not desire to do something which. as the distinguished Senator from Connecticut has so clearly pointed out. would adversely affect relations with our sister countries. as would happen in Italy. and as I believe would happen in oriental countries. because the bill provides restrictions which are inexcusable. We controvert completely the false claims which have been made by proponents of the bill. that it lifts racial discrimination in the Orient. It does not.
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immigration immigrants