Speech #830001777

When representatives of the National Grange and the National Farmers Union warned that mechanized farming diminishes the number of jobs on the wide grain fields of the Prairie States and that there is surplus agricultural labor in certain areas. while there are spotty shortages of such labor in other parts of the country. the Commission deemed it proper to belittle these factual statements and contradict the wise recommendations of the Presidents Commission on Migratory Labor made 2 years ago. Similarly disregarded and partially distorted by the Commissions report is the study of the Congressional Joint Committee on the Economic Report on underemployment of rural families. To give one more example of the Commissions strange evidencegathering methods: The late CIO President Philip Murrays statement made in 1946 against curtailment of quota immigrationthen attemptedis being twisted around in the report and made to sound like an endorsement for the increase of our annual immigration quotas. When it comes to overlooking congressional action and praising the job of bureaucrats. the Commission knows how to give an excellent performance. Reporting on the displacedpersons program. the Commission puts it in this very strange way: The United States took over 400.000 displaced persons through the Displaced Persons Commission and then goes on to say. "The Displaced Persons Act also brought to the United States. 55.000 German expellees and 2.000 Italian refugees." The average reader of the Commissions report would think that it was not the Congress that authorized the humanitarian operation undertaken under the DP Act. but that it was a Commission. hardly distinguishable from the one rendering the New Years eve report. Similarly. when the Commission notes in the report that the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration has successfully undertaken the task of resettlement of European emigrants. there is no mention in the report of the fact that the ICEMformerly PICMMEhas been established through congressional initiative through the cooperation of three congressional committees and with the participation of six Members of Congress in the organizations constitutional meeting in Brussels. Belgium. in 1951. The basic recommendation of the Commission is to create a bureaucrats dream empire in the field of immigration. The Commission does not believe in the existing quota system under which each nation of the world gets its share of the American immigration quota calculated on a basis first authorized in 1924 and rather well serving our national interests until now. Instead of the system of fixed quotas under which no favors could be accorded to individuals. pressure groups. organizations. or nations. the Commission prefers to have an annual quota pool of 251.162 visas for the use of loosely defined groups. such visas to be distributed. at will. by seven appointees of the President. ready to play favoritism and politics and ready to select immigrants from all over the world. with their own hearts delight as the only gage. Of course. the operations undertaken under the new law. as well as foreign and domestic conditions which might have a bearing on our immigration policy. require close scrutiny. The Congress has recognized the necessity of such continuous study and. in section 401 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. has created a joint congressional committee entrusted with this task and authorized to recommend legislation whenever deemed necessary. I expect this joint congressional committee to be organized soon and to undertake the study authorized by the statute. I am sure that should the joint congressional committee decide to study the advisability of amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act. or the advisability of the enactment of a new emergency law admitting an additional number of refugees. it would turn for advice to economists. to impartial and disinterested community leaders. statisticians. businessmen. farmers. leaders of veterans organizations. and so forth. I am sure that the joint congressional committee would want to find out how many more people we can assimilate. and how fast we can do it. what our natural resources situation is. do we or do we not have housing and employment for the returning Korean veterans and the almost 3.000.000 boys now in the armed services. The joint congressional committee would certainly want to find out what the results of the forthcoming leveling off of our armament production would be. how plausible the predictions of a forthcoming recession are. and many other things pertinent to the conduct of a sound immigration policy. The joint congressional committee would do what the Commission has also neglected to do. namely. make an inquiry regarding the number of aliens who are illegally in this country. the number of seamen who jumped ship. the number of stowaways apprehended in our ports but not yet sent back. and the part these illegal immigrants play in the evergrowing crime waves sweeping our waterfronts. particularly those of New York and New Jersey. In that respect. the Presidents Commission report is plainly useles3. The Commission has. as it obviously wanted. helped a few candidates for political office in foreignlanguage areas and made campaigning more difficult for some others.