I wish to include a statement which I presented to the graduate club and ladies auxiliary of the Phi Delta Epsilon medical fraternity. Washington. D.C.. on The statement follows: Immigration has been a perennial subject of debate in the United States. ever since our Declaration of Independence ascribed a bad immigration policy as one of our reasons for wanting independence from England. This is not surprising. since immigration has been one of the most characteristic and distinctive marks of American history and has contributed enormously to our growth. our wealth. and our international preeminence. However. I am not unaware that sometimes discussion of immigration palls. The subject has been drowned with a deluge of words. There is none of us who has been intimately concerned with the liberalization of our immigration policy who has not. at one time or another. felt that whatever observations we can make have long since become trite and platitudinous. But the seriousness of todays struggle for freedom. for the right of people to live in decency and dignity. for liberty from oppression and dictatorship. make it all the more important for us to realize that immigration is a continuing challenge. We cannot afford to become weary of the fight for a decent immigration law. Russias sputnik and lunik have caused us to lose face in the EastWest struggle. and threaten to drive noncommitted nations in todays divided world A605 A606 CON into the Communist camp. We ignore only at our peril the question of how much face we have been losing for years among these same uncommitted nations because of our American immigration law which announces our belief that other groups of people are more desirable than the very noncommitted peoples whose loyalty to the free West is so sorely needed and so assiduously courted. A decent and nondiscriminatory American immigration law could be a great secret weapon against the efforts of communism to subvert the uncommitted nations. If we could only see ourselves as others see us. we would not wait a moment to discard the present immigration law and substitute for it one more in keeping with the traditional image of America. the country that pronounced the radical doctrine that all men are borfi equal. the nation that was never afraid of immigrants and always welcomed them regardless of their national origin. creed. color. or race. But I am a little ahead of myself. If iflmigration is important not only to our domestic economy. but also to our international relationsto the critical question of war and peacewhat should our immigration policy be? As I see it. after a third of a century of intensive study of the subject. there are three major areas in which our present policy is sadly. nay desperately. in need of major overhaul. To accomplish these ends.
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American immigration law announces our belief that other groups of people are more desirable than the very noncommitted peoples whose loyalty to the free West is so sorely needed and so assiduously courted.