Speech #860071355

Mr. Chairman. as one who for the past 12 years have been closely associated with all legislation dealing with immigration and with many international activities in the field of migration. I wish to express my appreciation to the Committee on Foreign Affairs for including in this bill section 205(a) (3) providing for the use of foreign currencies accruing to the United States in any Latin American country for the purpose of making loans for agricultural settlements designed to offer farming opportunities for immigrants. As this House will undoubtedly recall. this is not the first attempt to provide assistance to some of our Latin American neighbors in developing agricultural settlements for European immigrants. Not on grant. but on loan basis. I may add. Why is such action desirable? Just about 2 years ago. on July 15. 1957. speaking from the same place. I endeavored to convey to the House my considered opinion that the era of mass immigration into the United States is a matter of the past. I stressed at that time. and I wish to repeat it now. that the fast increase of our own population and the overconcentration of our native and immigrant population in large cities and industrial centers. coupled with diminishing demand for manpower by our highly mechanized agriculture. makes it imperative for this country to carefully regulate our annual intake of immigrants. while at the same time exerting every effort to direct European immigrants to rural areas in the countries where the increase of agricultural production has become a vital. most urgent necessity. The organization which we created in 1951. the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration. has recently accelerated its activities in the field of movement of European manpower to countries desiring to increase their agricultural productivity. ICEMs able specialists have worked very hard at the preparation of realistic. workable plans. approved by the interested governments. which. if implemented. would open up hitherto unproductive lands for the settlement of farming families for whom there is practically no demand in countries other than those which are now striving to reach the production levels of the more developed lands. The Congress of the United States has already recognized the need for financial assistance. on loan basis. in the development of rural settlement programs in Latin America. In 1956 the Congress agreed to authorize the expenditure of $15 million for the purpose of promoting economic development in Latin America. specifying that part of that sum should be allocated for "landsettlement programs which will contribute to the resettlement of foreign and native migrants in Latin America serving the advancement of the economic development and the agricultural and industrial productivity in that area." This amendment to the 1954 Mutual Security Act was welcomed with unanimous applause both in Europe and in Latin America. Unfortunately. bureaucratic delays have resulted in the allocation of less than $2 million for the purpose stated in the SmathersWalter amendment. That amendment. however. still remains on the statute books as clause (C) of subsection (b) of section 400 of the Mutual Security Act of 1954. as amended. referred to on page 8. line 5. of H.R. 7500. the bill under consideration.