Speech #880072473

There is no reason to believe that this process has ended now. *Each new group was met by the groups already in America and adjustment was often difficult and painful. The early English settlers had to find ways to get along with the Indians. the Irish who followed were met by these "Yankees". German immigrants faced both Yankees and Irish. and so It has gone down to the latest group of Hungarian refugees. Somehow. the difficult adjustments are made and people get down to the tasks of earning a living. raising a family. living with their new neighbors. and in the process. building a nation. There has always been public sentiment against immigration. or. more accurately. against immigrants. At times this sentiment was only latent. at times. it has been manifest. indeed. crudely so. Most often It has been unorganized. but In some periods it has been most effectively organized. The usual term for this sentiment is "nativism." which has been defined as "the fear of and hostility toward new immigrant groups." Yet it is a remarkable fact that in spite of this agitation there was at first no official governmental response. The forces favoring free and open immigration were clearly dominant. The sense of America as a refuge for oppressed and downtrodden people was never far from the consciousness of Americans. Thus. for almost 100 years of the Republics history. even through the period of knownothingism. there were no Federal laws of any consequence dealing with immigration. Not only were new settlers allowed to enter freely. but they were positively sought after in some periods. Inevitably. though. this mass movement of people presented problems which the Federal Government was forced to recognize. In 1882. recognizing the need for a national immigration policy. Congress enacted the first general legislation on the subject. The most Important aspect of this law was that. for the first time. the Government undertook to exclude certain classes of undesirables. such as lunatics. idiots. convicts. and people likely to become public charges. In 1891. certain health standards were added as well as a provision excluding polygamists. By the turn of the 20th century the opinion was becoming widespread that the amount of new immigration should be limited. Those who believed sincerely. and with some basis in fact. that Americas capacity to absorb immigration was limited were joined by those who were opposed to all immigration and to all "foreigners.." Antiimmigration sentiment was heightened by World War I and the aftermath of disillusion with the way peace was settled. which brought on a strong wave of isolationism. In 1921. Congress passed and the President signed the first major law in our countrys history severely limiting new immigration. An era In American history had ended and we were committed to a radically new policy toward the peopling of the Nation. The restriction was based on the socalled nationalorigin system which limited numbers of each nationality to a certain percentage of the number of foreign born individuals of such nationality residing in the United States. The effect was to cut drastically the amount of immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe and from Asia. The famous words of Emma Lazarus on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty read: "Give me your tired. your poor. your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Under present law it is suggested that there should be added: "as long as they come from Northern Europe. are not too tired or too poor or slightly Ill. never stole a loaf of bread. never joined any questionable organization. and can document their activities for the past two years." A new. enlightened policy of Immigration need not provide for unlimited immigration but simply for so much immigration as our country could absorb and which would be in the national interestthe most serious defect in the present law is not that It is restrictive but that many of the restrictions are based on false or unjust premises. We must avoid what the Massachusetts poet John Boyle OReilly once called: Organized charity. scrimped and iced. In the name of a cautious statistical Christ.