Speech #880282363

Our answers have included the fact that. of course. the American labor movement is solidly opposed to this absurd. discriminatory Japanese quota. We tell them that the American labor movement helped to elect two recent administrationsthose of Presidents Truman and Kennedyand that we now support the administration of President Johnson. and that all three administrations were pledged. in expressions by the Presidents and in the party platforms. to wipe out the evil of national quotas. Sometimes. wide eyed. the Japanese check back on what youve said. "You mean." the Japanese will ask. "that you elect President after President who is opposed to unfair immigration quotas and you elect Congress after Congress that is opposed to unfair immigration quotas and yet today you still have unfair immigration quotas?" As one of my associates put it: "When you hear your own words coming back at you like that you begin to feel like a faintly idiotic product of a faintly idiotic political system." So if the Japanese have been baffled by our paradoxical behavior. we as Americans have been baffled even more over how to sound like rational citizens instead of oafs. And the paradox becomes all the greater because we knowand our Japanese brothers and sisters know we knowthat very few Japanese would become immigrants to the United States today even if all bars were down. Japan. as the world is aware. today enjoys a boom economy. unemployment is practically nonexistent. Why then should any substantial number of Japanese want to leave a land of prosperity and full employment for a country 4.500 miles away victimized by mass unemployment and widespread poverty? They would not. of course. But after we have said all this. three things stubbornly remain. first. the wounded pride of our Japanese friends who feel. not without cause. that they and their country are the object of our prejudice and discrimination. second. a nagging doubt among these Japanese friends that neither the democratic process in the United States nor democratic unionism are as effective as Americans would like the world to believe. at least where immigration is concerned. and third. the Communists of Japan and of southeast Asia continue to enjoy the propaganda ammunition that we provide in the national quota system while tens of thousands of desperate. hungry. and homeless refugees wait and waitand sometimes listen to the Communists. These. then. are the reasons that the American labor wholeheartedly supports immigration reform: Reasons of our historic roots and our loyalty to the immigrant men and women of bygone years who gave American trade unions birth and the strength to survive and contribute to our Nations greatness. reasons of solidarity among the free nations and free labor movements of the world. and reasons. finally. of humanitarianism. compassion. and the encompassing. indestructible brotherhood of man. The Secretary of State On July 2 the Secretary of State. Dean Rusk. appeared before the Immigration and Nationality Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee testifying in support of the administrations proposals for amendment of the immigration laws. The following is a pertinent excerpt from the Secretarys statement: "What other people think about us plays an important role in the achievement of our foreign policies. We in the United States have learned to judge our fellow Americans on the basis of their ability. industry. intelligence. integrity. and all the other factors which truly determine a mans value to society. We do not reflect this judgment of our fellow citizens when we hold to immigration laws which classify men according to national and geographical origin. It is not difficult. therefore. to understand the reaction to this policy of a man from a geographical area or of a national origin. which is not favored by our present quota laws. Irrespective of whether the man desires to come to the United States or not. he gets the impression that our standards of judgment are not based on the merits of the individualas we proclaimbut rather on an assumption which can be interpreted as bias and prejudice. Inasmuch as our immigration laws are regarded as the basis of how we evaluate others around the world. their effect on people abroad and consequently on our influence. can readily be seen. There have been times in the past when we have been accused of preoccupation with the people of the West to the neglect of Asian people in the Far East. Unfortunately. the national origins system gives a measure of support and credence to these observations."