According to the Assistant Secretary of State for InterAmerican Affairs. our current population growth rate requires the creation of a million new jobs a year. Today. over 70 percent of all Americans live in cities. Every demographer who appeared before the subcommittee testified that an even larger percentage of new immigrants settled in the large cities rather than the rural areas In America. Already plagued by perplexing problems of urban congestion such as shortages of jobs. housing. schools. medical facilities. water. et cetera. the United States can hardly be fairly condemned if we weigh the additional burdens an even larger population would impose. I am not much impressed with the argument that the MacGregor amendment would embarrass the United States in her relations with her neighbors in the Western Hemisphere. What about our neighbors and allies in the Eastern Hemisphere? What is embarrassing about a policy of equal treatment for all members of the community of nations? And why should not such a policy. designed to take effect 3 years later. be established now while we are engaged in the omnibus task of reforming our immigration laws? Why postpone a chore we will some day most surely have to perform? And when that day comes. will not that chore. standing alone. be more difficult and more embarrassing to perform? In summary. with the MacGregor amendment. H.R. 2580 will both improve our immigration laws and hold worldwide immigration approximately to its present level. Without the MacGregor amendment. it is absolutely impossible to predict how high the total tide of immigration might eventually rise. All nations and all fairminded men. East and West. will applaud us if. by adopting the MacGregor amendment. we register our firm purpose to treat all men everywhere alike.
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