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Solicitor General Francis Biddle today urged the reaffirming of “our traditional American generosity to aliens,” in a plea for unity before the triennial convention of the National Council of Jewish Women at the Hotel Astor. His address was broadcast by CBS.
Declaring that alien-baiting was “the country s basic incongruity” and asserting that the “almost hysterical reaction to everything we thought of as alien” was based on unjustified fear, Biddle urged Americans to be kind gentle and tolerant with aliens.
“They form a very small minority in our country–three or four million out of 130,000,000,” the Solicitor General said. “The conquerors whose ways we hate have persecuted and tortured minorities, small countries, alien groups. Here is our chance, our spiritual opportunity to be kind, to be gentle, to be tolerant. We can reassert our American tradition, build for ourselves a precious unity of the American spirit.
“If we are wise and generous we may be infinitely enriched by the artists, the craftsmen, the scientists, the scholars who are taking refuge on our shores. Are we to accept these newcomers, from every country, if they seek shelter here? It is a magnificent opportunity.”
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