Claim Immigration Laws Are Beneficial to Foreign Nations

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

American immigration laws are not purely selfish measures to protect the interests of American alone, Harry E. Hull, Commissioner General of Immigration, said in an address he delivered before the League of Women Voters in Washinton, in which he discussed the enforcement of the immigration laws.

“The fact is,” said Mr. Hull, “that the efforts of American citizens, as exemplified by the restrictive immigration policy to preserve the institutions for which the Government stands, and to maintain its standards of wages and prosperity, have benefited not only Europe but also the world at large.”

Pointing out that present-day immigration is less than one-fourth of that of 1907, Commissioner General Hull said it would be impossible to say accurately what would have been the number seeking admission in the absence of restrictions. “Indeed,” he said. “I think that steamship companies, American consular officers, and others in touch with the situation since the war, would readily testify that economic conditions would have literally precipitated upon us a flood of immigration from Europe, had it not been prevented by our limiting legislation.”

Commissioner General Hull declared in part :

“The General Immigration Act of 1917 represents the thought of the country at large upon the classes of aliens regarded as dangerous to our national welfare. Aliens of criminal and immoral classes, aliens who are likely to become public charges, physically or mentally afflicted, vagrants, heggars, and such classes are specified in such definite terms that inspectors are able to determine readily the qualifications of alien applicants; and the traveling public and transportation interests are placed on strict notice that these classes of alien passengers may not be accepted for transportation to our ports.

“The quota law of 1924 goes even further and says that aliens who have qualified may come only in prescribed numbers, which means roughly that 164,000 alien natives of the Old World may be admitted yearly. At this point let me introduce a thought which I believe worthy of earnest consideration.

“In addition to the 164,000 quota immigrants who may be admitted annually, the law permits the entry of an unlimited number of natives of countries of the Western Hemisphere, the net result of which was that in 1925, the first year of operation under the new law, the startling total of 175,865 natives of non-quota countries was admitted and in 1925 a total of 151,454 such immigrants entered for permanent residence. Since the first quota law in 1921 approximately 900,000 natives of non-quota countries have been admitted, whereas, if quotas were fixed for those countries, only something over 100,000 might have entered for permanent residence during that period. Natives of adjoining territory furnish a very considerable proportion of these totals. For example, in 1925 Mexican immigrant aliens numbered 32,378 and 42,638 were admitted in 1926 in contrast to 1,557 who might be admitted annually if a quota were established for that country.

“I have emphasized many times that by restricting the immigration of natives of certain Old World countries that have contributed so much to our national origin, while at the same time admitting an unlimited number of natives of countries of this hemisphere, a great injustice is being done. My opinion is that if it is a good thing for us, as a nation, to limit the number of alien peoples that may settle among us permanently, it is just as good in one direction as another. Immigration statistics show that while Congress limited immigration from the Old World to 164,000 annually, the total of immigrants admitted is more than twice that number for each year of operation under the Act of 1924.

“Of course, if Congress had this situation in view in passing the law, I have no quarrel with the result, but it seems to me more American and more equitable that the limiting acts be enforced evenly against all alien peoples. It is not fair to the countries of this continent, for in some cases it robs them of their very best people, and it is not fair to the countries of the Old World because it is a discrimination against their people who, in their crowded condition, desire to come to this country and are prevented from so doing by fixed numerical restrictions.

“One of the chief arguments advanced for not applying quotas to our adjoining countries is that we need the cheap labor for our industrial life, but this argument is not sound. We have demonstrated that cheap labor is not necessary to industry and that this same cheap labor is undermining our future civilization. Cheap labor never makes for good citizenship, and it is not doing so today.

“The future civilization of our country depends on the slavery of the elements and the binding of them to man’s service through the development of machinery. We must see to it that every American citizen receives the benefit, by protecting him from competition with the cheap labor of an alien people.”