Further strictures to limit the admission of aliens to those who are needed for specific trades is recommended in the annual report submitted to Congress yesterday by Secretary of Labor William N. Doak.
The report points out that for the year ending June 30th, only 35,576 immigrants were admitted, the smallest number in 100 years, as against 32,838 deportees of persons who had departed from the country at their own request to avoid deportation.
Secretary of Labor Doak asks further that a reading knowledge of the English language be made a naturalization requirement.
“Mature consideration of our conditions leads me to believe that the country will not likely again be in condition to absorb successfully a similarly vast number of aliens as were allowed to enter until a few years ago,” the report states.
SEES ENOUGH LABOR HERE
“I believe that in the development of our resources and the natural increase of the present population we have approached or reached a stage when the facilities and opportunities of employment will not exceed our supply of workers at home.
“It is logical then to refer this point to former recommendations of the department that our immigration policy should be revised to provide that no new and unaattached immigrants coming for the avowed purpose of seeking work shall be admitted unless it has been previously determined by the department that there is an actual need for the kind of service they are qualified to render.
“Such a policy, excepting the wives, husbands, children and aged parents of citizens and lawfully resident aliens and possibly professional classes, would restrict and reduce general immigration from all countries to the demonstrated requirements of the United States at a given time.
DETERMINED IN ADVANCE
“Under such a suggested system this department would determine in advance the necessity for the importation of aliens of a certain trade or calling, whose services were said to be needed, and if the representations were found to be valid the Consuls would then be advised, so that applications could be invited from aliens who would meet these requirements.
“This would seem to be a scientific system of immigration, would redound to the best interests of the country in the future and would be comparable in principle to the free entry under the customs laws of articles of foreign manufacture which do not enter into competition with our own industrial products.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
