300 WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION

There are certain economic considerations connected with the
problem of regulating immigration from the countries of the Western
Hemisphere to which we wish to call your attention. Our hope in
doing so is to assist in some small measure in curing certain defects
in our immigration restriction laws that now prevent these laws from
accomplishing their recognized and approved purpose.
Most of us recognize the fact that our people have succeeded in
making their country a more desirable place to live in than are many
other parts of the world. Consequently, since modern transportation
has made migration possible for almost everybody, enormous numbers
of people who. are poor or uncomfortable elsewhere are impelled to
come into our country for the purpose of bettering themselves.
It is not our purpose at the present, time to present any facts or
arguments as to what the effects would be if we allowed our labor
market to be submerged by unlimited immigration. The American
people have very plainly passed on the principle that no such calamity
will be allowed if they can help it. It is with the consequences of
that pressure that we have to deal.
We have agreed upon the necessity of putting up a barrier but we
have not fully settled upon the factors that are necessary to make this
barrier effective. We have begun to see that by stopping one hole
in our barrier on the European side, we have increased pressure and
volume pouring into the hole on the Mexican side, which we have
not stopped.
We have not yet seen so clearly that there are certain indirect
effects upon other neighboring countries that are likewise capable of
nullifying the relief that we sought when we checked European
immigration.
One of these countries is Canada. If we bar immigration from
certain overpopulated European countries, it turns their immigration
toward our neighbor. If at the same time we leave the door open for
anlimited immigration of the native-born citizens of Canada into our
own country, and if it is the policy or interest of Canada to admit
European immigration in volume, the condition of the Canadian labor
market will determine how many Canadians will have to Cross our
borders in order to obtain employment at sufficient wages, and this
will determine our own labor market.
The situation of Canada is this: We have here a country of great
undeveloped resources, a large part of which are located in rough
regions, with very cold winters. Very great commitments have been
made for the development of that country by very powerful and
influential financial interests. It is usually the desire of such interests
to have available what they would call a good labor market, produced
by liberal European immigration. John Mitchell used to call it
“Labor on storage at its own expense.” Some of us not identified
with labor unions have come to call it “labor on storage at its own and
the community’s expense.” However that may be, there is evidence
that this condition now exists in Canada. It produces an unemployment
 problem. How does this affect us?
In the face of this European pressure there is another field for
employment open to the several million native-born Canadians, most
of whom are not persons of independent means and need to work for
their living.
For $10 they can cross into the United States. It hardly needs
further explanation to show that. unless we undertake to a fw our