302 WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION

We have got many of our best citizens from the sources whence
this immigration comes, but a good immigrant takes a job fully as
quickly as a bad one. Can we not begin to recognize that our present
immigration problem is an economic one and no longer needs to involve
 racial discriminations and racial recriminations? We have
more of our own labor than is needed, owing to our improved business
and agricultural methods, and the carrying of a great quantity of
unneeded labor is one of the greatest possible losses, both economic
and social. We have a primary duty to our own people.
With the possible exception of a very limited number of especially
skilled workers, we no longer need to increase our working population
by immigration. Immigration is not a rigid, but a fluid thing like
water. If we would control it, we can not stop a few holes in our
barrier and leave others open.
There is another economic issue that you must eventually meet.
We have two schools of business and two schools of labor. ‘There is
one set employers who still think there is no way to business success
except to get the cheapest kind of labor to be found in the world,
exploit it wastefully and seasonally, and then when the season ends,
or the orders fall off, dump that labor, and its dependents, on the
community to support. They like to store labor at somebody else’s
expense; but they like still more to go constantly to the border or to
the port of entry for ever fresh supplies, leaving the wreckage of last
year to. be cared for by others.
When that class of employer can not go to Ellis Island for more,
we see him turning to the Rio Grande. His is the stupidity of
exploitation, and in his exploited labor we find the best schools of
communism, hatred, and despair.
We have another school of capital and another of labor, where by
ability in process and by good organization, labor, and capital in
intelligent cooperation turn out more and more, so that all may have
more to share,
We have here the intelligent and economical use of labor, and not
the colossal waste and sacrifice of human time and human well-being
that the past has shown, that still exists most where the loudest ory
is for cheap foreign labor. Better processes take less labor, and the
industrialization of whole regions adds to our labor supply. We find
ourselves as a whole carrying labor than we can profitably use.
If then we let the world know that we need no substantial increase
of our working population by immigration, and act accordingly, you
will among other advantages no longer have visits from distressed
gentlemen of the State Department saying, “For Heaven's sake,
don’t hurt the feelings of this, that and the other people.” To-day
it is Mexico; yesterday it was Japan; and the years past it has been
others. We can now treat them all alike. If you work the problem
toward an economic basis, and it has been this economic trouble that
has been at the bottom of innumerable race troubles and unfortunate
diplomatic incidents you will bring this great question to a level where
it can be handled by reason free from race comparisons and race
prejudice, and it can be handled by you to the advantage of all
Americans whatever their racial origins.
The CHAIRMAN. You have made a very fine statement.
Mr. Ruraerrorp. I agree with that.
The Crarrman. I wish more people would come here looking at
the very broad, economic situation and also to the future. We are