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system to the Western Hemisphere, as well as to the Eastern Hemisphere, which now embodies the quota system.

Mr. WILMETH. I think there can be no doubt of the soundmess of that argument. Permit me to state, gentlemen, that the Bureau of Research sent out information from the city of Washington last year that the United States as such has 21.4 percent of all the immigration people of the world. It seems to me that we are surfeited. Here is the report of the Secretary of Labor, which says that there are between four and five million unnaturalized aliens here now.

Senator REYNOLDS. Just a moment there. That report that you refer to includes, as I understand it, Japanese immigration to Brazil and the immigration of the Japanese into the northern territory of China, does it not, as far into the interior as outer Mongolia?

Mr. WILMETH. So far as I know it includes the nationals of other peoples beyond their own borders and within the confines of other civilized countries.

Senator REYNOLDS. Of the world.

Mr. WILMETH. Yes, sir, nearly 25 percent of the entire alien population of the world. We have got too many. It is time to cut them down. It is time to make deportation more effective.

Now, Mr. Chairman, I am not going to take more of your time. I have analyzed these bills, each one of them. Captain Trevor has covered the ground and we want to back up and support every word that he has said. His analysis and ours is most similar. We are in thorough and hearty accord with his analysis as presented to your committee, and it has our unqualified support. There is no need for me to take your time to go back into all of this. I could do it, but I know that you are busy and that you do not have the time to hear of it. I appreciate, and my organization and affiliated organizations of approximately half a million voting people in this Nation, every member of whom is a native-born American citizen, appreciates this opportunity of letting you know how we feel about it and of contributing this word, which we hope may be healpful.

Now, Mr. Chairman, if you have no objection, I would like to ask that this be inserted in the record.

Senator SCHWELLENBACH. Very well. We are very glad to have you here, Mr. Wilmeth.

Senator REYNOLDS. And I would like to have this inserted prior to the remarks of Mr. Trevor this morning.

I would now like to have you hear Colonel Taylor, Mr. Chairman.

STATEMENT OF JOHN THOMAS TAYLOR, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN LEGION, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Mr. TAYLOR. Mr. Chairman and Senators, I am going to be very brief. I just want to endorse what Captain Trevor has said in his careful analysis of these four bills, and ask, if I may, to insert in the record the resolution adopted by the American Legion.

Senator SCHWELLENBACH. Before you go any further, I will say that you are Col. John Thomas Taylor, legislative representative of the American Legion.

Mr. TAYLOR. Yes. While these resolutions do not cover all the phases of the subject, I wish to say that insofar as the bills are con

cerned we certainly endorse everything that has been passed upon by the Legion. There has been no real immigration legislation considered and passed by the Congress since, I will say, 1924-since the National Origins Act. Since then most of the legislation dealing with this subject has been a whittling down rather than strengthening the immigration laws.

This particular legislation that we have before us today found its inception-I think it was the Crow bill in 1934, followed by the Dickstein bill and then the Kerr bill and the Kerr-Coolidge bill of the last session. Wisely, I think, it has now been split up into four separate pieces of legislation, so that if any particular phase of it does not meet with the approval of the Congress, at least we have a fair chance of having something come out.

The Legion, as you know, Mr. Chairman, has a great number of what we might call aliens in it, boys who served during the war and who were born and raised in some other country. In view of that fact, the present legislation, so far as the Legion is concerned, has received very meritorious consideration. What I mean by that is this: The Legion has a committee called its Americanism commission. It is composed of a member from each State. A good many of the men that are on that commission were born in foreign countries, and of course, a great many of them their parents were born in foreign countries, so that their attitude toward legislation of this kind really is entitled to more weight because of the fact that they themselves came from foreign shores, and yet, after careful consideration by that committee or commission over a period of years now, the last 15 years, it is the judgment of those individuals making up the Americanism commission and finally finding its way through the national organization, a great number of which are foreign born, that legislation of this sort, particularly that calling for the reduction of immigration by 90 percent or to 10 percent, and the definite deportation legislation, has found approval in our organization.

We advocate, of course, the fingerprinting of the entire population, which of course would include the fingerprinting of the aliens. We have not differentiated there at all. But the Legion does stand for that type of identification, and I think it has been pretty well brought out that every one of the 4,760,000 men that served during the World War were fingerprinted, and I do not know that anybody objected to it and I do not know of any real or profound reason why anybody should object to it now.

As to the deportation situation which developed under the KerrCoolidge bill, and especially in the session before last, the Kerr bill, where the sole question of misunderstanding and dispute seemed to be where the authority would be delegated-some seemed to think that too much authority was given to the Department of Labor, the Secretary of Labor, but I am convinced that under the terms of this particular bill, S. 1765, that with its provisions being under the authority of the Secretary of Labor it will accomplish a good job. And speaking for the Legion, we endorse these bills, and as Captain Trevor has stated and as others have stated, we sincerely hope for your very favorable consideration of them during the present session.

That is all I have to say, gentlemen.

(Mr. Taylor submitted the following paper:)

RESOLUTIONS AFFECTING ALIENS PASSED BY THE NATIONAL CONVENTION OF THE AMERICAN LEGION IN CLEVELAND IN 1936

Resolved, That the President of the United States of America, and the Attorney General thereof, be, and each of them is hereby, urged to use the full power of the Department of Justice and every other governmental agency to investigate the methods employed by and the activities of those who are now engaged in propagating and disseminating subversive doctrines and to prosecute and punish those responsible in all cases warranted by the evidence, including as a part of such punishment the prompt deportation of all aliens convicted.

We recommend the universal application of the fingerprinting system for identification of all persons in the United States. We further recommend the fingerprinting of all persons upon entry to the United States.

Resolved, That the American Legion in eighteenth annual convention do publicly protest and condemn the notion of those in charge of such projects in employing aliens while American citizens are unemployed and that we demand that this injustice and discrimination be corrected.

Be it resolved by the eighteenth convention, That the American Legion approves the immediate removal of all aliens from public relief rolls who have not applied for United States citizenship.

We recommend the deportation of any alien who has been convicted of violation of any narcotic law of any State, Territory, insular possession, or the District of Columbia.

We recommend the deportation of any alien who has knowingly encouraged, induced, assisted, or aided anyone to enter or try to enter the United States in violation of law.

We recommend that all persons entering the Unietd States illegally shall upon apprehension be immediately deported.

We recommend that our border patrol of the Immigration Service be increased to the point that efficient service will reduce illegal alien entry.

We recommend that designated persons holding supervisory positions in the Immigration and Naturalization Service be given power to issue warrants of arrest for persons believed to be subject to deportation.

We recommend the deportation of any alien who has been engaged in espionage for a foreign government.

We recommend that the present quota for immigrants from those countries granted quotas be reduced by 90 percent.

We recommend that the administration of all alien and immigration laws enacted by Congress strictly according to the provisions of said laws. We recognize, however, the possibility of meritorious exceptions arising and the necessity of judicial interpretation of appeal from strict enforcement of the foregoing deportation provisions, and therefore recommend the power to exempt from deportation be vested in the judges of the respective United States district courts before whom all such appeals should be heard.

We recommend legislation providing that the ability to read English as well as to speak English be made a prerequisite to naturalization.

We recommend that Congress appropriate sufficient funds to carry out the purposes of this resolution.

We recommend the deportation of any alien who has been convicted in the United States within 5 years of the institution of deportation proceedings against him of a crime involving moral turpitude or a felony.

We rededicate ourselves to the high duty of citizenship as defined by our United States Supreme Court in the Schwimmer and other United States Supreme Court decisions wherein it is held that "It is a duty of citizenship by force of arms when necessary to defend the country against all enemies", and we abhor any consideration being given, particularly from any official of our Government to those aliens seeking United States citizenship concerning wherein there is any doubt about their willingness to bear arms in defense of the United States of America against all enemies.

And we direct the officers of the American Legion to call to the attention of the Congress any sanctions departing from this principle.

Senator REYNOLDS. Mr. Chairman, this is Mr. Millard Rice, well known to you, who is legislative representative of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, residing in Washington, D. C., where the Veterans of Foreign Wars maintain national legislative headquarters, I believe, as does the American Legion.

147479-37-5

STATEMENT OF MILLARD RICE, LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Mr. RICE. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States is an organization composed of American citizens who have fought in foreign wars in which the United States has been engaged. Its membership includes men of all nationalities. It includes many men who were just recently naturalized as citizens. It has long been interested in the promotion and protection of Americanism, and as a part of its program of promoting and protecting Americanism it has been advocating more restrictive alien legislation, including within that such points as the following: Greatly reduced immigration quotas as to all countries; providing that visas shall be issued by our foreign consuls; that no visa shall be issued if the immigrant is likely to become a burden or if he would prevent or remove the employment of an American citizen; that no visa should be issued unless the immigrant signs an agreement that he will adhere to the laws of the country; that no visa shall be issued if the immigrant believes in the use of force to overthrow Government.

The immigration bill that is before the committee would accomplish most of these purposes, taking into consideration the law that is now on the statute books.

The second point in our program of more restrictive alien legislation is that there ought to be increased border patrols to prevent the smuggling of aliens into this country. I realize that there is no such bill before the committee at this time, but as a factor in making effective the immigration and deportation laws, I want to insert a brief plea that this committee interest itself in the matter of having more effective border patrols. I understand that we have about 900 border patrols who must take care of two borders. Divide that by two and it makes 450 on each border. Divide it by three shifts, and it makes 150, and since it is a very dangerous job there must be two men out at each time. That would mean that there would only be about 75 patrols out on each border at any one time, in any event less than 100. That is not adequate with which to protect our borders against the smuggling of aliens into this country. I hope that this committee will interest itself in that question. It seems to us that the laws should become more effective in that respect.

Senator REYNOLDS. May I interrupt you by saying that I have some friends who have recently returned from Mexico by automobile, and they have told me, as well as several other people who have come up from there, that the customs officials down there were registering complaints by reason of the fact that their force has been materially reduced and there were not enough men there to handle the business, and, as you know, the customs officials cooperate with the immigration officials, and as a result of that complaint I directed a letter to the chief of customs the other day asking that the matter be investigated. Mr. RICE. That is very good. If we should drastically reduce the immigration quotas of this country and then fail to close up the back doors at our borders by failing to have a sufficient number of border patrols, we have not done the job thoroughly at all. We therefore think that those two subjects are linked with each other.

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The third factor concerning alien legislation in which we interested is that there should be a registration, fingerprinting, photographing, and identification of all aliens. Enough has been said on that subject already, and there is no need to amplify it further. are in thorough accord with the principles of the bill, which has been drafted to accomplish that purpose.

We

There ought also to be mandatory deportation of all undesirable aliens, of criminals, of those who believe in or advocate the use of force to overthrow our present form of government, and of those who are ineligible to citizenship. Considering present laws now on the statute books and the particular bill before this committee, we believe these purposes would be accomplished.

Another subject which is very closely related to the four bills that the committee has under consideration is another bill introduced by Senator Reynolds, and I do not wish to discuss it at length, but I do wish at least to refer to it, and that is the bill which would provide for preferred employment of American citizens by the Government of the United States, S. 1195. All of this legislation is founded upon the desire to give a preferred opportunity for employment to American citizens, and therefore the objective toward which we are aiming ought also to be embodied in separate legislation, and is therefore a subject that is linked up to the four bills that the committee now has under consideration.

I might say that I was privileged to be in on all the conferences when these particular bills were drafted, and I spent considerable time on that matter. Senator Reynolds also spent very much time on it, as well as Congressman Starnes of Alabama. I believe that all the provisions of these bills have been pretty well considered. There may be some technical phases that need improvement. We would interpose no objection to such changes or modifications as would increase the effectiveness of any one of the bills, as might be pointed out by the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization.

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate very much the opportunity of appearing before your committee briefly. I want to endorse the statements that were made to you by Mr. Trevor and Mr. Wilmeth concerning the detailed provisions of the separate bills. We hope that favorable action can be taken by your committee. I thank you very much. Senator SCHWELLENBACH. Thank you, Mr. Rice.

Senator REYNOLDS. Mr. Trevor, I believe that concludes our testimony, does it not?

Mr. TREVOR. I think so.

Senator REYNOLDS. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Trevor has suggested that I state that the one hundred and twenty-odd societies who form the American Coalition are in accord with the statements that have been made here by the national president, Mr. Trevor; and, Mr. Chairman, I want to take this opportunity on behalf of myself and the gentlemen who are cooperating with me here in reference to these bills that I have introduced in the Senate and Congressman Starnes has introduced in the House, to thank you for your courtesy and consideration, and I am very happy indeed myself, personally, and I know the other gentlemen are, that we have been able to limit our testimony here, because in the limitation thereof we will unquestionably find more readers for the report. That is one thing we had in

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