IMMIGRATION AND UNEMPLOYMENT

In spite of a national demand for new building and the opportunity for investing our surplus energies in European reconstruction, the country faces the increasingly serious question of unemployment. We are constantly hearing about a "shortage of labor", but in direct conflict to this statement are the thousands of men who are out of work and who apparently have little prospect of finding a job. Recent estimates place the number of idle laborers on January 1st at 2,325,000.

At this critical time reports threaten an influx of twenty-five million foreigners who intend seeking work in the United States. Immigration is no new problem but just now it assumes added weight; hospitality is not the only phase of welcome. Among the many aliens who come annually to these shores, a large percentage are of a low standard of intelligence, and while we may reap substantial benefits from their arrival, there are injurious effects as well to be taken into account. Not only does an inferior grade of foreign labor lessen available employment for Americans, but it tends to depreciate wages and in some instances practically monopolizes a given field. Moreover, those who do not become a public burden through lack of work, are apt to develop a thrift which impels them to return their savings to their native land.

Some time ago we excluded Chinese laborers; we have legislated to check Japanese immigration; specific cases from other countries are barred and a law was recently passed creating a literacy test for admission. But the query arises: is this enough? Circumstances today warrant drastic measures if our industries are once more to be placed on a firm basis. It would appear that a temporary restraint on immigration would do much to lessen the present plague of unemployment.