The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-03-03
DEFENDING THE FOREIGN BORN
BEFORE A CONGRESS COMMITTEES

want to restrict in1migration,-that
in fact their interests are identical
with the workers of all countries in
opposing capitalism He exposed the
demagogy of the Committee member,
Mr., Johnson Of Washington, who
claimed that the rstriction of inn
migration would materially help unr
employment, by showing that I'M
employment Is universal and is in
creasing in capitalist countries and
that it is due not To immigration but
to the breakdown of the capitalist
system.
Ford's presence at this meeting
was something of a sensation. 1t was
the first time that Negro had testi-
fled before this Committee for over a
score Of years. Dies, the Southerner,
asked Ford where he was born. an
Alabama" Ford replied. Dies had not
a word to say when Ford included
the immigration bills along with the
legal lynching of the nine Scottsboro
Negroes, as part of a campaign in
the terrorization Of one or another
section of the working masses.
Max Levin confined himself to the
legal aspects of the policy of the
Department of Labor under the
leadership Of Secretary Doak. He
demonstrated even to the Committee
that the raids on homes and on
public meetings and the rounding up
of crowds of workers on suspicion
only, arresting them without warrant
and holding them frequently without
hearings and frequently with benefit
of counsel was an abrogation of law
and order and a cancellation of the
Constitution and the Bill of Rights,
calculated to bring the foreign born
OF the United States and their chill
dren who are born here, into state
of panic. Very nearly a third Of our
population, he stated, will be directly
affected by the proposed restrictions,
which variously prpose registration OF
aliens, frequent reporting to author
tiles, finger printing, and the like
entirely unjust and degrading i'm
positions. The proposal to wholly
exclude alien Communists from en-
trance to the country is a totally
uncalled for discrimination, he de-
clared, against a political belief which
is not at this time illegal in the
United States.
Bills Aim to Divide Workers
Charles Oberkirch, in his testi-
sedstre3imony,r d. IS I'll fh?fh? ffi?fd
ulony, stressed the necessity for
labor organization along class lines
and scored the American Federation
Of Labor which in it's policy of "class
collaboration betrays the workers
and fails to fight against wage cuts
and unemployment and for unem-
ployment insurance. He attacked the
immigration bills as designed to di-
vide native born against foreign Born
workers ut places another weapon
in the hands of the BOSSES" he said,
TO break-our strikes when we resist
wage cuts and fight for better con-
ditions."
The anti-allen bills have been
lobbied for by dozens OF so-called
patriotic organizations--tfe Daugh-
ters of the American Revolution, the
American War Mothers, the Amer
lean Defense Society, Inc, the Sons
of the American Revolution, the Sons
and Daughters OF the Pilgrims, the
United Daughters of the Confeder-
acy, the American Legion, the Ma
tional Security League and so ON ad
nauseafn, these organizations have
supported the attacks on aliens and
support every restrictive measure.
The League for the Protection of
the Foreign Born was the first to
appear before Congress with a pro-
test. The Leagues delegates argued
before the Committee, Tuesday,
March l, for three hours, and for
the first time these members of
Congress listened to the viewpoint
of revolutionary workers.
Both Ford and Oberkirch told the
Committee that capitalism is dying,
and that only a workers and farmers
government can overcome the poverty
and misery under which the pro-
letafiat is now ground down.