Evening star., 1940-03-03
Roosevelt and MocLeish Join
To Help Aliens Cause in u. S.
President Gives Conference Statement,
Librarian Of Congress Provides a Poem

kered for a strange one, the bloo6
afraid of changes, the blood afraic
Of travel" in other words, from thu
persons who stayed in Europe when
their kin went on to the New World
Strikes His Own Style.
With infreQuent recourse to the
comma, the poet lauds the offsprine
Of those who were not afraid OF
changes and travel:
Have they seen our kids? SAYS
New York State: the tall girls,
The long legs with the delicate
slender bones
And the wrist supple and small
as mans three fingers 49,.
"The way they walk on the world
with their narrow heels?
you can tell them anywhere:
tell them In any country
THE height Of their heads and
the tilt of their heels when they
walk:
"A head higher than most; a hand
smaller"
He's Lobbying.
Mr.. MacLeish's poem represents
the rare instance in which verse is
used as a lever against Congress.
The purpose of the work is to help
defeat any and all of the more than
100 pending bills which would put
restrictions on aliens in the United
States. 1t contsins ia lines, an ode
to "our four-lane highways, our
planes silver over the Alleghenies,
the big timber, the tall corn"
The idea Mr.. MacLeish seeks tc
express is that all the glories of the
United States are the work of those
who once were aliens. Mr.. Roosevelt
developed this idea in prose in q
statement read to the conference
when it opened:
"One of the great achievements
OF the American Commonwealth has
been the fact that race groups which
were divided abroad are united here
Enmities and antagonisms were for
gotten: former opponents met here
as friends"
The President said he wished the
work Of conference "every success.
This hope was echoed in other mes
sages-from Secretary of State Hull
Secretary Of the Interior Ickes
Justice Murphy, Secretary Of Agri-
culture Wallace, Aubrey Williams
the National Youth administrator:
Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor Of New
York: Maury Maverick, the Mayor
Of San Antonio;. John L. Lewis
president Of the c. I. O., and Charles
Poletti, lieutenant governor of New
York.
Pepper and C. l. O. Man Talk.
Aside from Librarian MacI eish
the principal speakers at yesterday
afternoons session were Senator
Pepper, Democrat, of Florida, and
James B. Casey, secretary Of the
G. I. O. Mr.. Casey scotched the COM
plant that the presence Of aliens In
the United States aggravates the
unemployment problem. He said:
Unemployment is not basically
. problem Of numbers. Numbers
mean something, but they are but
the surface Of the problem. Twelve
million unemployed is not twice the
problem Of 6,00O, 900 UNEMPLOYED
The fact is that any substantial
number Of unemployed at all, even
one Of 1000 900, Is q sign that some
thing Is wrong. II that wrong is
remedied. We can put 12,000, 900 men
to work just Is readily and profit-
ably as 100000 or 5000, 600 or
1000, COO"
James L. Houghteling, the COM
missioner Of immigration and nat
uralization, wrote to the conference
that the problem of the alien In
our midst is obviously q decreasing
one" so far as concerns aliens legally
admitted to the United States. He
added:
I'VE cannot pretend that there Is
no illegal entry into this country.
but we confidently believe that it is
strictly limited and ably combated
and does not represent . serious
population problem"
Don't Like South's Choices.
Restrictive alien legislation and
its sponsors came In for sharp at-
tack at q meeting last night where
speakers urged . mass advance On
Congress tomorrow.
prohatA jldRo pntrick Il. o14riesa