The Wilmington morning star., 1946-09-12
As Pegler Sees 1t
Nv WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, BY King Features Syndicate

NEW YORK, Sept. II Doctor Santiago
M. Peralta, the director OF migration OF the
Argentine republic, recently announced tnat
Argentina would welcome Immigrants In &C
cordance with her necessities. submit that
this proposition is wise and should be our
own guide.
In the case of the Argentine, farmers are
preferred. 1 do not know what the "necessl-
ties" are which should guide the United States
in a selection of immigrants asst to their crafts.
But, whatever they may be, we have a right
to adopt our own determinations for cur own
national benefit. e.
To those who will raise the most abusive
protests against this proposal I would interrupt
to point out that this has been our practice in
selecting refugees from Europe ever since Hit
Ter began to rise. This was stated officially to
the Foreign Relations Committee of the House
of Representatives in secret session on Nov.
26. 1913. by Breckenridge Long, who had COM
mand of 8 special division of the State Depart
ment dealing with the refugee problem. Mr..
Long said an advisory committee arbitrarily
decided that certain individuals were worthy
to be saved in the cause of humanity intel
~lectuals that is, authors, painters, orators.
statesmen, political leaders and publishers of
newspapers; men who, because of their race,
religion, political beliefs and opposition to the
Nazi regime would be killed.
I challenge Mr.. Longs calm assumption that
tue cause OIL humanity was OeLteT served
thus than it would have been served by the
rescue Of farmers, mechanics, or miners who
instead were left behind to die because this
committee had decided that ''intellectuals''
were more precious.
I have closely observed 'irtellectuals' in
New York, Washington and Hollywood for a
quarter of a century and state with authority
that they are no more valuable to humanity"
than other persons. I contend, also, that we
had no special need OF such specialists. If
Mr.. Long had said that we selected individuals
whose personal acquaintance, military and
political ormat or scientific knowledge
gave reasonable promise that they would be
uncommonly helpful to us, as a nation, in the
impending war, he would have made 1t diff
cult to criticize his admission. But he didn't
say that and in saying what he did say, he
prepared a good ground for anyone who now
argues that we have absorbed enough of such
intellectually and should consult our own
necessities" in the selection Of further i'm
migrants.
1t is necessary to point out that the selection
of immigrants from Europe is now and for
some years past has been made on the basis
OF religion and racial or mass guilt. We-are
initiating Adolf Hitler, in reverse, when Ger
mans, "suspected' Of sympathizing with the
Nazi regime, are arbitrarily rejected by our
consuls when they apply for quota visas. Few
"Aryan' Germans can escape such "suspi-
cion'' but all so-called "non-Aryans" obviously
are ABOVE Suspicion. lue result Is uidt We
honor Hitler'S own infamous doctrine and
abandon our own native law that guilt is per-
sonal and individual and that the accused
must have a fair trial.
The solicitation to Europe inscribed in bronze
on the Statue of Liberty to give me the
wretched refuse of your teeming shores" is
a poetic expression which Americans may dis
avow in patriotism, dignity and legitimate SEX
interest. If the subject be approved without
emotion, it must be admitted that "wretched
refuse" even though the phrase be ironic,
suggests the inclusion Of persons who are I'm
desirable as immigrants by any fair consider
alton of our nations rights. There is no merit
in the assumption that the United States owes
asylum to all those who are wretched merely
because they are wretched, or to anyone else.
immigration is a privilege, not a right. The
privilege should be regulated in the practical
interests of the nation and the people who
comprise it. Any regard for the wretchedneSs
of the applicant should be understood to be a
generous favor from the people of the United
States, to be extended or denied, at will, by
those people.
The disclosures in the Carson case recently
provoked new inquiries into a system of
frauds, attended by bribery, in the immigra-
ton service after the first war. In the recent
and current situation, the possibilities and
Temptations are greater than they ever were
before. And, inasmuch as the government it.
self has warped, evaded and frankly violated
the immigration laws and connived at schemes
which Knocked the law, common sense must
suspect that bribery and discrimination are
the rule today.
1t is a grievous but durable fallacy that i'm
migrants come to the United States because
they love democracy" and liberty. They come
here for various ignoble motives and advan-
tages. Judge John c. Knox, the senior judge
OF the United States District Court, a dis
tinguished liberal appointee of Woodrow Will.
son, wrote: Il am afraid that a very SUBJ
stantial portion of all applicants apply for citi-
zenship for narrowly selfish or sordid reasons.
Thousands OF aliens, resident here for years
and thoughtless of citizenship while earnings
were good, have become Good Americans
merely in order to get on relief"
President Wilson, surely no Nazi, wrote that
the immigrant masses Of the last century
obliged American statesmen 10 accommodate af-
fairs to a day of new alien forces which
dominated as they did.
If men looked for an issue. here was one:
the preservation of the country's institutions
in the face of such inroads, the maintenance OF
a safe ascendancy in affairs for those born
to the politics and manners Of America" he
wrote.
The quick retort in contempt for the native
and in equally Incorporate praise of the i'm.
migrant selects some spectacular native crimi-
nal for comparison with some distinguished
immigrant. That is no more fair nor convinc-
ing, however, than to select such an immi-
grant as Charlie Chaplin and compare him to
the most il!ustrious native of our time.