Posted on 03/01/2012 11:54:47 AM PST by marshmallow
Pro-immigration? Well, until the 1020s, immigration was open, and there was always a disquiet about the numbers and kinds of people coming in. Ben Franklin did not think we would reach 100 million for several centuries. Thought it would take that long to span the continent. Had not a clue about the rapidity of industrial development. and he was the most far-sighted of the founders. The driving force of immigration has always been the economy, since 1607. Never enough hands to do the work. That’s why no limitation until the 1920s. Myself I would love to see a pause like we had then. If we had had an extra ten million Europeans to handle in 1930, no telling what might have happened.
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