Speech #670011542

Mr. President. because it embodies what has been the policy of this Nation since the time we became a nation. and it is a policy which we have pursued continuously until the present day. If we had excluded Immigration entirely. if -we had put up the bars so that there could be no immigration of any kind. I would have been quite content with that. but the pending measure does not. of course. do that. It does not adopt a distinct. definite policy of exclusion. but it permits the admission of 3 per cent based upon the population of foreign born in our country in 1910. The House bill makes an exemption in the one direction. namely. religious persecution. I make the exemption applicable both to religious and political persecution. That being the policy that has been pursued by this country from the time that we became a nation. and inasmuch as the policy has not been definitely changed by this bill as to the admission of immigrants here. I think that the only policy we ought to pursue. and the amendment seeks so to do.