Speech #680070914

If we once got into a study of the ethnology involved In this question we could not pass an immigration law in the next 50 years. because we would not ever be satisfied with the product. The one lesson that I want to bring out from this chart is the great change that has taken place in the character of the -malgration during the last three or four decades. It will be noticed that Russia and Italy and AustriaHungary together only made up 1 per cent of the Immigrants who came In in this first decade from 1861 to 1870. while now they constitute many times the aggregate of those two nationsGermany and Great Britainfrom which we got most of our original immigrants. It will be noticed that there is a falling off of these eastern European nations during the last decade. 1911 to 1920. and that is not due to any change in Immigrati6n pressure. It is due solely to the war in Europe. which prevailed during more than four years of that decade. and the falling off occurred during the war time. During the years of the decade before the war the immigration from those southern and eastern sources was coming in at the same rate at Which it had come in during the previous decade. So that that apparent falling off can only be understood by remembering that immigration was blocked during that decade for nearly six years.