Speech #680071003

That Is exactly true. but not only is that true. but as to a group of immigrants coming in a particular vessel their admission or rejection has been determined by the initial with which their name begins. All of the immigrants whose names begin with "A" on some boats will get in and the poor fellows whose names begin with "W" are excluded and deported. because the quota is used up before the steerage list has been finished. While it Is less important. there Is a great injustice to the steamship companies in all this. They start from a European port with a group of steerage passengers who are admissible under all of our laws. The quota is not exhausted. and the people they have taken have been examined and found free from disease. they are literate. they are entirely admissible. they have been able to prove that they are not public charges. and all that. When they leave the European port they are all right and acceptable. but while that ship is on the ocean some train comes across the Canadian border. or some ship comes into San Francisco Harbor. or a group of people come up from the West Indies. we will say. and the quota Is exhausted while the ship and her immigrants are still on the ocean. and then they have to be deported. to the infinite distress of the inarigrants and to the hardship of the company that brought them. and without any fault on the part of either immigrants or ships. That is one thing that has to be corrected In the present law. and that is one thing to which the committee has addressed itself. and it is being done by a system of quota or visC certificates. by which. at the consulate abroad. when the immigrant applies for a vise of his passport. he will be Issued a certificate. properly engraved to prevent counterfeiting. numbered. and only a certain number Issued from the engraving office. He will get one of those certificates. and the moment lie gets it he knows that lie is within the quota and Is not going to be debarred according to the moment of his arrival here. In other words. we apply the quota at the source and not at the port of entry. and in so doing we will avoid a very great amount of distress. In the last fiscal year 2.680 persons were rejected from our ports and sent back to Europe. although they were otherwise entirely admissible and desirable. merely because the moment of their arrival here was too late to get them in within the quota law.