Speech #680076431

It matters not how excellent the people may be. people of other attachments and other tastes should not pour in here in such numbers that they do not acquire the American character. that they do not love American institutions. that they do not live American lives. that there does not spring up from their minds. from their aspirations that which created American life and must maintain it if it is continued. for Americanism lives only in the hearts of the people and not in the letter of the Constitution or the outward forms of social or political life. We propose to restrict the numbers. The present quota law. which is highly restrictive. reduced immigration to a mere fraction of the volume it would have had but for the law. It allowed quotas from Europe and the Old World numbering 357.000. when 2.000.000 or 3.000.000 would have come. Even under it we have already received above 500.000 during the present fiscal year. those coming from Mexico and other parts of America being included.