Speech #680076841

I should like to explain with the utnost of brevity hat this "national origins" method is which is mentioned hi the last column of this quota sheet which Senators have before them. However. before I come to that let me explain what the first three columns mean. The total immigration under the present law is listed in the first column. which shows the quotas for vtrious countries under the law now in effect. which will expire on the 30th of June. Under the present regulatory law there are many exceptions. and the exeeptiors alnount to half again as many persons as the quota. so that the actual number of immigrants under . the pr.... nt law in the last fiscal year was 522.000. although the quota shows only 3.57.000. So much for the present law. Tile Johnson bill in the House has been amended and no longer provides for a minimum addition of 200. it now provides that the minimum sKall be 100. but. except for that. th.? figures are substantially correct. The Johnson bill allows what is called a class of nonquota immigrants. and In our committee hearings we asked Representative JOHNSON how many nonquota immigrants and exceptions of that kind he thought would come in. He admitted that there was no way of making an exact estimate. but said that. in his judgment. the number of nonquota immigrants would be as great as the number of quota imnigrants.: so that when we are estimating the amount of immigration under the Johnson bill we ought in fact to multiply the figures by two. The Johnson bill. with itz 2 per cent quota. based on the census of 1890. would largely permit the entry into the United States not of 165.000 persons but chaser to 320.000 persons. Then we come to the provisions of the bill as it Is reported from the committee. which is based on 2 per cent calculated according to the census of 1910. Numerically the number of immigrants who may come to the United States Is probably more strictly restricted by the Senate bill in its present form than under the Johnson bill. because the Senate bill allows practit aliy no exceptions from the quota. the only exception being in the case of our neighbors in the Western Hemisphere. 21r. President. the last column. which is headed the "National origins" method. shows what the immigration would be under an amendment which I presented more than a month ago and had printed. a supply being available at the desk for any Senator who has not seen the amendment In substance that amendment provides that after July 1. 1926. two years from now. so as to give abundant time for the establishment of the quota proportionafter that date in 1926 the total immigration shall be whatever figure Is fixed by Congress. I have suggested in the amendment 300.000. but the amendment does not depend on that. I merely took that figure because .it is something around half of the present inflow of immigrants. If Congress were to adopt that figure. 300.000. it would apportion that quota exactly in accordance- with the national origin of every man. woman. and child in America today according to the 1920 census. The trouble with the present system and with this 1910 suggestion is that it divides the quota according to the foreign born of 1914. In other words. the 1910 basis makes this apportionment of the quota: It gives 48 per cent to northwestern Europe and 39 per cent to southeastern Europe. Disregarding the nations for which we have no quota. the proportions are as 48 to 39. which is the way that the Senator from Rhode Island gets the figures that he gave. I think they were 55 per cent to northwestern Europe and 45 per cent to southeastern Europe. In other words. his were percentages of this block of S7 per cent of our foreign born that are used as the basis for the quota. That distribution Is the reason for the protest by the American born against the 1910 basis. You will see that that is dividing the quotas 45 and 55 per cent in a country whose actual population has its origin as 74 is to 13.