Speech #680200948

That is just what I want to come to. Let tue just state the problem we were trying to correct. In 1914. tile last year of unrestricted immigration. we gained 915.000 immigrants. net. and about 85 per cent of that number canie from Europe. The gain in immigrants from Europe in 1914 was 801.000 persons. nearly 1 per cent of the po!pulation of the United States. and about onefourth of that number came from Italy. about onefourth came from Polatd. about onefourth came from AustriaHungary. Only about onefifteenth were Englishspeaking immigrants. That was the problem we were facing when the temporary quota law was to expire onl the ist of last July. a migration of at least 900.000 a year. and probably much greater because of the Increased ecifnonlic pressure. The immuigration law that was temporarily adopted in 1921. the temporary quota law. fixed quotas at 357.000. but it left so many loopholes that the actual arrivals were twice that many. tilld our net gain. therefore. hi the year 1924. the last year before this new law went into effect. was 63f0.000 persons. and about twothirds of them Came from Europe.