Speech #690004536

DIrNiESriMUCLINO O HIIUMAN CARO my owu home. ind I tried very hard to get a visd out of turn for ADMITweD. BUT CALLED ALMOST NErLDABLINCREAS. IN DEPORTA- that servant. and allhough I went clear to the Secretary of State TION AcCnEDITED TO AGrETS GREATER VIaILENECOumtSvION himself I could not get It. and I am delighted to testify to the fairness LESSENED ABOUT ELLIS ISLAND--POLITICAL INPLUENCE DrtopPED IN and firmness with which he applied that rnle." GRANTING OF VIS S IN FOREIGN PORTS Senator RED ited some instructive figures showing the marked effect of the new law on the tide of Inunigration. (By Arthur Sears Henning) "In 1914. the last year of unrestricted imigration." he said. " we Our new immigration law virtually has settled the immigration ques- gained 915.000 immigrants. net. aind about 85 per .eiit of that number lion. according to Senator REED (Republican). Pennsylvanin. chief caine fron Europe. The gain it immigrants from Europe in 1914 was sponsor of the measure inm the Senate. SO1.000 persons. nearly 1 per cent of the population of the United After an eight minilis trial of tle statute. Senator REED iluds that CStaes. and about oiefourth of that number came -from Italy. about the volunie of net immigration is only a fraction of what it was under o�efourih caine from Poland. about onefourth came from Austriathe old law. while the character of the addition to our population from H ungary. Only aboit onefifteenth were Englishspeaing immigrants. this source lias been tremendously improved. That was the problem we were facing when the temporary quota law was to expire on the lst of last Julya migration of at least 900.000 a year. and probably much greater because of the increased economic pressure. "The immigration law that was temporarily adopted in 1921. the temporary quota law. fixed quotas at 357.000. but it left so many loopholes that theactual arrivals were twice that many. and our net gain. therefore. in the year 1924. the last year before this new law went into effect. was 030.000 persons. and about twothirds of them came from Europe. " Jt was a European problem. and a problem of southeast Europe. Most all of that immigration came from southern and eastern Europe. " Let us see what these six months have done. From July 1 to December 31. 1924. the gross arrivals of immigrant aliens from Europe amounted to 67.303. the departures of emigrant aliens going abroad to stay amounted to 48.120. so the net gain from Europe was only 19.203. The departures of southeast and eastern Europeans far exceeded the arrivals. Our net loss to Italy was nearly 20.000. Our net loss to Poland was very considerable. We lost to all those countries that had sent us this great unassimillable body of immigration before. and the only reason there is a net gain of 19.000 from Europe is that from Germany. from France. from Sweden. from Great Britain came much larger numbers than went away. " I think we can fairly say. for the first time in 75 years. that the problem of European immigration to America has been settled. with a net gain at the rate of less than 40.000 annually. and nil of that net gain coming from northern and western Europe. mostly people who speak our language before they get here. mostly people who have inherited from their forebears a capacity for selfgovernment. I think we can say that for once and all the problem of European imnvigration is settled. " In what I have been saying. I have not meant to make any conlparison of peoples. I do not mean to say that the American is a liner man than the inhabitant of this or that European country. n " i many ways there is much we ought to learn from them. But I do say this: That they are unlike us. that they have not learned by 10 centuries of struggle to govern - thenlselves by our methods. and I say that that type of imnigratlon does not mix in America. and that was the reason why we bad an immigration problem. Those people came here with alien customs. allen language. alien habits of government. and they were increasingly unassimilable. I hall with great joy tile fact that that problem is at an end." Asiatic immigration. the Senator pronounced no problem. for the reason that fewer Aslatics are coming in than are going out. Then he took up the problem of nonquota immigration frons the countries of the Western HemisphZre. " The law." said the Senator. " provides that a nativeborn citizen of Canada or Newfoundland may come in outside of the quota." In the last yearthat is. the year ended June 30 lastunder the old law. under which they were outside of the quota we got in 200.000 and we lost only 2.600. showing a net gain of 198.000 Caunadians. That has fallen off. through causes which I do not wholly understand. having nothing whatever is do with tile immigration law. because they ave still free to come : that has fallen off so that in the first six months under the new law our gain was only 01.000. 1 do not regard that as a problem. Even if they do come in at the rate of 122.000 Canadians a year. that means nativeborn Canadians and it means people who in almost every respect are indistinguishable from ourselves. "As we look at the figures over the last 25 years we find that the same phenomenon has occurred before. Great numbers of them come in for two or three years. usually years of prosperity here. and then the tide ebbs and the balance is the other way. more Americans going to Canada.