If he waits for that to happen. he must wait all the way from 8 to 20 years before he can see his family again. I do not think that the -Congress anticipated. a situation of that kind when it enacted the law of 1924. and I do not think that the great Government of the United States should persist in imposing a hardship of that kind upon these helpless people. We had hearings upon this matter before the Immigration Committee. At the last session I introduced a bill which. in addition to taking care of the wife and the minor unmarried children in the way I have described. attempted to take care of the mother. It was apparent from the discussions in the committee at the hearing and afterwards that the feeling was so strong against any socalled let downalthough I can not consider this a let down in our policy at allthat I introduced this amendment. confining it to the wife and the minor unmarried children. According to the best figures we could get from the Immigration Department. and especially with the help of the Commissioner of Immigration at Ellis Islandthat official then being Mr. Curranit was estimated that there might be a total of 35.000 wives and minor children left in Europe with husbands and fathers on this side. so I put into this amendment a limitation as to the numbers and fixed that limit at 35.000. Mr.
Keywords matched
Immigration