Speech #690186836

The White House. Tile honorables the SECRETARY OF STATE. the SECRIErARY OF COMMIIICRI. and tile SECRETARY OF LABOR. Sias : The board which you appointed to conduct investigations and submit a report containing recommendations respecting Immigration quotas upon the basis of national origin. which may be reported to the President. as required by section 11 of the immigration act of 1924. submits the following preliminary statement in the belief that you may wish to be informed regarding the progress the board is making. We have found our task by no means simple. but we are carrying It out by methods which we believe to be statistically correct. utilizing the data that are available in accordance with wlat seems to us to be the intent and meaning of the law. We have not completed our work. but the figures which we are submitting for your information. though provisional and subject to revision. indicate approximately what the linal results will be. The available data which furnished tie basis of our computations include : (1) The records of immigration giving the number of Immigrants arriving annually from each foreign country from .820 to 1920. (2) The reports of the decennial censuses which have classified the foreignborn population by country of birth at each census from that of 1850 to that of 1920. inclusive. the native white population of foreign or mixed parentage by country of birth of parents at each census from that of 1890 to that of 1920. inclusive. and both the foreignborn white population and the native white population of foreign or mixed larentage by motler tongue at tle censuses of 1910 and 1920. (3) A classification by racial stocks of the white population enunierated at the census of 1790 as published by tie Bureau of the Census in tile volume entitled "A Century of Population Growth" (4) Standard reference works giving the population of foreign countries at different periods. by Provinces and other small political divisions. and by linguistic and racial groups. It does not seem to us advisable or. indeed. practicable in this connection or at this time to undertake to give anytilug like a complete description of the statistical processes which we have applied in reaching tie results which we submit. To do that would require a volunilluous and rather technical report. which probably would be of Interest mainly to statisticians. The first step in our computations was tIe division of the total white population ifto two main portions. one representing that portion which is descended from the population which was enumerated in the first census. that of 1790. and the other that ] portion wlie consists of immigrants and the descendants of immigrants who have come to this country since :1790. The one portion we call for convenience tile " original native stock" and the other tie " immigrant stock." This division was based on census statistics and was made by a process which is believed to be more scientific and reliable than any heretofore applied to that problem. It may interest you to know that according to this computation. of the 94.820.915 white population of the United States as enumerated in 1920. approximately 53.500.000 were of immigrant stock anl 41.000.000 of original native stock. Having made this division. the foreignborn ant] the nativeborn children of foreignborn parents were allocated to quota areas oIl the basis of the 1920 census classifications by country of origin. adjIUStlinents being made where necessary for geographical changes. and tile balance of the immigrant stock (comprising the grandchildren and later descendants of immigrants) was distributed by country of originl partly upon the basis of statistics of Immigration and partly upon the basis of census statistics. again making allowance for changes in political geograply. For the classification of the other portion of the population. constituting what we have termed tle original native stock. the only comprehensive data available is that supplied by the classification. previously mentioned. of the 1790 population. which was based mainly upon the names recorded In the schedules returned at the census. distinguishing English. Scotch.