Speech #700124795

Another group which has very much resented the national origins provision is that group which owes a part of its allegiance to the Irish Free State. At present they have about onesixth of all of the immigration under the quotas into the United States. the Irish Free State quota being 28.567. That comes from a country whose total population Is only about 4.000.000. Almost 1 per cent of the entire Irish nation can emigrate to the United States each year under the present temporary 1890 basis. but as a matter of fact the proportion of Irish blood in the whole American Nation. counting us all. native born and foreign born alike. is only 11 / per cent. so their quota would be cut down by national origins to 17.000. Obviously. they do not want that. and that is the explanation of the activity of that group against the nationalorigins plan. Then there is a third group. and that i. the Scandinavian countries. Norway and Sweden have at present quotas of 6.453 and 9.561. respectively. whereas if their quotas were based on their actual proportion of the blood of all the United States those quotas would be reduced to 2.403 and 3.999. respectively. or a reduction of more than half in each of them. and that explaius their agitation. I have not yet heard anybody suggest a fairer scheme. All of these temporary expedients have been based on the easily obtainable figure of the foreign born in the United States at a particular moment. The temporary law of 1921 fixed the quota at 3 per cent of the foreign born In 1910. ignoring everybody born in this country in the calculation of the quota. The present law. with its temporary basis. fixes the quota at 2 per cent of the foreign born in 1890. in other words. saying that we will determine the composition of our future citizenship not by looking to the blood that made America and saved America in its repeated wars but by taking account only of foreignborn aliens and naturalized citizens. both. in apportioning the future quotas. If some recently arrived alien who is not yet naturalized has a right to have his blood reflected in the quotas of our immigration. I say that we whose ancestors made this country and fought for it in every war have at least an equal right with that recently arrived. unnaturalized immigrant. and that is all that national origins doesto take us all into account. native and foreign born. citizen and alien. all of us alike. and base the quotas on the blood of the whole population that was in America at the latest available census. that of 1920.