Speech #710000045

Not for a moment. if the Senator please. Having settled the point that numerical restriction was necessary. the Congress had to decide how to apportion that aggregate among the various nationalities that sought admittance to our doors. It was obviously impossible to say that we would admit immigrants after a qualitative examination. because no two persons could agree as to what sort of immigration was best in quality. Some of us might think that a worker with. his hands was preferable to a clerk. We never could agree on that. Some of us might prefer some nationality. and think that the peagant from one corner of Europe was better than the best man from the opposite corner. Some of us might think that illiteracy was a conclusive bar. and others might think that that was immaterial. We never could agree to divide these immigration visas according to a qualitative examination. and so it became necessary to establish quotas for the different nationalities according to some rule. As a temporary measure. frankly so declared in the immigration law. the foreignborn persons who were listed in the census of 1890 were taken as the basis. and the quotas were apportioned among the countries in exact proportion to theforeignborn reported in that census. I It has been generally stated and assumed that that meant an exact method. It has been said by disputants on this question that the 1890 method. whatever its defects. at least furnished something that was accurate and sure.