Speech #710000045

The quota gives them substantially exactly what they claim in their own publications. written before this became a debated question. And so it is with the Irish. I need not stop to quote from publications. but it has all appeared in the hearings of the Senate Immigration Committee. The quota board has given them what they claimed before immigration became a subject of dispute. and see what the temporary basis does. Fiftyone thousand out of164.000 is the German quota under the teniporary 1890 basis. . I yield to no man in admiration of the Germans as desirable immigrants. They. are desirable immigrants. They blend well with our population. They soon learn our system of governmeat. They behave themselves well. They are a desirable immigrant stock. But why in the world should Germany. having onesixth of the presentday population of America as its origin. have onethird of all our immigration? Who can defend that basis? And so with Ireland. Her quota today is more than twice what her proportion in the national stock entitles her to. It is not that we are trying to reduce the immigration from those nations because of any prejudice againstthem. It is only that we are trying to put the immigration on a basis of impartiality which will endure. It is not that we are trying to say that Nation A is better than Nation B. We cheerfully admit that all of them are absolutely equal for this purpose.