Speech #710023652

So it goes through the list showing very material. very radical changes in the quotas which will be admitted from each country under the two plans. I submit that the figures which I have recited do constitute a most radical change. so radical a change that it is going to prove increasingly difficult to convince interested parties that the nationalorigins plan and basis is a fair plan. a fair basis. I submit. too. that it is so great a change that it can not be brought about without convincing the people that it is a thing not in the best interests of our country. in other words. that we make under national origins a very great change without improving the nature of our immigration. if I may put it that way. Commissioner Hull. in charge of Immigration activities of the United States. has said at one time that he dreaded the thought of the new basis going into effect. the theory being that here for a matter of five years we have been operating under the 1890 basis. which has come to be quite generally accepted in all parts of the world and is not causing any great consternation or embarrassment on the part of our country or any other country. It is quite satisfactory. it is quite acceptable. Then. why should we resort to the adoption of another plan that we would have to explain at great length to convince the people. if it was at all possible to convince them. that there was fairness and reasonableness in the nationalorigins basis of quotas? Any basis of immigration quotas to instill confidence and invite confidence. to be any success at all. must first be accepted as fair. must be accepted as being reasonably accurate. must be accepted as being practicable. and must above all things else be understandable to people who are giving any thought at all to immigration questions. Perhaps it can be shown to the satisfaction of the Senate that the nationalorigins basis Is fair. is reasonably accurate. is understandable. and Is practicable. but I frankly confess that my mind has not yet been able to grasp the fairness and accuracy and understanding of the thing which some Members of this body seem to profess. The nationalorigins basis. according to my mind. is inaccurate. is unfair. Is not practicable. and is not understandable. That being the case. it is not inviting the confidence that any basis of immigration quotas ought to have to be accepted and to be a success. Why should we upset the present status and basis of immigration quotas which is so generally accepted when. to substitute in place of that. we must accept something which is provoking this endless debate and great discontent? The Assistant Secretary of Labor. Mr. White. testified before the committee that the quotas allotted at the present time. namely. on the 1890 basis. are quite generally accepted and agreeable. and that being the case. as long as there is serious controversy with relation to the merits of the nationalorigins plan. certainly I think there ought to be a unanimous agreement on the part of the Senate at least to further postpone the taking effect of the nationalorigins clause. It appears that after these three or four years of movement looking to a postponement we ought at last to have come to the point when we could Intelligently say whether or not we are going to accept the nationalorigins basis. It has been claimed that when the 1924 immigration act became a law it was thoroughly debated in Congress and that Members had a thorough understanding as to what national origins was. I do not see the chairman of the Senate Committee