Speech #710172324

The House committee had hearings lasting weeks and months. and all of the testimony taken in those hearings does not appear in the large volumes on my desk. Many thousands of pages of testimony were taken. In the Senate Committee on Immigration we held hearings which lasted for months. Most of those who appeared before the committee. it was quite plain. were there to delay the passage of the bill with the hope of defeating it. that was the only reason for their presence. That has been only about a year ago. and now the very people who tried to delay the matter then are asking to be heard. and they are the ones complaining about there having been no hearing and not having been able to appear. They know their only hope of defeating this bill is to delay its passage and preventing a vote. Mr. President. under the 1924 law we allowed immigration to the extent of 2 per cent of those already in this country. That was the quota. The pending measure will place Mexico and the other countries mentioned under the quota system just as European countries. If we do not do this. we will be discriminating against all the other countries in the world and favolrng Mexico and the other Central and South American countries named in this measure. Now. only 150.000 Immigrants come Into this country under the nationalorigins provision from all countries except Mexico. Canada. and Central and South America. and yet the record e shows that from Mexico in 1925 there came into this country e 33.000. in 1926. 43.000. in 1927. 67.000. in 1928. 60.000. and in 1929. 40.000. An average of 56.000 a year have been coming into this country from Mexico.