Speech #710176613

That amendment proposes to repeal the national origins clause and to reduce the number of immigrants from 2 per cent to 11/2 per cent. as I understand it. The national origins clause was adopted in the last session of Congress. From talking with Members of Congress since. I am firmly of the opinion that it was adopted as the result of a misunderstanding and a complete misapprehension of the question at issue. The immigration act of 1924 eontainedna provision that the question of quota based upon the national origins of the people of the United States should be studied by a committee composed of three members of the Presidents Cabinet. the Secretary of State. the Secretary of Commerce. mid the Secretary of Labor. This committee of Cabinet officers were given very definite instructions in the law of 1924 as to how they were to proceed to acquire the information if it was possible to acquire it. They were definitely instructed to report their findings only upon information which they found to be reliable and to report it to the President of the United States. After laboring for something over a year the committee did report to the President of the. United States and in their report said that they found the sources of information so unreliable and so fragmentary. so many records have been destroyed. that they refused to assume any responsibility for the reliability or fairness of the quotas at which they arrived based upon the information they had. t The report came to the Committee on Immigration of the Senate. That committee in its wisdom discarded the report of the committee appointed according to law with definite instructions in the law as to how to proceed. disregarded the report made that the quotas were based upon unreliable information. and went afield in search of information of their own. They found what In the judgment of the majority of the committee was reliable information and so reported to the Senate. It is not necessary this afternoon to consider and quote the testimony presented at the hearings conducted by the Immigration Committee. A great many stump speeches were made. I felt at the time that in searching for information the committee had imposed upon it the same conditions that the law of 1924 imposed upon the committee of Cabinet officers. namely. that they should confine themselves to sources of information which they found to be reliable.