President. I do not want to delay the Senate. but I wish to add a brief statement to what the Senator from Arkansas has said. Anyone caii defend the nationalorigins basis of restricting inmigration. but no one call defend an immigration law based upon a census which is 40 years old. We are now in the act of taking another census. the 1930 census will soon be completed. When it s11all have been coinpleted. if the nationalorigins provision shall be abandoned. we shall adopt as a basis the census of 1930. because logically. fairly. and honestly that is the census that ought to be taken if we are going to base the quotas upon foreign immigration rather than upon the percentage contributed by the various nations of the world to our entire population. The Senator from Arkansas Is right. It does not make any difference how honest Senators themselves may be. the repeat of the nationalorigins provision is the first step in the effort to undo the present ilnnigration law. If we shall retain the nationalorigins plan. which simply provides that each country can send such proportion of the annual permitted immigration into this country as It has contributed to our entire population. we are on safe ground. One can defend it: it is logical. it is not arbitrary. it is not discriminatory. It Is fair. it matters not which nation gets the advantage or which nation fancies that it is placed at a disadvantage. but if we shall adopt as the basis the census of 1890. which is 40 years old. on the face of it our immigration law will be a discriminatory. arbitrary measure. and the influences back of this inovement well understand it. I do not asseyt that Senators who will vote to repeal the nationalorigins provision are themselves opposed to restricting immigration. but those who opposed the act of 1924 opposed the nationalorigins provision. they fought it. they did not let up when Congress passed it. Two years were given in which to work out the quotas under the nationalorigins provision. The commission asked for an additional year. and whei that year was out they came back and asked for another year. Reluctantly and grudgingly. after long delay. the will of the Congress was recognized. and finally the law was put Into operation. and here. within a few months thereafter. the same resolute. determined. uncompromising effort against all restrictive immigration legislation is voicing itself in the votes of Senators who. consciously or unconsciously. are laying the foundation for the repeal of the immigration law.
Keywords matched
immigration