Speech #710181560

I believe there is only one thing that is necessary to be determined with reference to the nationalorigins. clause. There is one thing we must first determine and that is whether or not it can be applied. It must be based upon the theory that we can determine by sufficient accuracy what is the national origin of the American population today. and it must be accurate enough so that we feel justified in basing this very important policy of immigration upon it. I shall confine my remarks to that basis. Whatever part I have taken in the discussion of the immigration question. I have never taken it from the point of view that this country ought to be divided up between the English and the Germans. the Italians and the Scandinavians. the French and the Czechoslovakians. We are here legislating as American citizens and as representatives of American citizens. It is from that point of view that I want to discuss the nationalorigins problem which confronts us today. That problem was placed in the immigration act of 1924. When it was placed in that act it was thought that the national origins of the American population could be determined with sufficient accuracy to make it the foundation of our immigration policy. In that law a provision was incorporated for the determination. if possible. of the national origins of the American people. Three Cabinet officers were designated in the law as a commission to conduct the investigation. and the law provided that when they had finished their investigation they should report to the President. Very definite instructions were given in the law as to how they were to proceed and what sources of information they were permitted to investigate and explore in order to determine this very important question. Now. what did the law of 1924 say upon that subject? It said: Such determination shall not be made by tracing the ancestors and the descendants of particular individuals. but shall be based upon statisties of immigration and emigration. together with rates of Increases of population as shown by successful decennial- United States censuses. and such other data as may be found reliable. Bound by that instruction in the law the commission started its labors. It reported to the President. Upon what was that report based? What did the commission find when they came to explore the records and statistics of immigration and emigration and the successive decennial censuses of the United States? First it was found that no immigration statistics had been recorded until 1820. Then a law was passed which provided that when an incoming ship landed the captain of the ship should file a manifest giving the names of the individuals landing from that ship. There was no provision to show whence in Europe those people came. they were given the nationality of the flag carried on that ship. Those records were burned in the Ellis Island fire of 1890. So until 1890 there were no reliable immigration records upon which the coimnission of a few years ago or any other commission or body of men could determine from immigration statistics the national origins of the American population. When the commission came to explore the census records it was found that no record was kept or taken in any census until 1890 to show whence in Europe immigrants came. So the census records and the immigration records from the beginning in this countrys history until 1890 afford no statistics showing what are the national origins of the American population. Those two sources of infornmation having been examined and found wanting. there was left for the commission only such other data as might be found to be reliable. What other data there could be we have not learned. The conmission reported to the President. the Iresident sent the report to the Senate. and with that report came an opinion from those three Cabinet officers that the records and sources of information were of such fragmentary character that they doubted the reliability of the complete report. They said they refused to accept any responsibility for the reliability of the report made on the basis of those statistics. My good friend. the Senator from Georgia . this afternoon said that those who are opposed to restrictive immigration had succeeded on two different occasions in delaying the going into effect of the na tionalorigins plan. Mr. President. I desire to call attention to this fact: The Coammittee on Immigration in its report to the Senate. through its chairman. the Senator from California. After giving the information and the opinions of the commission appointed according to law. stated that the conmmittee did not feel that the report was based upon statistics which were sufficiently reliable upon which to base an immigration policy. and therefore the committee succeeded on two different occasions to have the effectuation of the nationalorigins clause postponed by the Senate. When the matter came before the committee on a third occasion last spring. upon a resolution offered by the Senator from North Dakota . no additional information had been furnished. Evidently the committee did not accept the quotas based upon the investigation as provided by law. because it decided to hold public hearings.