They gave their opinions. they said they were in favor of the nationalorigins clause. but. so far as I have read the bearings. they threw not in any instance the minutest light upon the national origins of the American population. They merely gave their opinions. and they said they were in favor of the provision. However. we can not adopt such an important policy as the immigration policy upon mere opinion. It was the intention of Congress when it included the nationalorigins clause in the mct of 1924 that. if the national origins of the American population could be determined. the quota should be based upon them. and I assume they were to be determined with such accuracy that we could. in good conscience. according to our judgment. base our immigration policy upon such a plan. I beg to submit that so far. while a good many words have been spoken on this subject. the Senate today stands just where the President. when he was Secretary of Commerce. and the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of State stood when they reported to the President. who at that time was Calvin Coolidge. that the sources of information had to a large extent been lost and destroyed and that the information they were able to gather was of such a fragmentary character that they refused to assume any responsibility for the reliability of the quotas based upon such fragmentary information. That is the reason I have. whenever the occasion presented itself. felt impelled to call this matter to the attention of the Senate time and time again. and I have at all times confined my remarks to that aspect of this seemingly troublesome problem.
Keywords matched
immigration