You talk about giving worldwide consideration to the matter of quotas. From 1924 to 1928 in this Congress we had a tremendous lot of attention given to this proposition of quotas. As I said before. we were the first country in the world to lay down immigration laws. and we have the best laws in the world. and we can handle every proposition that arises after this postwar period if our Committee on Immigration gives it study and consideration. If this committee should go down and study these statistics upon which the quotas were originally based. they would be enlightened. Back in the days when we had that great fight over national origins. which was the first that established the basis upon which quotas were established. it was then that Congress determined how many were to be allowed to come in from Great Britain. from Germany. and from Italy. and all the European countries. That was not the work of a few investigators running around all over the country. That was the work of the Committee on Immigration working with half a dozen scientists who sat for about a year down here in the Bureau of the Census. The immigration laws have been well put together. We ought to be careful and not do anything that would hamper the execution of these laws. I think this resolution should be defeated. but at the same time I should favor the adoption of a resolution that would enable the Immigration. Committee to study the one and only one question that confronts us now and that is as I have already stated. we should find out how many and who are here as aliens and their status as to whether they are expecting to attempt to become American citizens.
Keywords matched
Immigration immigration