Speech #820209040

In its present form it needs some changes. technical and substantial. on which all its sponsors are agreed. Moreover. if I could have written it to suit myself. it would have been considerably different from what it is. It would have been more generous. and more humane. it would have abolished entirely the present bloodstock quota system. the socalled national origins system. in favor of an individually selectivequota system. My own personal bill would be less interested in what people have believed in the past. and more interested in what they might stand for in the future. and what they might contribute to America. in terms of culture. skill. and richness of character. My personal immigration bill would also be more painstakingly careful of individual rights. even the rights of aliens. But S. 2842 was not drafted to conform to my own personal ideas or to those of any other single individual or group. Rather it was drafted as a practical measure. designed to achieve what can and must be achieved now. in the light of the best experience in this field. and in the prevailing light of our national needs. I personally am satisfied to leave to the future the further changes and improvements in our immigration and nationality law which I feel are desirable. This brings me to my first major point. the point of procedure. the point of what the Senate can best do. in the national interest. to dispose of these difficult questions. and to resolve the fundamental differences which appear in this farreaching matter. I certainly wish that the Senate could approve the HumphreyLehman bill. It would be a major advance in this field. By pooling and using unused quota numbers and by using our true 1950 population as the basis for computing quotas instead of the 1920 figures. the HumphreyLehman bill would offer early hope of asylum to the thousands of refugees in Europe and elsewhererefugees from behind the Iron curtain. and from tyranny in all parts of the worldand also to desirable people In Italy. and Greece. and the Netherlands and Western Germany. where the problem of surplus population grows like a cancer at the heart of the economic and political life of the countries concerned. The HumphreyLehman bill would. Indeed. remedy many of the injustices and soften some of the harsh and unreasonable provisions of present law.