Speech #820209050

Such changes in the present law as are proposed are. for the most part. for the worse. But the really insidious features of the McCarran bill are not in what it does to quotas. but in what it does not do. The McCarran bill generally lets overall quotas stand where they are. and in doing so. perpetuates and crystallizes one of the greatest weaknesses and injustices in our entire immigration laws. We have had. for the past generation. a total annual immigration quota of about 160.000. That was the estimate by the antiimmigration and isolationistminded Congress. back in 1924 and 1929. of the number of immigrants. based on our population of that time. this country could comfortably use and absorb. But in working out the details. Congress fixed ironclad limits on the immigration from the various countries of the world. Congress was seeking a formula which would drastically curtail immigration. Congress resorted to a theory which was being advocated at the time. in Germany and elsewhere. holding that the socalled Nordic races were in danger of being overrun and engulfed by the socalled Slavic and Latin races. It so happened that a formula was suggested. based on this theory. which would have the practical effect of cutting down on immigration from southern and eastern Europe. This formula was approved by Congress. It provided for a limitationa drastic limitationof. first. 165.000. and then. in 1927. of 154.000 immigrants a year. which was about onesixth of 1 percent or less than the 100.000.000 people who were counted in the population of the United States for quotadetermining purposes. That. roughly. was how the national origins system for determining our quotas actually originated. It was based on an anthropological theory now completely discredited. the theory of Nordic superiority. the theory that there is such a thing as a Nordic race. But this system had the practical effect desired for it. Immigration was cut down from 700.030 in 1924 to onefifth of that in 1928. And the immigration quotas for the countries of Southern and Eastern Europe. from Italy. for instance. were slashed by 90 percent. Italys 1921 quota was cut from 42.000 to 3.800. later in 1929 it was slightly adjusted to 5.800. But the quota system itself. instead of admitting the number at which it was set. admitted less than half that number because the countries of Northern and Western Europe. for whom the largest quotas were provided. used only a small part of their quotas. the unused portion of these quotas went begging. and. meanwhile. worthy immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe knocked vainly at the gates of this country. With a population of 150.000.000. our quotas today actually admit about 60.000 quota immigrants annually. we admit on a nonquota basis about 15.000 more annually. So we actually admit as immigrants into this country about onetwentieth of 1 percent of our population. This is a wanton wastage of available quota numbers. The present quota system is not only false in concept. it is also misleading in actual practice. Pretending to admit 154.000 annually. it actually admits much less than half that number. The McCarran bill freezes into a new and permanent code of law this denial of our traditions. this turning backward on our history. this rejection of cur responsibility as a leader in world affairs.