Speech #820214925

Mr. President. the time has come. I believe. for us to reject or at least to limit. rather than to extend. the principle of racial exclusion which was embodied in the 1924 Immigration Act. Since we may unwittingly carry over the errors of the past. I think it is important for us to realize just what we are doing. Prior to 1890. approximately fourfifths of the immigrants to the United States came from northern and western Europe. Beginning in that year. the tide of immigration turned toward the southern and eastern portions of Europe. So. Mr. President. in the decade from 1901 to 1910. 75 percent of the immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe. In the next decadethat from 1911 to 192080 percent of the immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe. The first immigration act following World War I. namely the act of 1921. was passed in the closing months of the Wilson administration. but was vetoed by the great Woodrow Wilson. Subsequently it was passed and signed during the administration of Warren G. Harding. Its purpose was not merely to limit the total number of immigrants. A limitation of the total number of immigrants was one of the purposes of that act. and it actually reduced the total number from approximately 800.000 in 1921 to 309.000 in 1922. But. the 1921 act had another purpose. namely. to restrict the proportions of our immigration coming from southern and eastern Europe. because the basis taken for quotas in the 1921 act was 3 percent of the number of the foreign born of various racial or. perhaps I should say. nationality groups living in the United States in 1910. In itself. that provision produced a change by which the total number was to be decreased to not more than 357.000. and the total was to be apportioned between northern and western Europe. on the one hand. and southern and eastern Europe. on the other hand. in a ratio of about 60 percent for the former and 40 percent for the latter. Italy. which had been sending to this country approximately 200.000 immigrants a year during the decade 190110 and more than 100.000 annually in the next decade. had its quota reduced to 42.057. Poland to 30.977. Austria. to 7.342. and Czechoslovakia. to 14.357. That. however. was not a sufficient reduction to suit those who wished still further to restrict the immigration coming from southern and eastern Europe. So. Mr. President. during the period following 1921. certain forces. which I do not think we now regard very highly. were at work in America attempting not only to reduce the total number of immigrants. but also to reduce still further the proportion coming from southern and eastern Europe. A plank to that effect was contained in the platforms of a number of political organizations which were striving for power in some of the States of our Nation. The result was that in 1924. Congress passed a still more restrictive immigration law. Again I wish to emphasize that that law was not merely restrictive in regard to the total number of immigrants to be admitted. Actually. I do not believe immigration should have been permitted to continue at the rate of 1.000.000 a year. and that law did restrict the total by reducing it from approximately 360.000 a year to approximately 164.000 a year. Even more important. however. was the added restriction which was placed upon those coming from southern and eastern Europe. because at that time. instead of using as the basis the census of 1910. the census of 1890 was used. thus going back. really. 30 years. It was provided that each nationality group would be allowed to send to the United States immigrants in the ratio of 2 percent of the foreign born who were living in the United States in 1890. a year before the big immigration from southern and eastern Europe commenced. Therefore. Mr. President. that provision was deliberately riggedand I use the term intentionallyto discriminate grossly against persons who wished to immigrate to the United States from eastern or southern Europe. The result was that under the 1924 act. the quota for Italy. which under the 1921 act had been 42.057. was reduced to 3.845. the quota for Poland. which under the 1921 act had been 30.977. wasunder the 1924 actreduced to 5.982. and so forth. The total effect of the 1924 act was to change to approximately 15 percent the ratio of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. which under the 1921 act had been 40 percent. That was the great change in our immigration policy made by that act. I desire to say deliberately that that was done in an endeavor to admit as small a proportion of immigrants as possible from southern and eastern Europe. The policy thus provided in the 1924 interim act was to be made permanent on a socalled nationalorigins basis. A commission was established to make a report on the national origins of the white population in the year 1920.