Speech #820215043

President. the purpose of this amendment is to cancel the pledges or mortgages of onehalf of the future quotas. as made under the Displaced Persons Act. Under the two Displaced Persons Acts of 1948 and 1950. respectively. we have admitted into the United States 368.000 persons. We provided in those acts that the numbers admitted from each of the various countries should absorb onehalf of the future quotas which otherwise would be allowed those countries under the National Origins Act. which went into effect in 1929. I shall repeat that statement. in order to make the situation clear. The 358.000 displaced persons who were admitted under the two Displaced Persons Acts were charged. up to 50 percent. against the annual quotas fixed for the various nations. The result is that the quotas for a number of countries have been pledged very far into the future. or. rather. the rate of flow will be restricted to onehalf of what it otherwise would be under the National Origins Act. and. in general. that original number was very low for the countries affected. For instance. in the case of Austria. onehalf of the quota is absorbed until 1955. in the case of Czechoslovakia. onehalf of the quota is absorbed until 1958. in the case of Danzig. until 1958 also. Mr. President. listen particularly to some of the following figures: In the the case of Estonia. half the quotas are pledged to the year 2146. or approximately 200 years in the future. in the case of Greece. to the year 2013. or more than 60 years in the future. in the case of Hungary. to the year 1985. or almost 35 years in the future. in the case of Latvia. to the year 2274. or 320 years in the future. in the case of Lithuania. to the year 2087. or approximately 140 years in the future. in the case of Poland. to the year 1999. or 47 years in the future. in the case of Rumania. to the year 2004. and so forth. In other words. by that means onehalf the already small stream of immigration from those countries is suspended until the dates I have stated. until those dates. the immigration quotas for those countries are reduced by onehalf. These are countries where the current need is extremely great. I believe certain points should be borne in mind. namely. that from 1931 to 1945. we admitted relatively few immigrants. On Monday. I placed in the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. as appears on pages 5423 and 5424. a statistical tabulation giving the total number of immigrants from the quota countries who entered the United States during that time. If we consider those figures. we find that instead of the total of 150.000 which was theoretically permitted in the year 1931. only 54.000 were admitted. in the year 1932. only 13.000. in 1933. only 8.000I am reading to the nearest thousandin 1934. 12.000. in 1935. 17.000. in 1936. 19.000. Thereafter we find there began to be an increase. as follows: In 1937. 28.000. 1938. 43.000. 1939. 62.000. What happened during the period of the depression was that the consular officers abroad interpreted very strictly the provision that no one should be admitted if he was likely to become a public charge. In reaching their determination as to whether an applicant for admission was likely to become a public charge. those consular officers considered not only the economic condition of the man or woman who wished to be admitted to the United States. but also the economic conditions existing at that time In the United States. Therefore. the consular officers effected an administrative regulation of the migration to the United States. with the result that only a small number of immigrants entered. Mr. President. I am not complaining about that ruling. I think it was a correct procedure to follow at that time. namely. that during a period of depression. when there are many. many unemployed persons. it is well to shut the gates more tightly than we do during a period of prosperity. It is a fact. however. that during those years we admitted a relatively small number of immigrants. under the interpretation of the clause "likely to become a public charge." Then the war occurred. and it became increasingly difficult for persons to migrate to the United States from other countries. For instance. in 1940. the total number of quota immigrants admitted was 52.000. in 1941. 36.000. in 1942. when we were in the war. only 15.000. in 1943. 9.000. in 1944. 9.000. in 1945. 12.000. At the end of the war the total number of quota immigrants admitted began to increase a littlefor instance. in 1946. to 29.000. In other words. we went through 15 years during which we had very little immigration. first because of the depression. and. second. because of the war. Then came the period of peace. The conscience of America was touched by the plight of the 2.000.000 or 3.000.000 persons who were refugees from Nazi terror. and a large proportion of whom had been locked up in the infamous concentration camps of the Nazis. Quite a struggle occurred. so I am told. on the floor of this body and throughout this Nation as a whole. in an endeavor to determine whether we would ameliorate the lot of those persons. I am happy to say that finally Congress passed the Displaced Persons Act.