Speech #820245047

As the result of that discussion. 23 amendments were accepted by the chairman. to correct 23 mistakes which he himself saw as the result of the debate. Later on. in conference. other adjustments were made. But they were adjustments. so to speak. in the decorations. they were not adjustments in the basic architectural plan or structure of this immigration bill. The heart of this immigration measure. Mr. President. is in the quota system. The heart of it is in the discriminatory aspects of the quota system to which the Senator from Rhode Island directed his attention. The President of the United States. in his message. stated: The greatest vice of the present quota system. however. is that it discriminates. deliberately and intentionally. against many of the peoples of the world. The purpose behind it was to cut down and virtually eliminate immigration to this country from southern and eastern Europe. A theory was Invented to rationalize this objective. The theory was that in order to be readily assimilable. European immigrants should be admitted in proportion to the numbers of persons of their respective national stocks already here as shown by the census of 1920. The President went on to discuss this question in greater detail. I want to tell Members of the Senate what they will be doing if they override this veto. I want the Members of the Senate. who have in their States constituents who have a yearning for their loved ones. now living in foreign lands. to be with them. to realize exactly what the result will be if the veto is not sustained. They will be denying to thousands of people of ethnic German origin. thousands of people who have fled from Nazi or from Communist tyranny. a chance to come to the United States of America under our immigration laws. Let me repeat that all through America hundreds of thousands of wonderful citizens who came to our shores. people of Nordic and Teutonic and Scandinavian origin. who will be denied a chance to have their loved ones come to America under the quota system which is perpetuated by the McCarran bill. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people who have had to flee Poland. Who were these people?