Speech #840179657

Scandinavian. Spanish. and Portuguese. Except for a shortlived restrictive period created by the alien and sedition law of 1798. immigration flowed into the United States unfettered by any legislation. The vast growth of the new American economy. its progression to the limitless frontiers of the West and the ready acceptance of the newcomer by the thriving communitiesalready established--exerted an increasing attraction on povertystricken Europeans in the countries devastated by the Napoleonic wars. Recurring famines and the great industrial revolution resulted in increased population pressures and caused a gradual relaxation of the restrictive attitude of the European rulers who suddenly reversed themselves and began to encourage emigration. As a consequence. the first official record of arriving immigrants established in 1820 indicated that the population of the United States had jumped to almost 10 million persons. By that time. public opinion. both in Europe and in America. became aroused by disturbing reports of appalling conditions on- vessels carrying immigrants on their transatlantic journey. Thousands of them were crowded among the horrors of the dreaded steerage space where they died of hunger. thirst. and disease. In 1819. a law was enacted in the United States limiting the number of passengers that a ship could carry and prescribing the minimum amount of water and food that had to be aboard. The master of every ship reaching our shores had to report the number of passengers he had brought and their personal data. such as age. sex. occupation. and country of origin. Thus originated the first immigration statistics in the United States. But. except for these efforts to humanize transportation of immigrants. no attempt at regulating immigration was made during the first part of the 19th century. The first legislative enactment which may be considered as relating to the quality of immigrants was passed in 1863. It prohibited Americans from carrying on the trade in Chinese coolies. Later laws. still qualitative in nature. established rules for the exclusion of immoral persons. paupers. and criminals. A tremendous influx of Chinese immigrants after the discovery of gold in California prompted the enactment of the first Chinese exclusion law in 1882. That trend of legislation continued. as witnessed by the enactment. in 1885. of a restrictive immigration measure aimed at prohibiting the importation of cheap labor from abroad. A few years later. in 1891. the Congress excluded insane persons. persons likely to become public charges. felons. feebleminded persons. polygamists. persons convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude excepting. however. persons convicted of political offenses. The ethnic pattern of our immigration began to change in the last two decades of the 19th century. Around the year 1890. there appeared for the first time an appreciable number of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe. They came from the Balkans. from Italy. and from Russia. where the czarist persecution of Jews began to drive them out in everincreasing numbers. These changes in the immigration pattern continued until after World War I: While in the decade of 1871 to 1880. almost 74 percent of the immigrants came from northern and western Europe. and only 7 percent hailed from southern and eastern Europe. in the decade of 1901 to 1910 only 22 percent of the immigrants came from northern and western Europe while immigrants originating in southern and eastern Europe contributed up to 71 percent of the new arrivals. It was about that time that the Congress turned its attention from qualitative restrictions to quantitative restrictions. The first law establishing a ceiling on the number of immigrantsa quotawas enacted in 1921. The second quota law was passed in 1924 and remained in effect with very little change until the enactment of the present law in 1952. The 1924 act was the one that established the much discussed national origin system. a system based on the allocation to every national group of as many immigrants as that national group had contributed to the population of the United States as of 1920.