Speech #850128856

Mr. Speaker. under leave to extend my remarks in the REcORD. Iinclude the following statement of Crete Anderson. chairman. subcommittee on immigration and naturalization of the national Americanism commission. the American Legion. before the Subcommittee on Immigration and Naturalization of the Senate Judiciary Committee: Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee. the following statement is in accordance with existing mandates of the American Legion on immigration and naturalization as adopted at the 1956 national convention held in Los Angeles. Calif.. September 3 to 6. 1956. resolution No. 5. In previous statements before the Subcommittee on Immigration and Naturalization of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. and before other subcommittees on immigration of the Congress. the American Legion has quoted from the Americanism Manual of the American Legion. page 41. as follows: "The American Legion has consistently opposed any great influx of immigrants and has insisted that immigration should be on such a moderate and regulated scale that immigrants may be readily absorbed into the lifestream of our country. The Legion has insisted that immigrants should not be admitted in such numbers that they would displace veterans from either employment or housing. Thirty years ago it supported the National Origins Quota Act of 1924 and. more recently. Public Law 414 (82d Cong.). commonly known as the McCarranWalter Act. which set a quota for immigration from the respective countries. based on a selective and restrictive systemin proportion to the number of United States citizens. who themselves or through their ancestors originated in the respective countries. The Legion has vigorously opposed exceptions to this quota system. except (1) as they applied to honorably discharged wartime veterans of the United States Armed Forces. their wives. or immediate dependents. and. except (2) emergency admission of 400.000 displaced persons and German ethnics as the United States fair share of the humanitarian task."