Speech #890139769

The majority of the subcommittee and the majority of the full committee imposed the limitation of 120.000 on the Western Hemisphere because they felt that if this were to be a bill to abolish discrimination. the bill ought to abolish the most obvious discriminationthat which provided that all the people of the Western Hemisphere could immediately move into the United States. so far as any limitation upon numbers was concerned. whereas only 170.000 could come in from the Eastern Hemisphere. We who favored a limitation upon immigration on the Western Hemisphere felt that the limitation should be placed now rather than be left open to a future time. when the increase in immigration from the Western Hemisphere might endanger employment. In other words. we felt that the nations of the Western Hemisphere should not be allowed to move en masse to the United States. when the nations of the Eastern Hemisphere could not.