Speech #890139772

Mr. President. the majority of the committee felt that we had reached a point in our Nations history at which we can no longer have unrestricted immigration from any part of the earth. The figures show that immigration from the Western Hemisphere is now in the neighborhood of 140.000 or 145.000 a year. It has been constantly increasing. Immigration from South America alone has increased by 400 percent in the past 10 years. It is necessary. if we are to have restrictions on immigration. that we should have a restriction on immigration from all areas of the world. and that we ought not to invite all the people of the Western Hemisphere to come into the United States immediately. This defect was the result of the McCarranWalter Act placing no limitation upon immigration from the Western Hemisphere. A majority of the subcommittee and a majority of the full committee felt that we ought to place a limitation upon immigration from the Western Hemisphere at this time before the problem became as acute as that which existed in immigration from the Eastern Hemisphere. in 1920. when we received approximately 1.500.000 immigrants in an 18month period.