Speech #910099143

This entirely worthy objective was achieved by enactment of the statute known as the National Monday Holiday Act. which provides that the second Monday in October of each year. beginning the year after next. will be observed as a Federal legal. public. holiday. In the meantime. many of the States celebrate Columbus Day as a legal holiday. and we in Congress pause to pay appropriate tribute to the great discoverer of our Western Hemisphere and to praise the achievements of his countrymen. the Italian Americans in our midst. We have shown the high regard in which we hold the contributions to the United States of Italian Americans by reforming the immigration system by which Italian immigrants to these shores are admitted to the land of their hearts desire. the Nation for whom their countrymen who preceded them here have done so much for so long. Prior to the new Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. less than 6.000 persons could be admitted to the United States from Italy each year under the infamous national origins quota system. Since President Johnson signed the new Immigration Act at an unprecedented ceremony at the Statue of Liberty. more than a hundred thousand have been welcomed from Italy. Under todays immigration system. 20.000 Italians. who yearn to become Italian Americans. can be admitted each year. Of all the famous Italians whose deeds have made an imperishable record in the hearts and minds of men and women through the ages. it is Columbus whose fame will last forever. Perhaps his achievement in sailing into the trackless Atlantic is more meaningful for us today than it was for previous generations. because we face the vastness of outer space beyond the moon in the same way that Columbus faced the expanse of the uncharted ocean.