Congressman Jacobstein Criticized for Creating Dissention on Pending Immigration Bills

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

An emphatic complaint was expressed in quarters interested in the adoption of the Perlman-Wadsworth relative exemption bills against the action of Congressman Jacobstein of Rochester. Congressman Jacobstein sent letters to members of the House Immigration Committee to obtain their support of the bill he recently introduced which proposes the exemption from the quota only of relatives of citizens and not non-citizens, whether declarants or anens residing in the United States, and merely granting preference within the quota for the latter.

Alarm was expressed that Congressman Jacobstein’s bill, which conflicts with the more liberal Perlman and Wadsworth measures, will greatly injure the chances of securing the adoption of the latter bills. Jacobstein’s circular letter was brought to the attention of a Jewish Congressman by a member of the Committee.

Congressman Jacobstein’s circular letter pointed out that his bill does not go so far as to make the relatives of non-citizens exempt from the quota, as do the Perlman, Wadsworth, Dickstein and Copeland bills.

When asked, Congressman Jacobstein admitted having sent out the circular letters but denied that the introduction of his bill will injure the chances of the Perlman and Wadsworth bills. “To the contrary, my bill will really help the adoption of those bills if Congressman Perlman and Senator Wadswoth, particularly the latter, are in earnest and if they have enough influence with the Republican administration to obtain support of their measures,” he said. “My principal motive in introducing my bill was to force them to take action. I charge that the Perlman and Wadsworth bills were mere political gestures and neither of these men, especially Senator Wadsworth, really thought these measures have any chance of adoption.”