The charge that the Immigration act of 1924 conferred special privileges upon the descendants of American Tories, who opposed the American Revolution and the efforts of Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Hamilton, was made by Congressman Emanuel Celler yesterday in a statement.
“Commencing Jan. 1, 1927, the total number of immigrants allowable in this country is to be 150,000,” Mr. Celler said. “This number is to be apportioned among the various countries according to the national origin theory.”
Explaining this theory Mr. Celler said that if throughout our history the English people and their descendants gave a certain amount of population, and the Germans and their descendants gave a portion, then the quotas from England and Germany would include such part of the population as the English stock and the German stock bear to our entire population.
Mr. Celler declared that the English were predominant among the 2,600,000 or 2,800,000 persons present in this country when the Revolution began, and added that approximately one-third of these were Tories. He said that the new act was written in anger and fear, and after-war hysteria.
“The English, because more numerous in 1776, are to have 83 per cent. of the quota after 1927,” he continued. “I have no quarrel with England; it is a great and noble country. I do quarrel with the silly national origin theory which gives to England 83 per cent. of the 150,000 immigrants-gives it to the descendants of the English Tories.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
