Democrats Urged to Revise Immigration Law, Condemn Extremism

The Democratic Party’s Platform Committee today adopted a plank calling for revision of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Act in such a way as to eliminate what the committee called the “discriminatory” national origins quota system.

The plank was part of the committee’s section on domestic policies to be advocated by the full national convention, which got under way here tonight. The foreign policy planks were adopted by the committee yesterday. Regarding the immigration laws, the committee’s proposed plank stated:

“True democracy of opportunity will not be served by establishing quotas based on some false distinctions we seek to erase; nor can the effects of prejudice be neutralized by the expedient of preferential practices. The immigration laws must be revised to permit families to be reunited, to welcome the persecuted and oppressed, and to eliminate the discriminatory provisions which base admission (into the United States) upon national origins.”

COMMUNISTS, KKK, BIRCHERS NAMED; END OF EMPLOYMENT BIAS EMPHASIZED

The Platform Committee also adopted a plank denouncing extremism. This plank stated: “We condemn extremism, whether of the right or left, including the extremist tactics of such organizations as the Communist Party, Ku Klux Klan and the John Birch Society. “

(While the committee was debating the inclusion of this plank, eight members of the American Nazi Party, in full uniform emblazoned with swastika armbands, tried to stage a demonstration near the convention hall. Spectators, led by a man who said he was an ex-Marine, broke up the demonstration, and police arrested all eight of the self-avowed Nazis.)

On the domestic front, the committee adopted another plank which called for the elimination of all discriminations based on race, color or religion, in the field of employment.

The domestic planks, as well as the foreign policy sections of the platform, will be submitted to the full convention tomorrow. Adoption of the full platform as proposed by the committee was freely predicted here tonight.

MIDDLE EAST PLANK STRESSED; GUARANTEES ARAB-ISRAELI BORDERS

Friends of Israel here, in and out of the Platform Committee, including some of the leading members of both Houses of Congress, were particularly gratified today as they re-read the section dealing with the Middle East, adopted yesterday as part of the Platform Committee’s draft. They pointed especially to the paragraph which, in full text, would pledge the Democratic Party to:

“Work for the attainment of peace in the Near East as an urgent goal, using our best efforts to prevent a military unbalance, to encourage arms reductions and the use of national resources for internal development and to encourage the resettlement of Arab refugees in lands where there is room and opportunity. The problems of political adjustment between Israel and the Arab countries can and must be peacefully resolved and the territorial integrity of every nation respected. “

Meanwhile, today, an announcement was made that a religious service intended to underscore the Soviet Union’s persecutions against Jews in the USSR, and appealing to the world’s conscience to help eliminate those persecutions, was scheduled to be held here late tomorrow, near Convention Hall. Organizations scheduled to participate in this demonstration are the New York Board of Rabbis, groups of local clergymen, the American League for Russian Jewry, and Students Struggle for Soviet Jewry.