Opposition to the cut in immigration proposed in the Gossett Bill now before the House Immigration Committee was expressed today by Earl G. Harrison, Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, who appeared before the committee in his capacity as chairman of the National Committee on Post-War Immigration Policy, and as American representative on the Inter-Governmental Committee on Refugees.
Harrison said the immigration question is so complex that an intensive study should be made before it is attacked piecemeal, especially as in the Gossett Bill, which would halve all immigration for the next ten years, leaving a minimum of 100 visas for any nationality.
It would be extremely regrettable, he emphasized, if the United States were to reduce present quotas now, when “our doors are only reasonably open. I see no possibility of solving the very difficult and serious problem of displaced persons,” he said, “if the United States takes the lead in restricting immigration.” He warned that other countries, including those in the western hemisphere, would immediately follow the American example in reducing their immigration.
“I am very definitely and strongly opposed to reducing quotas now,” he declared. “There is no justification for it.” He told the committee that the United States “did shamefully little before and during the war in rescuing victims of persecution,” and that “the only thing we did outside of the quotas” was taking in the group of Oswego refugees.
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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.
