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Sen. Smith Pledges to Fight Against Mccarran Act in Congress

October 10, 1952
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U.S. Senator H. Alexander Smith of New Jersey today pledged a fight for changes in the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act at the next session of Congress. He said the measure, enacted this year, “violates the spirit and the traditions” of America.

Speaking at a rally here, the Senator declared that the national origins restrictions in the act are discriminatory, and said he favors larger quotas for people from southern and eastern Europe. “I opposed this bill in the Senate,” Smith said, “and I voted to uphold the President’s veto, because I believed then, as I believe now, that it runs counter to American principles.”

Turning to the State of Israel’s role in the Near East, Smith, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said that America is watching the new republic’s progress with keen interest. “Today Israel is a bastion of democracy in one of the world’s critical areas, ” Smith declared, “and we must do everything we can, militarily and economically, to assist in her further development.”

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