Senate Votes to Postpone National Origins Measure

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

The national origins plan, provided for in the present immigration law, which was to go into effect on July 1, 1928 by a presidential proclamation on April 1, is postponed for one year according to a vote in the Senate yesterday. The resolution was sent to the House for vote.

The provision, if put into effect, would have determined the immigration quotas from the various countries on the basis of the “national origins” of the population of the United States. The masure was criticized in various quarters as being based on the “Nordic superiority” theory and discriminatory against other races.

The vote was taken in the Senate upon the recommendation of Senator Hiram Johnson, chairman of the Senate Immigration Committee.

The Committee last week went on record as favoring the postponement of the national origins plan after hearing Doctor Hill of the Commerce Department, who was assigned by the Government to compile estimated quotas.

This action was decided upon, it is understood, because the figures on which Dr. Hill stated he made his estimates were considered so poor that the committee felt another year’s research will be necessary, Dr. Hill’s testimony was given in an executive session.

An effort by Senator Johnson to obtain immediate consideration by the Senate of his resolution, which would postpone the operation for a year of the National Origins law, was blocked on Monday, by Senator Heflin of Alabama.

Senator Johnson asked unanimous consent for consideration of the measure, which would defer the effective date of the law from 1928 to 1929. Senator Heflin objected.

Replying to a question of Senator Dill of Washington, Senator Johnson explained that the Committee on Immigration, of which he is chairman, was unanimous in reporting out his resolution for postponement of the National Origins law. Experts who made the computations for the law, he said, requested additional time to complete their work.

Senator Dill said he would favor a proposal to repeal the National Origins law. Senator Johnson declared this also was his view, but that members of his committee were “divided.”