(Jewish Daily Bulletin)
A resolution relieving the President of the necessity of proclaiming on April 1 the revised quota system which, it was found would produce results different from what Congress intended in the Immigration Act of 1924, was passed unanimously yesterday in the Senate and sent to the House for action. The necessary concurrence of the House is freely predicted by recent action on immigration bills.
The Senate acted on a statement by its Immigration Committee unanimously favoring the postponement on the ground that present data are insufficient to justify using the national origin quotas on July 1, 1927, as contemplated by existing law. The committee also felt that the time was too short before Congressional adjournment to amend the law.
Senator Hiram Johnson, Chairman of the Senate Immigration Committee, stated to the Senate that the majority of the committee favored outright repeal of the national origin quota plan, but a minority did not, and this conffict, with the “utterly contradictory” letters sent by the three Cabinet Secretaries who considered the quota plan, made it essential, he said, to postpone the subject a year. He hoped definite final action could be taken in the interim.
Presentation of the resolution led to a debate, in which Senator Reed of Missouri called the national origin plan “idiotic, nonsensical, ridiculous and absurd,” while Senator Reed of Pennsylvania defended it.
Mr. Reed of Missouri argued that because of crossed blood strains it would be impossible to determine national origin quotas equitably.
Chief complaint against the plan came from the fact that it would deeply cut quotas from the Irish Free State, Germany and Scandinavia.
The number of Jews immigrating to the United States under the quota laws has dropped in recent years from 11 percent of the total number of immigrants to 4 percent, according to Dr. Jacob Goldberg, Director of the Committee for Health Service among Jews, who spoke Tuesday night at the Community Church in New York.
Dr. Goldberg said that the birth rate of Jews in America was dropping off particularly among the wealthier.
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.
