Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-23
Changing the Quotas.

Changing the Quotas.
Against his better judgment as a stu
dent Of immigration. but left with no
alternative under the law, President
Hoover has issued a proclamation put
ting into operation the national origins
quotas of the immigration act on July
!. Unless the special session Of Congress
adopts the resolution which the last
session of Congress failed to adopt, and
repeats or Suspends the national origins
clause. the quotas for immigrants to the
United States after July l next will be
based on calculation of the number
of citizens of the United States today
tracing their origin to the nationaltics
whose quotas are concerned. In other
words, If the population of the United
States shows that seventeen per cent
owes its origin to Germany, the German
quota would be seventeen per cent Of
one hundred and fifty thousand, the
total number of immigrants to be ad-
nnitted to the United States in year.
The effect of this law will be to re-
duce the number of immigrants TO the
United States by about fourteen thou
sand, and to change the distribution OF
immigrants But the cause for debate
over the national origins does not lie in
the amount of REDUCTION. The debatable
issue is whether the manner of deter
mining the national origins Of Americans
can be worked out on q practical and
scientific basis. OF course, 1t would be
ridiculous to believe that the pedigree
Of every American citizen can be traced
and an effort made to determine what
percentage of him is British and French,
and German. The plan is to take the
record of immigration into the United
States from the various countries and
to determine from that, with the known
factors of increase, what percentage of
the present population Of the United
States owes its origin to each Of the
European nations from which immigra
ton is allowed.
This method Of calculation has been
criticized extensively. President Hoover
Is among those who believe that it is
not desirable or practical, but that it is
vague and complicated. Theoretically
sound, in practice it is likely to cause
endless controversy and to become cum
bersome.
Under the present system, which has
also become the storm center for con-
trcversy, the immigration quotas are
fixed at two per cent Of the number of
foreign born in the United States under
the census Of 1890, with minimum of
one hundred for each nationality not
otherwise excluded. This method was
decided upon as temporary expedient.
but the national origins quota, adopted
by Congress as the substitute, has never
become effective. Congress has twice
postponed making it effective and in
the last session the House attempted
again to postpone IT, but the Senate
failed to act on the resolution.
President Hoover believes in restricted
and selective immigration. But he has
expressed himself several times as OPP
posing the method for determining
quotas. There is little doubt that
he will ask the extra session of Congress
next month again to postpone putting
into effect the national origins clause,
and the odds favor congressional &C.
ouiescerce. These delays, however,
serve only to postpone and in no man.
ner do they solve the problem Of i'm
partial and equitable immigration re-
striction. The President will no doubt
urge Congress to take action toward
Anal disposition of the important ques-
ton. with another delay to give time to
its further consideration.