Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-05
Origins Row Flares
Into Sharp Contests
BY HARDEN COLFAX.

Unless Congress acts speedily on sus-
pension or retention of the national
origins clause of the immigration act
It may be necessary to double the force
Of mail carriers who serve members OF
the House and Senate. Judging from
reports, more than q ton of letters
printed forms, circulars and petitions
bearing on this subject were delivered
to Senator's alone this week.
That not only one sharp contest, but
q series Of them, looms in the Senate
over the proposal to suspend for anoth-
er year the operations Of the national
origins clause appears certain.
Although President Hoover, In COM
pliance with the law, has issued q
proclamation making the national orr
gins clause operative on and after July
l. he has recommended its suspension
by legislative act. The fight over a
resolution for such suspension wakes
warm in the Senate, and the House Is
awaiting its turn for q similar contest
should the matter come before it.
In enacting temporary restrictive i'm
migration in 1921, Congress based
quotas on the proportion of foreign born
in the United States according to the
SCAoN0 Va 4o1Os WhCtl pCIHldHCLlb AII1ItlI
grafton legislation was passed In 1924
the quotas were based upon the 1890
census proportions and provided that
effective July /, 1927, the basis should
be changed to national origins. The
effective date was later postponed by
later amendment to July /, 1929, In
order to give more time to work up data
on national origins.
The heart of the national origins
clause, and the explanation of what
that system OF quota immigration
THE annual quota of any national
ity shall be number which
bears the same ratio to 100000 as the
number of inhabitants in continental
United States in 1920, having that
national origin bears to the
number of inhabitants in continental
United States In 1920, but the minimum
quota Of any nationality shall be 400
National origin shall be aScer-
tanned by determining as nearly as may
be, In respect Of each geographical area
which is to be treated as a
separate country. the number
of inhabitants in continental United
States in 1920 whose origin by birth or
ancestry is attributable to such geo.
graphical area"
Congress has the report of the COM
mission OF experts named to ascertain
these national origins. Members Of the
commission say further time for study
might change their conclusions some
what, but that the resultant change In
quota figures would be small
The change in quotas July /, unless
Congress intervenes, will be material as
to some countries, which may explain
some of the agitation over the subject.
Under the present arrangement, for ex-
ample, an inhabitant of the Irish Free
State has nearly Is times as many
chances Of obtaining an immigration
visa to enter the United States as an
inhabltant Of England has: under the
national origins quotas as promulgated
by the President, this ratio will be re-
duced to four to one At present, a
German has a better chance than an
Englishman to be admitted here as an
immigrant; under the national origins
quota the German would have one third
or one-fourth the chance of the Briton.
Opponents of the national origins
clause assert there is much guesswork
necessarily involved in arriving at fig
ures, particularly In regard to Europe,
where approximately one-seventh of
the population has changed sovereign
ties since 1918, and that there are
other elements of uncertainty as to ma =
tional origins, which make the plan un-
fair.
Copyright, 1927