Immigrant Senator

[mawilson 2,133]

Immigrant Senator

Apr. 28, 1924

Magnavox Johnson, from the floor of the Senate:

"God knows, we have got too many people in the towns today. I remember

well the time when I was an immigrant myself, and came to this country.

I believe I am the only one in this body that ever had the opportunity to come

to this country as an immigrant, except the Senator from Idaho, Mr. Gooding,

who was an eight-year-old boy when he came, and the Senator from Michigan,

Mr. Gouzens, who came across the line from Canada.

"I know the problems of the immigrant. I know the time will come when we

will have to stop immigration entirely. I voted to exclude the yellow races

and I think I was justified in doing so. But it seems to me, and I agree

absolutely with the Senator from Alabama, Mr. Underwood, and also with the

Senator from Missouri, Mr. Reed, when they made speeches here yesterday,

that I never would be able to deliver.

"If you do not like Italians or the people from Southeastern Europe, why do

you not say so and shut them out entirely? During the years that I have

been traveling through the United States I have met persons of all nationalities,

and I have met good and bad ones in all of them, even in my own nationality,

which used to be Swedish.

"Among the Swedes we find scoundrels and hypocrites, and I was surprised

that the able Senator from Alabama, Mr. Heflin, devoted an hour and 15 minutes

to speaking about an immigrant boy who came over here and who had been

here only a few months, who happened—perhaps he was insane—to stab a boy

who had been born in this country."

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Wow. He was giving his honest opinion. He even doesn't like his own nationality.

[gimygirl 0]

[zyggy 9]

And that was Sen. James Couzens from Michigan. He was Henry Ford's business partner for Ford Motor Company...

[Ban Hammer 14,026]

[mawilson 2,133]

This one is interesting:

National Affairs

Two Per Cent

Apr. 21, 1924

A BILL. The House of Representatives passed the Johnson Immigration Bill

(TIME, Oct. 8, Feb. 25), introduced by Representative Albert Johnson,

Republican of Washington, by a non-partisan vote of 322 to 71.

The features of the Bill, which will admit 161,990 persons a year instead of

357,801 under the present Bill, are:

1) Changes the quota base from the census of 1910 to the census of 1890,

thus giving practical preference to west and north European stocks;

2) Excludes Japanese immigrants (see below);

3) Reduces the percentage from 3 to 2, plus a small basic quota for each country;

4) Provides for preliminary examination of immigrants overseas, at a probable

cost ot $2,000,000 per annum;

5) Counts certificates, not persons, preventing arbitrary separation of members

of the same family;

6) Exempts wives, children under 18, and parents over 55, of American citizens;

7) Preserves the basic immigration law of 1917, providing for deportation of

certain specified persons considered physically, or morally undesirable

(prostitutes, anarchists, imbeciles, defectives, etc.);

8) Contains principle of numerical limitation as inaugurated in the Act of

May 19, 1921 (3% of number of aliens resident in country according to census

of 1910);

9) Reduces classes of exempted aliens (students, officials, business men,

professional men);

10) Meets situation with reference to admission of persons ineligible to citizenship;

11) Carries numerous sections to lessen hardships of immigrants;

12) Puts burden of proof for non-deportation on the alien.

Friends. The bill is generally supported by the West and South, admittedly with

the backing of the Ku Klux Klan; by organized labor which desires to lessen

competition with cheap European labor; and by those portions of the conservative

press which see American institutions menaced by "hordes" of Italian, Jewish, Polish

and southwestern European races, difficult to assimilate due to radical divergences

of creed, tradition, root language and standards of living.

Foes. The bill is opposed by "liberals" who are disgusted with the Ku Klux and claptrap

Nordic propaganda; by professional "friends of every country but their own"; by the

foreign language press; by the big transatlantic shipping companies with a heavy

immigrant trade; by large Eastern employers of labor; by immigrant lobbies in

New York and Washington; and by many members of the Roman Catholic faith,

who are alarmed by Ku Klux linking of "Nordic supremacy" with the Protestant religion

or are influenced by the consideration that the immigrant races most affected (Poles

and Italians) are Catholics.

Significance. Economically, the measure amounts to a high tariff on foreign labor.

Its first effect would be to raise the commodity value of labor throughout the country.

Eventually, it might increase the birthrate of the dwindling American-born population,

by providing superior economic opportunities for the presumptive heirs of the national

estate.

Debaters. Feeling in Congress ran high over the measure. Representative Burton,*

of Ohio, was the only Administration spokesman to denounce the Japanese exclusion

feature of the bill. Representatives Dickstein, Jacobstein, La Guardia, Sabath and

Rosenbloom — whose names are indicative of their disinterestedness — made

desperate last-minute efforts to amend the measure to modify the quota basis so as

to favor the Italian, Jewish and eastern European stocks. The debate ended with

winged words from Representative Tincher of Kansas: "The issue" is fairly well drawn.

On the one side— is beer, Bolshevism, unassimiating settlements, and many flags.

On the other side, is constitutional government, one flag, the Stars and Stripes and

American institutions!"

* Ever and anon there rises to speak In the Lower House of Congress a man who, in

respect of learning, is without equal in that chamber. Long since, in college days, he

would challenge his fellows to read any two lines of Shakespeare which he could not

locate—play, act, scene. Today the story persists that the kitchen-range in his

bachelor apartment is piled high with books.

In the Presidency of Taft and Wilson, he— Theodore Elijah Burton of Ohio—was a

Senator. He is back in the House now, and from its floor he rose last week to pay

the Senate a compliment as rare as it was pretty.

Speaking of the immigration bill as it affected Japan, he was of the opinion that the

House should not legislate to exclude Japanese, but should leave the question to

diplomatic arrangement. The House should not temper with the Japanese question,

for, said he: "The Senate has charge of our foreign relations and is in closer touch

with the situation."

In respect of age. Mr. Burton, 73, is surpassed by Speaker Gillett, two months his

senior, by Representative Fuller (Ill.) 74, Representative Dickinson (Mo.) 75,

Representative Greene (Mass.) 83, Representative Graham (Pa.) 74, Representative

Stedman (N. C.) 83, Representative Sherwood (Ohio) 89.