Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "68866136",
    "label": "Statement by President Harry S. Truman, Veto of Bill to Revise the Laws Relating to Immigration, Naturalization, and Nationality",
    "core": "doc",
    "dtoType": "document",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/68866136"
}

{
    "id": "68866136",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/68866136",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Statement by President Harry S. Truman, Veto of Bill to Revise the Laws Relating to Immigration, Naturalization, and Nationality",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/68866136",
    "collections": [
        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Press Release Files"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/602185/875649-35-01.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/602185/875649-35-01.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/602185/875649-35-01.jpg",
    "imageCount": 8,
    "hasImages": true,
    "source": "import",
    "hasTranscription": false
}

{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/68866136",
    "naId": 68866136,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 25,
            "logicalDate": "1952-06-25",
            "month": 6,
            "year": 1952
        }
    ],
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
}

{
    "seq": 3,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/602185/875649-35-03.jpg",
    "mediaId": "ec25cd06d1de469c",
    "ocrText": "3 -\nwas that in order to be readily assimilable, European immigrants should\nbe admitted in proportion to the numbers of persons of their respective\nnational stocks already here as shown by the census of 1920. Since\nAmericans of English, Irish and German descent were most numerous, im-\nmigrants of those three nationalities got the lion's share -- more than\ntwo-thirds -- of the total quota. The remaining third was divided up\namong all the other nations given quotas.\nThe desired effect was obtained. Immigration from the newer\nsources of Southern and Eastern Europe was reduced to a trickle.\nThe\nquotas allotted to England and Ireland remained largely unused, as\nwas\nintended. Total quota immigration fell to a half or a third -- and\nsometimes even less -- of the annual limit of 154,000. People from\nsuch countries as Greece, or Spain, or Latvia were virtually deprived\nof any opportunity to come here at all, simply because Greeks or Spaniards\nor Latvians had not come here before 1920 in any substantial numbers.\nThe idea behind this discriminatory policy was, to put it\nbaldly, that Americans with English or Irish names were better people\nand better citizens than Americans with Italian or Greek or Polish names.\nIt was thought that people of West European origin made better citizens\nthan Rumanians or Yugoslavs or Ukrainians or Hungarians or Balts or\nAustrians. Such a concept is utterly unworthy of our traditions and\nour ideals. It violates the great political doctrine of the Declara-\ntion of Independence that \"all men are created equal.\" It denies the\nhumanitarian creed inscribed beneath the Statue of Liberty proclaiming\nto all nations, \"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses\nyearning to breathe free. \"\nIt repudiates our basic religious concepts, our belief in\nthe brotherhood of man, and in the words of St. Paul that \"there is\nneither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, for ye are\nall one in Christ Jesus. If\nThe basis of this quota system was false and unworthy in\n1924.\nIt is even worse now. At the present time, this quota system\nkeeps out the very people we want to bring in. It is incredible to\nme that, in this year of 1952, we should again be enacting into law\nsuch a slur on the patriotism, the capacity, and the decency of a large\npart of our citizenry.\nToday, we have entered into an alliance, the North Atlantic\nTreaty, with Italy, Greece, and Turkey against one of the most terrible\nthreats mankind has ever faced. We are asking them to join with us in\nprotecting the peace of the world. We are helping them to build their\ndefenses, and train their men, in the common cause. But, through this\nbill we say to their people: You are less worthy to come to this\ncountry than Englishmen or Irishmen; you Italians, who need to find homes\nabroad in the hundreds of thousands -- you shall have a quota of 5,645;\nyou Greeks, struggling to assist the helpless. victims of a communist civil\nwar -- you shall have a quota of 308; and you Turks, you are brave de-\nfenders of the Eastern flank, but you shall have a quota of only 225:\nToday, we are \"protecting\" ourselves, as we were in 1924,\nagainst being flooded by immigrants from Eastern Europe. This is fan-\ntastic. The countries of Eastern Europe have fallen under the communist\nyoke -- they are silenced, fenced of f by barbed wire and minefields --\nno one passes their borders but at the risk of his life. We do not need\nto be protected against immigrants from these countries -- on the\ncon-\ntrary we want to stretch out a helping hand, to save those who have\nmanaged to flee into Western Europe, to succor those who are brave\nenough to escape from barbarism, to welcome and restore them against\nthe day when their countries will, as we hope, be free again. But\nthis we cannot do, as we would like to do, because the quota for Poland\nis only 6,500, as against the 138,000 exiled Poles, all over Europe,\nwho are asking to come to these shores; because the quota for the now\nsubjugated Baltic countries is little more than 700 -- against the 23,000\nBaltic refugees imploring us to admit them to a new life here; because\nthe quota for Rumania is only 289, and some 30,000 Rumanians, who\nhave managed to escape the labor camps and the mass deportations of\n(OVER)"
}