Letter from Ralph W. Sockman and Henry A. Atkinson to President Harry S. Truman

6.17 RALPH W. SOCKMAN GEORGE B. FORD ARTHUR J. BROWN President Vice-President Treasurer HENRY A. ATKINSON JOHN R. INMAN A. WILLIAM LOOS General Secretary Assistant Secretary Education Secretary THE CHURCH PEACE UNION FILED BY MR. HOPKINS Founded by Andrew Carnegie JUL 9 1952 TRUSTEES REV. THEODORE F. ADAMS BISHOP IVAN LEE HOLT DR. JOHN R. MOTT DR. WILLIAM AGAR DR. JAMES R. JOY, Emeritus REV. ROGER T. NOOE DR. HENRY A. ATKINSON DR. JOHN I. KNUDSON RT. REV. G. ASHTON OLDHAM DR. HERBERT C. F. BELL REV. MILES H. KRUMBINE REV. LESLIE T. PENNINGTON RABBI PHILIP S. BERNSTEIN DR. HENRY GODDARD LEACH FRANCIS T. P. PLIMPTON REV. ARTHUR JUDSON BROWN DEAN LLOYD D. LUCKMANN DEAN THOMAS CLARK POLLOCK PROF. CHARLES G. FENWICK BISHOP FRANCIS J. McCONNELL HON. CARL SHERMAN REV. GEORGE B. FORD REV. CHARLES S. MACFARLAND, Emeritus REV. RALPH W. SOCKMAN DEAN CHARLES W. GILKEY RABBI LOUIS L. MANN DR. CHARLES D. TREXLER DR. HAMILTON HOLT COL. CHARLES L. MARBURG PROF. D. ELTON TRUEBLOOD REV. WILLIAM PIERSON MERRILL 170 EAST 64th STREET Cable Address: "ECCLEPAX, NEW YORK" 16, 1952 Telephone: TEmpleton 8-4120 New YORK 21, N. Y. The President 133 The White House HRT678 Washington, D. C. NATIONAL con ARCHIVES AND RECORDS Dear Mr. President: SERVICE C COVERNAN # We respectfully urge you to veto the McCarran Omnibus Bill (s. 255) We recognize the merits of some provisions in the bill, notably its designation of all races as eligible to United States citizenship, its entry permission to reformed totalitarians who for five years have repudiated their former affiliations, its establishment of 12 new quota areas in Asia and Africa from each of which 100 persons per year will be allowed entry. The deleterious effect of the bill's restrictive features, however, far outweigh the benefits of these liberalized provisions. Among the restrictive provisions we especially deplore are the following: 1. The perpetuation of the evils of the 1924 Quota Act and the 1929 National Origins Formula. These measures gave immigration preference to peoples of Anglo-Saxon and Nordic origin, and discriminated against peoples born in Southern and Eastern Europe. 2. The determination of nationality for the quota system based on place of birth in all cases except for orientals: that is, a national of any country who has 50 per cent oriental ancestry must come under the quota of his country by origin and not by birth. This provision, we maintain, is overt racial discrimination of the most invidious kind, which will estrange Asian and African peoples. 3. The reduction of future quotas because of persons who came to the United States under the Displaced Persons Act. Thus for many countries with a quota of 100, the quota has been reduced to 50 for the next 50 to 70 years. This provision is discriminatory against refugees from the former Baltic nations and from other Eastern European countries.