WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION

Colonel MarTin. Yes, sir; and with that point I close. I want to
develop this one thing about the matter last referred to. When the
immigration act of 1924 was framed rather carefully by the committee,
in consultation with the Department of Labor, the Department of
Commerce, and one of the solicitors of the State Department and the
geographer of the State Department, who represented the geographic
point of view, we took a great deal of pains, as did the committee, to
see what would stand in the courts. As a result of a series of cases
in the district courts about admissions or deportations, in connection
with the act of 1924, we learn that it was affirmed in practically
every case and in connection with every legal phrase which involved
geography. If this act were passed with the language of sections
9 and 11 in it, as to the Secretary of Labor doing one thing and the
President another, it might complicate things in the courts in case
there are cases in the Federal courts involving admissions or deportations
 of persons from the American continents.
I have closed the statement I had in mind. .
Mr. CaBre. Have you made any study of Judge Box’s bill? |
Colonel Martin. 1 have looked it over with the same idea in mind
and there is a geographic phrase or two which I have remarked, but
there are not as great conflicts in it as in the Johnson bill.
My, Cari. Have you any comments on Judge Box’s bill at this
time?
Colonel Martin. On this one—that in the beginning, section 5, the
phraseology is not perfectly clear to me. The meaning of just what
the Secretary of Labor is to do is not clear to me, and I think it is a
point that needs clarification.
Judge Box. I think some of the gentleman’s friendly criticism on
the chairman’s bill as to who shall figure the quotas is interesting, and
my bill also is subject to his remarks. My bill was drawn with the
idea that I needed just the help the gentleman is giving now. I did
the best I could with the light before me.
Mr. Gisson. It has been stated by the chairman of the committee
that it was not intended that these be complete bills in their present
form, and that we desired help to perfect them. There was no claim
made when the bills were presented that they were in correct form:
Mr. Box. I am sure it was in the chairman’s mind and I know it
was in my mind that when all the terms of these bills were finally
settled, it would be with the help of these gentlemen who can help
us so much and who rendered such good service in connection with
the immigration act of 1924 and other legislation.
Colonel Marrin. I have a map before me which has never been
published, which I will pass around. It shows by black circles the
distribution of population of the world and then, by a table below,
the same thing, getting down to specific populations of countries.
It seems to me that it might be of interest both to those who are
concerned with the passage of this bill and those opposed to it, be
cause it places the United States with relation to the actual populations
 of our neighbors in North and South America and the West
Indies as well as in relation to other parts of the world. That map,
of course, could, by a clarification in drawing, be made into something
that could be published in the renorts of the committee hearings,
if desired