NATIONAL ORIGINS PROVISION OF IMMIGRATION LAW 19 
detail a an awfully lot of work that would be wasted energy in 
the end? 
Doctor Hire. Well, the work that has already been done—— 
The Crarrman. Does it not go without saying, Doctor, that at 
this session if the proclamation is to be made and the national- 
origins provision should be put in operation, it would be infinitely 
preferable not to do that, if the effort were to be made and success. 
fully made immediately afterwards to repeal the national-origins 
provision ? 
Doctor Hire. I should be inclined to agree with that. 
The CramrmaN. That seems to me to be quite obvious. 
Senator Reep. We also may admit the other policy that it will not 
be repealed. 
The CraiRmMaN. Oh, yes; when the President comes in on the 4th 
day of March; he believes in repealing it. i 
Senator Coperaxp. May I ask, Doctor Hill, was the last census 
any more accurate as to the number of people in the United States 
than the census of 1790? 
Doctor Hire. I do not see any reason to suppose it is more ac- 
curate, or that the census of 1890 was more accurate than the census 
of 1790. You can not prove degree of accuracy or inaccuracy. 
_ Senator Copzraxp. Are you familiar with the charge made by the 
irish organization in New” York or with the criticism made by that 
organization as to the number of Irish in the country in 1790¢ 
Doctor Hrrr I have seen some of the statements that have been 
Bade, I have never carefully been over the evidence they sub- 
mitted. 
Senator CoreLanp. I have read about the impassible roads and the 
sparse population and the difficulties in getting the census of 1790. 
Doctor Hirr. Yes. 
Senator Corrrann. I am astounded to hear we are no more accurate 
to-day in the accumulation of names than they were then. 
Doctor Hirt. They had a very stable population, to begin with, a 
population which was not moving around from place to place as it is 
now, and they took the census very leisurely. They had about nine 
months to make the canvass in, did not hurry about it, and I think, 
whatever the conditions of the roads may have been, the census taker 
could have gotten over his district in that length of time, which 
included the spring, summer, and winter, too. That is about all the 
ground I have for the statement. It seems to me where the popu- 
lation was stable— 
Senator CorerLanp. They say the Irish served in the Army. Where 
did they go? Were they all killed in the war? What did happen 
to them? - Where were they? When we compare these lists of the 
soldiers with the lists in the census, they do not appear in the 
census, according to the reports made hy this organization of which 1 
have spoken. 
Doctor HiLr. Those names were taken from the revolutionary rolls, 
were they not ? 
Senator Coperanp. Yes. 
Doctor Hiv. And, of course, at the time those enlistments were 
for short periods, sometimes for only three months; and then perhaps 
they went back home and reenlisted and had still another enlist-