To Conference

The Senate of the U, S. looked upon the immigration bill passed by the House and then proceeded to write and pass its own bill, which differed from the House bill only by as much as Nature herself requires that one pea shall differ from another.

The House cut annual immigration down to 161,000 (2% on 1890 census of aliens in the U. S.).

The Senate did likewise, but added that after July 1, 1927, this quota should be further cut to a round flat 150,000.

The Senate also restricted the surplus that might be brought in as relatives of American citizens. How much difference this difference would make, was a subject of debate.

The Senate adopted Mr. Pittman's amendment to Mr. Simmons' amendment providing that the states may designate their agricultural requirements and that--up to 50%--agricultural immigrants will be preferred.

The House provided that immigrants would be admitted by certificate, thus avoiding family splits. The Senate preferred to continue the diplomatic usage of stamping individual passports.

The House banned Asiatics. The Senate, persisting in the offense it took from the Japanese Ambassador, did likewise.

Now the two bills--House and Senate--are "in conference," the famous hot house of national legislation. From the conference will emerge a bill which, unless they choose to upset the normal cause of legislation, both House and Senate will approve.

Conferees from the Senate: Reed (Pa.), Sterling, Keyes, King, Harris, the first three being Republicans; from the House: Johnson, Vare, Vincent, Sabath, Raker, the first three being Republicans.

Two Senate Republicans--the venerable Colt, and Weller--voted against the Senate bill, and four Democrats, Bayard, Gerry, King, Walsh (Mass.).

The following table shows the national quotas permitted by the House Bill and by the present law:

Country Present Law New Bill

Great Britain and Ireland 77,342 62,558

Germany 67,607 50,229

Italy 42,057 3,989

Poland 30,979 8,972

Russia 24,405 1,892

Sweden 20,042 9,661

Czecho-Slovakia 14,357 1,973

Norway 12,205 6,553

Rumania 7,419 731

Austria 7,342 1,090

Jugo-Slavia 6,426 835

Hungary 5,747 588

France 5,729 3,978

Denmark 5,619 2,882

Finland 3,921 245

Switzerland 3,752 2,181

Netherlands 3,602 1,737

Greece 3,063 135

Turkey 2,654 123

Lithuania 2622 402

Portugal 2,465 574

Belgium 1,563 609

Latvia 1,540 217

Esthonia 1,348 202

The total quota is cut by the new bill from 357,801 to 161,990.