"Relaxing quotas for exiles fought" and "Science and immgration," New York Times, May 4 and August 12, 1934 (Laughlin against exemptions for Jews)

1111. New York Times News Note May 4, 1934. Editorial August 12, 1934. Relaxing Quotas for Exiles Fought Eugenist in Report to State Chamber Says Desirability Should Be Only Test. Would Bar Non-Whites Committee to Offer Resolutions Later After Studying Views of Dr. Laughlin. In a report on immigration control distributed by mail yesterday to all members of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, a special committee of the chamber announces that it will give "serious consideration and at an appropriate time submit resolutions to the chamber" on recommendations which include the following: No exceptional admission for Jews who are refugees from persecution in Germany. No admission for any immigrant "unless he has a definite country to which he may be deported, if occasion demands." No immigrant to be admitted whose ancestors were not "all members of the white or Caucasian race." The United States to deny entry into its territory to "any would-be immigrant who adheres to the principle that loyalty to any foreign nation or to any alien race or organization transcends obligation to the government of the United States." One test of "such national and racial loyalty to be willingness to bear arms on the side of the American people in case of conflict." Study by Dr. Laughlin. These recommendations are "submitted for the information of the chamber" by its special committee on immigration and alien insane, under the chairmanship of John B. Trevor, as part of a study prepared for the committee by Dr. Harry H. Laughlin of the Department of Eugenics of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. "The scientific direction of the researches covered by this report," says the committee, "was entrusted to Dr. Laughlin. He is beyond doubt the foremost authority in the United States today on the subject, and his previous researches along similar lines for the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization of the House of Representatives peculiarly fitted him for the task." The study by Dr. Laughlin, which the committee submitted as part of its preliminary report, is entitled: "An analysis of the standards, procedure, spirit and results in current immigration control, pointing out the defects which prevent the effective enforcement of immigration policy and indicating the constructive work needed for such enforcement." It reads in part: "There is a movement now to make special legislative provisions for the Jews persecuted in Germany. If, as a result of persecution or expulsion by any foreign country, men of real hereditary capacity, sound in physical stamina and of outstanding personal qualities, honesty, decency, common sense, altruism, patriotism and initiative, can be found, they should, because of such qualities, and not because of persecution, win individual preference within our quotas and be welcomed as desirable human seed-stock of future American citizens. If any would-be [obscured] cannot meet these [obscured] should, of course, be [obscure] are no exception to[obscured] are widely variable in and there are inferior Jews. Within the quotas of the countries of their birth our immigration laws welcome the Jews of any nation who can meet our standards, but if they cannot meet such standards then, like Russians, Germans, Italians, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Swedes, they should not be admitted. High-grade Jews are welcome, and low-grade Jews must be excluded. "Germany has an annual immigration quota of 25,957 but at the present time less than 1,000 immigrants a year are coming from Germany. One reason for the small quota fulfillment is that in 1930 President Hoover issued an order denying immigration visas to would-be immigrants who could not demonstrate that they would not become public charges after they arrived in America. This rule is still in effect. A lower standard in this respect is inconceivable." As to the theory of "asylum," Dr. Laughlin writes: "With modern dumbing of inadequates and stimulated transportation, the United States, if it continues to be the world's asylum and poorhouse, would soon wreck its present economic life and its future inheritance." Question of Propaganda. Dr. Laughlin characterized the problem of alien propaganda "a side issue to immigration -control," but declared that even naturalized citizens and certainly aliens must "abstain from foreign, group, or racial propaganda within the United States." He advocated punishment and deportation whether the propaganda was, for instance, in support of the Nazi government, or an attempt to destroy the Nazi government. In support of "the white standard in the selection of immigration," Dr. Laughlin said: "It is not a matter of inferior or superior races; it is a matter of recruiting to the race-standards which the nation has already set. "If they who control immigration would look upon the incoming immigrants, not essentially as in offering asylum or nor in securing cheap labor, but primarily as 'sons-in-laws to marry their own daughters,' they would be looking at it in the light of the long-time truth. Immigrants are essentially breeding stock. "Let the metaphor of the melting pot go and come back to the real thing. The great nations of the past have been both made and destroyed by immigration, mate selection and difference in size of family in reference to inborn capacity. These nation-making forces can be substantially controlled by living nations." In order to support the basic policy advanced, Dr. Laughlin recommended that no individual be admitted as an immigrant whose wife, husband or minor child was, for any cause, inadmissible. He also recommended that the present immigrant quota assignment for each of the several countries be reduced by 60 per cent. The New York Times Reg. U.S. Pat. Off. "All the News That's Fit to Print." Published Every Day in the Year by The New York Times Company. Adolph S. Ochs, President and Publisher. Godfrey N. Nelson, Secretary. Sunday, August 12, 1934. Science and Immigration. Under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, H. H. Laughlin of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, an authority on genetics, has surveyed the native and foreign-born inmates of 246 institutions maintained for the care of the criminal and the insane, seeking to deduce the basis of an immigration policy which will foster American ideals. To him the task was a biological problem. Hence he rightly insists that we should admit "only human blood strains*** "which would constitute long-time assets in the breeding of the future Americans." But when we seek his biological tests for recognizing these strains we are thrown back on race assimilability, Human beings are not fruit flies, living in a bottle-world under control. Hence we have no scientific way of determining what races are assimilable. In fact, we have no clear definition of race. We simply give our likes and dislikes free rein, and decide that only whites are desirable. Although as a geneticist he must know that color is not the sole distinguishing character of any human "race," Dr. Laughlin accepts these prejudices. Dark-skinned Hindus or purest "Aryan" lineage and of unimpeachable physique, mentality and personality must be excluded on the assumption that they are assimilable. Although still undemonstrated, it may be that prejudice has a biological justification - that it is nature's device to prevent the breeding of hybrids. The plain truth is that colored aliens are regarded as undesirable, not because of any overwhelming experimental proof that they are unassimilable, but because Americans do not want them for a score of political, social and economic reasons. Yet Dr. Laughlin does lay down admirable principles which have long been advocated but never presented in so orderly a fashion. Already we have made a beginning in excluding the physically and mentally unfit for good genetic reasons. Dr. Laughlin would inquire 'more narrowly ito parentage, make more rigorous tests of intelligence, personality and social adaptability, police the coasts and borders with a force of unestimated size maintained at an unestimated cost, register every native and foreigner, compel the production of identification cards on demand, and, above all, clarify and codify our widely diverse naturalization laws with a stronger emphasis on "racial" and national loyalty to the United States. The truth is that the United States is no longer an asylum for all downtrodden aliens. The right of entry is a privilege which will some day be granted only to those who are demonstrably able to adapt themselves to American ways of thinking and living. If the geneticist can help us in [remainder obscured, missing]