Extracts from Speech of Hon. Walter M. Chandler of New York in the House of Representatives, March 25, 1916.

Congressman Chandler, a Protestant from the State of New York, voted against the Burnett Immigration Bill of 1916, which by imposing a literacy test, intended to severely limit immigration to the United States by Catholics and Jews, thus preserving the Protestant character of the country. Yet on Feb. 1, 1917 the House of Representatives passed the Burnett Immigration Bill over the veto of President Wilson and four days later it became law after passing in the Senate. The National Origins Act of 1924 severely limited the number of immigrants to the United States to 150, 000 per year and each European country was assigned a quota. While generous allowances were granted to the countries of northern and western Europe, far smaller quotas were extended to the nations of southern and eastern Europe. An act of outright discrimination, this policy reflected the belief that Italian Catholics and Russian Jews were unsuitable to become American citizens.