- Q. In your opinion would not the stream of emigration to America have been much greater if no such law had existed?
- A. I think this law did not alter it much. The prohibition could not change it.
- Q. On what grounds do you believe that?
- A. It is a question of coasts and harbors. They come in. How will you prevent a man from coming in?
- Q. Do you mean they are smuggled in?
- A. No, I do not believe that. But they always find means to come in.
Now, discussion of immigration in the United States has never been free. We have talked a great deal about it in general terms, but not in terms of specific races except the Chinese and Japanese. However, Herzl seems to have known that wherever the Jews congregate in noticeable numbers they become a trouble (his words are: “* * * America, where so soon as they form a perceptible number they become a trouble and a burden to the land”) and he also knew that efforts would be made to meet that condition. But more than that, he dropped what must be construed as a warning, that such efforts would be resisted. He said:
- “There exists a French proverb, ‘cet animal est tres impatient; il se defend quand on l’attaque.’ If the Jews are attacked, they will defend themselves, and you will get something like internal troubles.”
The time apparently did come in the United States when some far-seeing official began to wonder what the Jewish invasion portended. Already it was too strong to be openly attacked. The Jewish lobby at Washington was powerful even at that time. So, apparently, this official concluded that the best way to set about so momentous a task was to collect the information.
But in order to get the information, Congress had to give its permission; and to get the permission of Congress, hearings had to be ordered. Hearings were ordered, and the records of them, though very scarce, still exist. The reader will be given important extracts from them presently, and he will see for himself how certain American statesmen reacted to the whole matter.
