Speech #470038674

Their works have become the common property of the cultured people of all nations. because genies is recognized and welcomned in every civilized land. and while we admire the genius of the German and the Frenchman and the Italian and the Spaniard. they in turn pay homage to American genius and loftiness of thought. It is not onl. for the higher wages. the broader acres. the hope of riches and weal tli alone that our European kinsmen come hither. hutwhat is of far greater value to us as a people. to the true phi]anthropist. and to the future of all mankindthey are attracted by our liberal foriti of government. a governient of the people. by thepdople. and for thopeople. a government in which. with all its shortcomings. they see. novertheless. the brilliant realization of the hopes and thoughts of the most advanced teachers of progressive ideas among the writers of all lands. and the benefits of which they wish to secure. not only for themselves. bit for their posterity also. This. above all others even. is the object of the European immigrant in his pilgrimage to the New World. and when he leaves his old home. with its fond recollections. its hallowed associations. its consecrated graves. with aching heart. he does so with the firm resolve to build a new home in the faraway country to which he goes. and to love and cherish that land of his adoption in which he hopes to meet the realization of his highest ideals. Let buta single generation pass away. and their children have become inseparable and indistinguishable froim those of their neighbors and fellowcitizens whose ancestors may have lived here for a century or even longer. Not so with the Chinese. The Chiiaman is not fleeing to our hospitable shores to seek the regis of our protection. There are t) tolitical refugees from China. nor social or religious migrations like those of the Puritans to New England. the Huguenots to the South. like the German. Irish. or other patriots of Europe to the United States. or the persecuted. shamefully treated Israelites of Russia. who flee for safety. seeking an asylun and new home. The Chinatitan is neither socially. morally. nor politically fit to assimilate with 11s. If the tendency of modern civilization is at all worthpreserving. it must gradually absorb the best ingredients fottd anttng all nations to be strivingfor the foremost places in the ranks of hinian progress. otherwise it will be in constant danger of being swaiped by the masses still struggling in its lower stratas. No element of strength that I can conceiveof can be filtered from that immigration for our political or social advan cement. its admnitted object is "work" alone. Btit all possible benefits or advantages of their work to its or themselyes sink into itter insignificance in comparison with our sacrifice. should we accept andproclaim it as a recognized principle tlit the territory of the United States is free vantage ground for any. not coming here to take their place by our side as the exponeints of a republican form of government. as the standardbearers of popular liberty. but only to grab all that bounteous nature will permit them to scrape together by indefatigable. endless work. and thou leave the hospitable country as the ranger leaves the grazing ground that his herds have roaned over. I. for my part. would much rather put lip with the occasional abuse of his free time by one workman or another than to see all his fellowworkmen condemned to that spiritdeadening. endless drudgery that knows neither beginning nor endingthat would make him. our brother and equal. a mere piece of automatic machinery.