Speech #500000584

Thus the mayor of the "Athens of America "was recently led to preside at a reception in honor of the champion slugger of the prizering. If not the will of the mayor. certainly his political necessities consented. and the "ring"I may be expected not to forget the mayor at the polls. Many of our citizens of foreign birth are notable men. eminent in all the higher walks of life. and being mostly of the same stock of the original AngloSaxon race. have become thoroughly Americanized. but more than a moiety of immigrants are contented with the most inferior and wretched abodes found in cities. and will not accept of health and prosperous homes elsewhere. Seventy per cent. of the population of Boston. it has been computed. are foreign by birth or parentage. 80 per cent. of New York. and 91 per cent. of Chicago. This extraordinary percentage. it is more than probable. may be aggravated by future immigration. It must be remembered that all portions of cities which are in the poorest sanitary condition are usually the most crowded and the most prolific. Here the constant infusion in such large measure of the lower type. physical and moral. of divers foreign peoples. often illfed and illiterate. can not fail to degrade to some extent citybred population. and. should any great war occur. the inferi6r physique of the recruits rejected would be displayed in excessive proportions. Without any interference with the majority of immigrants. whose good character is undisputed. we may at least check the reenforcement of that beggarmyneighbor class in all cities which is of evil repute and the most expensive to support. The Celtic. AngloSaxon. Scandinavian. and German immigrants. coming here in remarkable force. have been easily digested and assimilated. and with advantage to the energy and elasticity of the American race. but hitherto they have made greater changes in their own character than in that of the New World. Doubtless every shipload of immigrants received. while never failing to add to our bulk. has a tendency to elevate or to sink the national character. When they come with health and vigor. both moral and physical. willing and prepared to support themselves and the institutions of a free government. they strengthen and enrich the national character. But even a few dead flies in the ointment. according to Scripture. give it the stinking savor. and involuntary immigrants. and such as leave their native land as paupers. criminals. lunatics. or idiots. whether many or few in number. poison and impoverish the lifeblood of our people. ani none of these classes ought here to find an asylum. or to find even the luxury of American jails and prisons. All such as these must be tabooed and excluded in order to rescue the reputation of the major and better class of immigrants. as well as to protect our own good name and the general welfare. It is to be feared that the influx of these discredited classes is now too great for the absorbing power and reformatory forces with which they are here brought in contact. and whether this influx drops to the bottom or rises to the top. it largely settles or floats together in many of our cities as a threatening and incongruous mass. The title of an American citizen is far too precious to allow of its seizure by all newcomers without any inquiry as to their antecedents or previous historyan inquiry that might leave them without title as citizens "in good and regular standing" anywhere.