Speech #500006219

During the four years of strife only 546.466 were received. but since January 1. 1865. 8.426.534. or more than 58 per cent. of the total. have been added. The census enumerators in 1880 found 6.679.943 foreignborn residents. and 3.577.769 have been registered since January 1. 1881. making the present probable imported population of the United States nearly or quite ten millions of souls. but. inasmuch as. according to the Malthusian law of increase. about seventyfive years would be required to render our population as dense as that of France there is no present numerical reason for prohibiting the influx. save possibly the crowding of the labor market. The growing disquiet of workingmen and anxiety of propertyholders are not properly based upon the volume of immigration. but upon its character and distribution. An undue and oppressive competition in wages is felt at industrial centers. our charities. reformatories. and penal institutions are overtaxed. and. worst of all. there is seen a growth of classes. unAmerican and hard of assimilation. which menace the public peace and threaten to overturn all established law and usages. The observation and investigation of the thoughtful and the patriotic appears to be crystallizing to a conviction that our country. with sixty millions of people and fifty billions of wealth. has passed at least beyond the need of immigration. that it is fully capable of selfsupport and selfdebnrse. and. while neither completed development. strained resources. nor fear of early overpopulation require the exercise of its right of exclusion. the time has come to put in operation its right of selection. In other words. it is time for America to go out of the "asylum" business. to cease to be complacentlyregarded as the "Universal Colony" of the Old World. to deny the use of its shores as a dumpingground for the vicious and delinquent human product of other nations. it should compel recognition henceforth as a land of opportunities for those. and for those only. who desire to become American citizens in the highest and broadest sense. and whose physical. mental. and nmoral qualifications are such as render their coming profitable to the Republic. With us are found the highest wages. the largest liberty. and the easiest procurement of comforts and competency in the world. and we should exercise a wise discretion in sharing these advantages. to the end that they be not lessened by the acts or delinquencies of the beneficiaries.