I take no high ground in reference to the condition of education in the North or in New Hampshire. In many parts of New Hampshire edacation is doing as well or better perhaps than it ever did before. but in other portions of the State it is not doing as well as it was when I was a boy. and that is back earlier than 1860 somewhat. Among other troubles. we have this trouble. that we have an immense influx of foreign population. and it is not all an intelligent population. and we not only have difficulties from the coming of the population itself. which at the time is not so unintelligent as you might think (in fact the average of the illiterates among the immigrants is only about the same as the average of illiterates throughout the whole country). but there are influences at work which prevent our gathering into the common schools and giving education as it ought to be given to the children of foreigners to a very much greater extent than these difficulties exist with reference to nativeborn children. That is rather an increasing than a decreasing difficulty. I think.
Identified stereotypes
The speaker generalizes about the intelligence of the foreign population and suggests they are difficult to integrate into schools.