Speech #540077646

English is now the speech of the world of travel and of trade." I feel that I would do injustice to one of the ablest consular reports ever made to the State Department did I not here refer to the closing remarks of Mr. DuIGLEY on this most important subject. He says: Emigration which begins to travel and passes from transient into permanent characteristics gives rise to commerce. to geography. and to the expansion of all forms of human life. The Queen of Sheba left locusts and wild honey on becoming an emigrant. ust as the Italian gives up coarse bread and curd on becoming an American! it is the blessing of all races and all nations that man is an emigrating animal. The provincial intellect which expands itself in hating foreigners is in the thick skull of prejudice!I The nation which wants the foreigner least today is least wanted of steam. invention. and social and political progress. The rise of prejudice is the fall of industry On this side of the sea and at the close of the nineteenth century a craze against foreign immigration would be irrational. suicidal. antiAmerican. and antirepublican! There is no such condition affecting us. Mr. President. as "unresticted" immigration. There lies no such peril at the portals of our land. no such danger has begun to threaten us. The gates which have stood open wide have not been unguarded. Mr. President. if symptoms of decay in the character of our people should appear. it will not be from "race deterioration due to the influence of immigration." If our people should deteriorate. their morals become corrupt. and their character fall from its present high standard. the influences bringing about so dire a calamity will be found in the idleness and luxury of the very rich. the aping of foreign manners and customs. the evil example of titled adventurers. greed for public notoriety. and to skepticism and the neglect of religious duties. These and the enervating effect of governmental paternalism may in time threaten the ruin of our country. I do not believe that such can be. But for such ruin. if it should ever comeif in the places where our temples stand the "lean wolf shall unmolested make her lair "-these patient. peaceable. hardworking. frugal immigrants will not be responsible therefor. When "civic honor and public spirit died." then only did the thronging Goths and Vandals trample Rome. "then only did the barbarians come. as the carrion kite drops from the India sky on the dead beast of the jungle." Mr. President. over against The Unguarded Gates of the poet Aldrich. so dramatically and forcefully presented by the Senator from Massachusetts.