Speech #540081417

Mr. Speaker. coming to the subject before the House. one would think from the expressions of alarm and dread that Pyrrhus was at the gate.s of Rome. The argument is presented that the Republic is in danger. that our laboring men are clamoring for protection. that our morality is about to be impaired and degraded. that our citizenship is to be lowered in its standard. all by the coming of new immigrants to this land. I will not weary this House with statistics. The history of this country furnishes statistics grander than the dome of this Capitol. and when you reflect for a moment. gentlemen. that in a period of one hundred years the original population of this country. which was 3.000.000 in 1790. has increased twentyone fold. without detriment to our "institutions. without degradation of our morality. without impairment of our standard of education and of civilizationI say there is something more than the good of the Republic behind the arguments that are now made here to exclude the poor and the labor seekers of other countries. who. like ourselves and yourselves. see across the Atlantic the rising star of the West. which bids them elevate themselves. emancipate themselves. and seek to find there a field where they can apply the energies of their hearts and the light of their intelligence. There is no need for statistics. Forty millions of the 70.000.000 white people of this country have come here since 1790 and are foreigners or the descendants of foreigners. The immigration ten. twenty. thirty. or forty years ago was. in proportion to our population. greater than it is now. Where is the danger? There is no danger. Why? Because the principles upon which this American Government rests are the principles of all humanity. and every man who comes here comes to be an American. because to be an American is to be a citizen of the worlda cosmopolitan. It is said that the GermanAmerican citizens are not opposed to restriction of immigration from southern Europe. I know the Germans. they are sometimes clannish and selfish. but for myself I would be untrue to my humanity as a GermanAmerican citizen if I were to utter a sentiment or make a stroke of the pen that would deny to the humblest lazaroni in the streets of Venice the privileges and the benefits that I have acquired at the hands of the people and the institutions of this country. . Mr. Speaker. we are told that an educational test is the panacea for the evils of immigration. Why. sir. what was it with which the serpent tempted the woman in the Garden of Paradise? "Erites sicut Dens. scientes bonum et malum "-the knowledge of good and evil. Knowledge is not a protection against immorality. it is not a "test of character." The man who knows not how to write and readwho has grown up under those ancient and oppressive institutions which forbade his developmentmay have the heart of a Julius Cusar in his breast. and. coming to this country. become one of its great achievementsone of the manifestations of the civilization of the New World.