Speech #540082061

Hall. A more reputable set of gentlemen were never associated together for the promotion of a great public end. In this list of names both of the great political arties and the Protestant and Catholic churches are represented. hese men freely have given their time and money to secure the most careful and scholarly investigation that could be made of the immigration question. and as a result of their labors they have adopted as the most rational and effective measurethe educational bill which I had the honor to introduce. I come now. Mr. Speaker. to the reasons for the bill. During the first century of our existence our immigration was almost entirely made up of the races kindred with ours and kindred with the men who established the independence of this country. And at the end of that century we formed a compact and homogeneous people admirably adapted to our institutions. But at that particular time a great change was seen to take place in our immigration. In 1869 substantially threefourths of our immigrants came from Great Britain. France. Germany. and Scandinavia. while less than one onehundredth of them came from AustriaHungary. Italy. Russia. and Poland. But in 1880between 1869 and 1880a space of ten years. this immigration had grown from less. than 1 per cent to nearly 9 per cent. while in the same time the immigration from the other group of countries to which I have referred had diminished and gone down from 73 to 64 per cent. In 1890 the Hungarian. Italian. Polish. and the Russian immigration had increased to 34 per cent. or 35 times as much as in 1869. while the immigration from Great Britain. Germany. and Scandinavia had declined to nearly 50 per cent. Thus from one set of countries and from one class the. immigration was rapidly increasingrunning up. and from the other the immigration in. the same proportion was running down. Mr. Speaker. we can see that this immigration comes in competition not merely with our own people. but these immigrants come in competition with each other. If we open our doors broadly to the Chinese. on the principle that they are a lawabiding peoplewhich they areor on the principle that they are skillful and cheap laborersas they arethen the laborers from the higher civilizations. which require more to support and maintain them. can not compete with them. and in the proportion as you admit more Chinese or more of the cheaplabor races you thereby diminish the immigration of or exclude the better races. And this law is demonstrated practically and clearly in the working of the figures which I have cited. so mathematically and so scientifically that it can not be denied. Now. the figures show that the racesthat are so well suited to our institutions and civilization have been in the last twentyfive years becoming less -and less factors in our immigration. while the other nations. those races which are not suited to our civilization. which are so radically different from us in education. habits of life. and institutions of government. are taking their place and have been coming in more and more. Let us see how the educational test would work on these conditions. It has been believed by the people of the United States. at least until within a short time. that our republican institutions and our republican form of government rest upon the intelligence of the people as one of the main pillars which support them.