President. I think if the Senator from Missouri will consider the facts and the purposes and the character of the bill as it stands. he will not feel inclined to insist upon his amendment. In the first place. the Senator will realize that the proportion of males to females among immigrants is not so much greater. On the first page of the Commissioners report the Senator will find that for the present year the total immigration was 343.267. Two hundred and twelve thousand four hundred and sixtysix were males. 130.801 were females. There were 130.000 females to 212.000 males. and in the previous year there were 109.520 females to 149.016 males. If there is an evil to be corrected by adopting an intelligence test for admission there is not such a difference between the number of males coming and the number of females coming as to justify the distinction which the Senator wishes to make by which illiterate males are to be kept out and illiterate females are to be admitted. � The Senator has assumed that the principal object in requiring that immigrants shall read and write their own language is in order that we may have intelligent voters in this Republic. and he assumes that that rule does not apply to women. I beg to call the Senators attention to the fact that the cause of female suffrage is rapidly growing in this country. and that in the Western States at the recent election a vast number of votes of women was cast. Therefore. the distinction which the Senator is making. if it is a good one. is rapidly disappearing.
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immigrants immigration