Speech #540129724

That address set out that after the war of independence there was between the thirteen original colonies scattered along the American seaboard a very wide line of demarcation. That line was the black belt. In that address it was set out that the presence of a large number of colored people owned as slaves prevented white immigration from entering the South. that immigration therefore necessarily had followed lines of longitude instead of lines of latitude. the more inviting climate. the more fertile soil of the South was denied to the European immigrant. and therefore he had to make his home westward. Mr. Evarts attributed the wonderful growth of the western section of our Union to the fact that European white immigration poured into that section and built up a new empire. at the expense of the South. Now. sir. there are. omitting Alaska. about 1.500.000 square miles of arable surface in the United States. and of this area there are only 282.500 square miles now cultivated. This is a little over 20 per cent of the arable lands in the United States. Of that uncultivated territory the larger portion now is in the South. I think it would be suicidal in the South to put any sort of restliction upon the access into the United States of hardworking. industrious foreign immigrants. I do not think that the present immigrants are as a class equal to the original settlers of this coun. try. but I do know that more than threequarters of the area of the United States now wants development. and it wants development through industrious muscle and brawn and brain. In my opinion it would be exceedingly impolitic and unwise to exclude hardworking. industrious immigrants from the United States by any provision of this kind. It is true. sir. that the qualification is not drastic nor very wide in its scope. It only excludes immigrants over 16 years of age who can not read and write the English language or some other language. But unfortunately the large class of immigrants from Europehardworking. industrious peopleare denied the privileges and opportunities of public education. and while they make excellent citizens. if notgood voters. they are under this disability. and it would be exceedingly unwise in my opinion to exclude them. Mr. President. I am familiar with a lot of immigrants. who are very much slandered. in my opinion. generally as undesirable immigrants. They are the Italians. There are Italians and Italians.