I hope. as much as any man. For the duties of citizenship I consider it essential. but 1 deny that its possession is or ought to be considered as indispensable to the right of entrance into our great national family. I would gladly vote for an amendment to our naturalization laws requiring an educational qualification for those admitted to citizenship. I would consider that wise statesmanship. But I will never vote to deny to anyman the protection of our laws and the benefits of our free institutions on the score of learning. such is not statesmanship. I hesitate to characterize the pending bill as I otherwise would because of the high respect I have for the distinguished Senators who have reported the measure to the Senate. If I understand the report of the honorable Committee on Immigration correctly. it proceeds on the theory that vice and ignorance go hand in hand. and that in order to bar out the vicious it is necessary to bar out the ignorant. If the premise be correct. it would seem that the conclusion naturally follows. In order to sustain the premise the committee has collated a large mass of statistics and embodied them in its report.
Keywords matched
Immigration naturalization