Speech #550048693

I wish to notice very briefly some of the statistics here. The first thing that strikes one in considering them is that many of them leave a great deal to the imagination. and all of them compel one to yield unwilling credit to the sources of information from which they were supposed to have been drawn. Take Table No. 4. on page 6 of the report of the Committee on Immigration. It professes to be a "percentage. by nationalities. of immigrants to the United States from European countries over 14 years of age who can neither read nor write. during the fiscal. year ending June 30. 1895." Where the committee got these figures we are not told in the report. but one would naturally suppose that they were drawn from Table No. 1. which is a general statistical table on the subject of immigration to this countryfor the last eighteen years. and from Table No. 3. a table upon this same subject. which immediately precedes Table No. 4. But I have tried as hard as I can to make the results laid down by the committee in Table No. 4 conform to Table No. 1 and Table No. 3 without the ability to do so. They are imperfect and incomplete and carry but little weight with them. whatever may be said of the conclusions which are attempted to be drawn from them. Table No. 5 shows how prone the human mind is. when dealing with this question of statistics. to draw conclusions from insufficient data when the conclusion accords with preconceived opinions. The committee give us an elaborate table called "Percentages of illiterates. by nationalities. arranged in order of percentages." One would suppose from the title that these percentages were the average dealt with in Table No. 1. when. as a matter of fact. if we look into it closely. we see that it is drawn entirely from Table No. 4. and has reference only to the immigration during the year 1895. presented in Table No. 4. We see the same tendency to exaggerate the importance of isolated data in the tables prepared under the heading of distribution of illiterate immigrants. The Immigration Restriction League. whatever that may be. visited Ellis Island. in the harbor of New York. on three days in December. 1895. so the committee tell us. and examined about 1.000 immigrants who came into this country during those three days. From the results of that examination made by this unofficial organization on three days during the year 1895 we have elaborate tables drawn out here on "Destination by nationalities." "Destination by percentages." "Illiteracy of nationalities." and "Destination of illiterates." I have no doubt the Immigration Restriction League detailed truthfully the facts which they found by examining the immigrants. but the trouble is that it does not prove anything. Nobody can draw any deductions from an examination made upon three days of immigrants coming into our country during that limited period. and it seems to me to be absurd to parade statistics drawn from such quarters as evidence of the necessity of restricting immigration in this class by legislation. The only statistical information that I consider accurate and as carrying with it the conclusions which are attemptedto be drawn is that taken from the report of the Commissioner of Labor for the year 1894 and from the census report for the year 1890. The former of these tables shows that the slum population of our larger cities is composed largely of persons of foreign birth. and the second that a large proportion of the persons of foreign birth resident in this country are concentrated in the Eastern and Middle Atlantic States of the Union. This data is no doubt accurate. and it is perhaps a misfortune that the facts are such that the conclusions which are drawn can be said to be truthful. but I do not consider that militates very much against the desirability of foreign immigrants who come here without education. The Committee on Immigration certainly do not expect these. poor people. fresh from an immigrant ship. to congregate on Fifth avenue. New York. or Beacon street. in Boston. They go where they can. and as "the slums" is a very elastic term.