Speech #570064643

On the very question asked by the gentleman from New York ithere is an interview in the Washington Post of this morning. There is a great deal of testimony on that proposition. but this is valuable. coming as it does from the president of the University of Prague. a member of the Austrian Reichsrath. who gives his observations on this country. He says that the greatest peril to our institutions is immigration. and on the very proposition that the gentleman has asked about. he says: Go to New York and you find them fairly swarming about the streets of the East Side from early morning until late in the evening-. Then go to the other section of the city and you notice the contrast. In the one place thousands of ignorant children playing in the filth of the smaller streets and alleys. and in the other neatly clad: children with school books in their arms. It is safe to say that the condition in the former case. under the present circumstances. when no care is manifested for the welfare of the offspring of the foreigners. will not naturally become alleviated in less than the third to the fifth generation. There is only one remedy that I can think of. and that is to organize a movement to take care of these children. educate them. and by so doing elevate their moral condition. That is in answer to the question put by the gentleman from New York whether or not the children of these immigrants take advantage of the public schools.