AUSTRIA. Year. Immigrants. Illiterates. Per cent. 1895 ........................................ 83.401 10.150 33 1896 ........................................ 65.103 25. 700 45 1897 ........................................ .081 7.800 25 1898 --------------------------------------- 89.797 8. 450 21 1899 --------------------------------------- 62.491 12.500 20 1900 --------------------------------------- 114.847 27.755 24 1901 ........................................ 113.390 28.1W0 25 1902 --------------------------------------- 171.989 44.500 26 Total ................................ 684.049 165. 350 26 It seems to me idle to make as a basis the question of illiteracy of 60.000 or 65.000 people in the interior of the country. not in the great cities but upon our farms and in the agricultural and sheepraising sections of the country. while at the same time we do not the slightest thing to prevent ten or fifteen or twenty times the number of illiterates from coming in every decade. Now. these people who can neither read nor write nor speak English. who come from a country where they are denied practically all franchise. who have never inherited the principles of selfgoverning character. all come to this country. and in six months they may declare their intention of becoming citizens. and in some of the States. as I am informed. may exercise the elective franchise after having declared their intention. exercising all the rights and privileges of the most intelligent and Americanized of our people. If illiteracy should be the basis upon which we were to lay all objections to foreign immigration. we would let all of the Chinese in and keep onethird of southern Europe out. As a matter of fact. the desirability or undesirability of a people or of immigration depends upon race and not upon mere ability to read or write. For my own part. Mr.
Identified stereotypes
Generalization about Southern Europeans being illiterate and lacking self-governing character.