Speech #570117698

Out of a total foreign population of about 500.000 in Minnesota nearly 90.000 are Englishspeaking foreigners from Canada and the British Isles. They come over familiar with our language and they immediately become valuable members of the community. The remainder of our immigrants in Minnesota are either from Germany or the three Scandinavian countriesDenmark. Sweden. and Norway. Everyone who is at all familiar with the facts knows that there is no class of people coming to this country speaking another tongue who more rapidly learn the English language and become good American citizens. The first generation of children of these German and Scandinavian immigrants become thoroughly Americanized. they speak the English language. and in many instances never are able to learn the mother tongue of their parents. in fact. they frequently grow up without any knowledge of it. Minnesota has been settled to a large extent by immigrants and the children of immigrants. and it is today one of the most prosperous and progressive States in the Union. In the matter of intelligence. in the matter of literacy. and in all that goes to make up a State it will compare favorably even with the State of Ohio. and there is no occasion to compare it with the Territory of New Mexico. I find on looking at the census reports for 1890 that the percentage of illiteracy in the State of Ohio was 4.8 per cent. while in the State of Minnesota it was only 4.1 per cent.