Speech #580003935

It has a population of only 1.500.000 people. while capable of supporting twelve or fifteen million people. Assume. then. that Cuba is taken into the Union as a sovereign State of the Union. what would be the result? Our immigration laws would applythe immigration laws that prevent the vicious and the uneducated from coming from foreign soil to our own. the immigration laws that are likely to be made more restrictive in the interest of good citizenshipand then the population of our country would pour into that island. and within three. four. or five years that island would be thoroughly Americanized. just as California was Americanized. So I insist upon it that the speedy and practicable way of Americanizing Cuba is to take )aer into the Union as soon as possible. Hitherto I have only presented the considerations that appeal to us from the standpoint of Cuba. dependent as she is upon the markets of this country. debarred as she is from the markets of the world. but I claim it would be an equal advantage to this country in harmoniously rounding out the boundaries of the Republic and including this great military outpost and this great and rich and productive island. capable of supporting twelve or fifteen million people.