Speech #590004521

You take the settlement of Minnesota by the Norwegians and Swedes. They were from northern Europe. and many of them today can not speak the English language. but they have made a great State. They have developed the lands of that State. they have produced markets for us. and they are rapidly becoming assimilated and a part of the American people. but you take the immigration that is coming here today. only onethird of whom are from northern Europe. and what do you find? Are they going out to the West and developing the farm. are they making new markets? No. under the present system that is bringing this class of immigration to America it is the weakest who come. It is those who can not stand alone at home. and by reason of the very small cost of bringing them to this country they come here. in many cases. assisted by those in foreign countries who desire to get rid of them. They* do not go out and develop the farm. They are not the class who build the railroads. and. as a rule. they are not the class who go into the mines. but they are the class who become the tramps and the organ grinders of the great cities. Of the immigrants who came to this country last year. I find that 31 per cent of them remained in the great State of New York. 7 per cent in Massachusetts. 20 per cent in Pennsylvania. and 5 per cent in New Jersey. four States retained 63 per cent of them. and I find that Illinois retained 7 per cent and Ohio 5 per cent. making a total of 75 per cent of those immigrants who came to this country remaining in those six States of the Union. Now. why? In the early history of the settlement of this country the immigrants who came here. the immigrants of our blood and kin. went all over the United States. They went to the frontier and faced the dangers of the Indian war and the hardships of the frontier country and built their homes. but of this class of immigrants coming today we find 75 per cent of them located in six of the great States of the Union. and why? Because in those great States we find the great cities of New York. Philadelphia.