Speech #590063273

In the great city of New York. made up of every kind and condition of men. in that great city in which people from every portion of the habitable globe find habitation. the illiteracy. according to the census. was about 5 per cent. and in that city we have thrived splendidly. We have made it the greatest. grandest city in all the world. We have never been afraid of the immigration classes there. for they have been well behaved. they have assimilated with the citizenship. they have been peaceful and lawabiding. they have been thrifty and industrious. If now and then we find an undesirable immigrant. if now and then we find one not lawabiding. surely because of exceptional cases the gentleman from Kentucky should not claim that immigration ought to be kept out of this country. But I repeat that the gentleman from Kentucky necessarily falls to understand the great problems of immigration. How can the gentleman. however efficient he may have desired to be In the performance of his duty as a school commissioner. understand the great problem that now confronts the cities of the Union when charged. as he was. with the education of the people in his own district. that district presents a record of 17.5 per cent of illiteracy? My friend and colleague from New York said it was about 30 per cent.