Speech #620115406

Spain. Syria. and Turkey. Total European nmigration (including Syrians) to time United States in years specified by class of immigrants. Year. Per cent of total immigration. Class. 182 1907 1S82 1907 Old immigration ....................... . 53. 170 227.851 87.1 19.0 New immigration ....................... 83.320 971.608 12.9 81.0 Not specified ........................... 274 107 .............. Total ....................cGi6. 7G4 1.199.566.............. The percentage of illiteracy among the old immigrants. that Is. those who antedated 18S3. was -only 2.7 per cent. far below that of our native population. The rate of illiteracy among the new immigrants. that which has been coming here since 1883. is on an average about 36 per cent. and the bulk of this immigration. the most undesirable portion of it. is of a much higher degree of illiteracy than the general average. Of the 1.500.000 south Italians that came to America from 1899 to 1909. over 800.000. or 54 per cent. could neither read nor write. 54 per cent of the Syrians who came during that period could neither read nor write. 35 per cent of the Poles who came during that period could neither read nor write. 68 per cent of the Portuguese. 38 per cent of the Ruthenians. 51 per cent of the Russians. 58 per cent of the Turks. 27 per cent of the Greeks. and 41 per cent of the Bulgarians and Servians and Montenegrins could neither read nor write. In short. Mr. President. something over threefourths of this entire new immigration is made up of a people the large part of whom are densely ignorant and illiterate. But this is not the worst. They are people who have grown up under surroundings which unfit them for the responsibilities of citizenship in a country like ours. where the people rule. and where every man is a sovereign.