Speech #620137140

With this unexampled growth in manufactures. in agriculture. and in transportation there has been a growth in the interstate commerce of the Nation. We are told by the statistician of the Government that the trade now existing between the States is greater in volume and in value than the entire foreign commerce of all the nations of the world combined. I have said that during this period we have admitted 23.000.000 alien immigrants. Substantially twothirds of them have remained to become a part of the great American public. All have come intelligently. with a definite purpose to improve their condition. They have come in answer to the enormous demands for labor in .the development of American industries. and in the main have well performed their part. To a great extent they have become citizens of the United States. and they and their descendants have been assimilated and become part of the great American public. It may be well for us at this point to consider the fact that there are two distinct classes of immigrants who have come to the country during this period. The Immigration Commission. in their reports. have designated them the old immigration and the new. The old immigration is that which predominated prior to 1882. in which year the tide flowing from the north and west of Europe. from England. Ireland. Scotland.