Speech #620138101

But I think it is desirable that they should be able to read in some language. Mr. President. the general consideration which I have mentioned is still further emphasized when we consider the character of the presentday immigration. The Senator from Vermont in his most interesting and instructive speech yesterday presented the distinction which the commission had recognized between what they call the old immigration and the new immigration. the old immigration having come chiefly from northwestern Europe and the new immigration coming chiefly from southeastern Europe. I do not wish to be understood as saying a word that in any degree implies an assertion of our superiority to the peoples of southeastern Europe or which in any degree reflects upon the high character of those peoples. but. sir. we can not fail to perceive. if we read history and if we acquaint ourselves with contemporaneous events. that the people of that part of Europe are much further removed from sympathy with our modes of government. are much less trained in the kind of selfgovernment which is necessary to us than the people who came from northwestern Europe. They are more unlike us. not only in language but in habit and in their acquired capacity for selfgovernment. So they need to a much greater degree than the people of the old immigration to be able to read and write. to be 1ble to come into touch with the public sentiment and to a knowledge of the public purpose of our country. The specific reason why I think this educational qualification will. as a whole. be a great advantage is that it will especially affect a very large immigration from southeastern Europe. -iwich has in recent years furnished this unassimilated element. this element which it is difficult for us to assimilate. and which when it gets here is cut off from the general sentiment and opinion of the country. Look at the figures of illiteracy among the people who have been coming here of late from southeastern Europe. Of the Poles. 801.303 have come in since the War with Spain. and of them 25.4 per cent could not read and write.