Speech #620172082

Mr. Chairman. I shall not tax the patience of the committee with a lengthy speech this evening. but there are one or two matters which I particularly want to call your attention to. One of these is the question of foreign immigration. The status of that question before Congress can be briefly stated. In 1907 the friends of restriction proposed to enact a law against the admission of illiterate foreigners into the United States. By the illiterate is meant those foreigners over 14 years of age who can neither read nor write in any language. The illiteracy test was sidetracked by Congress in 1907 by appointment of a commission to look into the whole question and report to Congress.