Speech #620267148

Ground down with the chains of slavery for 250 years. denied. aye. forbidden. to read a printed page. no wonder there exists some illiteracy among them now. But few races in the world have made more progress than the colored people since the masters lash was taken from their bare backs and them given an opportunity to make some strides along educational and other lines. But if it be true. as contended here by gentlemen opposing the literacy test for immigrants. that there is a high degree of. illiteracy in the South. and that for that reason we ought not to insist on an educational test for immigrants. my answer is that that is all the more reason why we should insist upon it. If there is much illiteracy in the South. why add more to it by admitting a horde of illiterate foreigners? Should it not be our duty rather to get rid of what we already have by educating our own people? If the education test had been applied to foreign immigrants years ago. no negro slaves would have been brought from Africa. There would have been no negroes in the South. We would not have had any Civil War. and there would not today be 30 or 40 per cent of uneducated negroes in the South. as stated upon this floor. But I am digressing. I have just laid the foundation for a discussion of this question of immigration. and before the Dillingham and Burnett bills finally pass this House I shall ask the indulgence of the Hoiuse for a more extended discussion of this question.