They have had to endure poverty. and poverty hinders education. in fact. it precludes it in many countries outside of our own. Is it a mark of depravity that these people wish to come here to better their condition in life and enable their children to be educated? It is seriously claimed here that these illiterate immigrants are crowding out our native skilled laborers and mechanics by competing with them in the labor market. What a compliment to the immigrant and what a reflection upon our nativeborn artisans. I do not believe it. From the beginning the imnigrant of whatever nationality has done the hard. undesirable. though absolutely necessary. work. His continued coming. entering at the lower industrial level. has not forced the older immigrant and the native born down or out. but upward. Behold the course of the immigrant of half a century ago! First lie dug the ditches and did the hard work in constructing the railroads. When other immigrants came to dig the ditches and build the railroads they pushed him up to be a gang boss. foreman. a contractor. or a policeman. Then. still others kept coming and kept crowding him. always upward. until now he is In Congress. and the end is not yet. The coming of the immigrant furnishes the opportunity for the bright and capable among the native born and older immigrants to rise in the industrial scale. Somebody must do the work at the bottom of the scale. and there is much of such work to be done in a great and growing country like ours. Who shall do it?
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