Speech #630132299

Total ............................................ 1.408 1.706 2.428 1.501 3.280 12.649 Organized. Number. I Per cent. 2.106 23.2 16.6 14.8 9.3 4.8 4.6 11.4 39.8 35.3 21.4 21.1 13. 7 la 9.7 9.6 16.6 On the whole. the average percentage of union men among the " undesirable aliens " Is higher than among the immigrants of the preferred races. The percentage of tradeunionists among North Italians Is nearly three times as high as among native Americans of native parcntage. the Lithuanlans furnish twice as many as the more desirable Englishmen. the Hebrews twice as many as the Swedes the 1111thenians are far ahead of the Americans of native stock. even the South Italians can boast a percentage twice as high as the Germans. the Magyars and the Slovaks (popularly known as "Huns ") march In front of the Swedes. and the Poles. who are at the tail end of the procession of undesirables from eastern Europe. still outnumber two to one their more favored kinsmen. the Bohemians and Moravians. Considering that the native Americans and the members of the races which contributed most largely to the earlier Immigration are. as a rule. engaged In higher occupations. where they are for the most part segregated from the recent immigrants. it is clear that the latter could not be an obstacle in the way of organization among the skilled men . and that they have not been an obstacle Is shown by the fact that the recent immigrants themselves furnish a higher percentage of organized workmen. Regardless of the opinions of the Immigration Commission. one thing seems to be well established by its statistics. viz. that there is no casual connection between Immigration and the slow progress of organization among the Industrial workers of the country. Another argument presented here in favor of the application of the reading test is that there is too much immigration and it should be restricted. Mr. Speaker. this is an assertion without any proof. In spite of this cry of too much immigration. the ratio between foreign born and native born in the last half of a century is practically the same. Who will claim that there was too much immigration from 1850 to 1860 or from 1860 to 1870? And yet census statistics show that the percentage of foreign born and native born has not changed. The following table is taken from page 788. volume 1. on Population. Census 1910 : Country of birth. Percent distribution of total population of United States. Native .................. 85.3 Total foreign born ...... 14.7 Total population.. 100 It is also argued that the presentday immigrant comes from a source out of harmony with the spirit of American institutions. and hence not readily assimilable on that account. The same argument was used against the old immigrants. who are now so lauded as being better than the presentday immigrant. The same narrow argument was used by those who opposed immigration in the first half of the nineteenth century. And now we find those who were so condemned then lauded to the skies. But. Mr. Speaker. do they who say that the presentday immigrant is not readily assimilable mean to argue that those immigrants who belong to these unassimilable races. who can read a page or two In their own language. will. because of that test. become readily assimilable? Such a test will not keep out the undesirable ones. Let me quote to you from the New York Tribune of May 9. 1912. on this question of assimilability: Would any real advantage come to the country from the enactment of the Dillingham immigration bills? One familiar argument for it is that the United States Is receiving immigrants now who are not readily assImIlable. But it is not illiteracy that makes the immigrant from parts of southern and eastern Europe unassimilable. If he can not be assimilated. It Is because his racial unlikeness to the settlers of this continent is too great. But the literacy test will keep out only a fraction of the alien races. The problem of their assimilation will remain unsolved. Nor will the literacy test be sure to keep out the least desirable of the arriving immigrants. It is not usually the man who can not read and write who recruits an anarchist population here. It is the intellectual proletariat" of Europe which. coming here. congregates in cities and adds to their ferment. The man who works with his hands has always found Isis place readily in this country. and if lie ever makes trouble. by strikes and rioting. it is only as he begins to be assimilated and to develop the American standard of living. Again. the criminals who come to this country and are one of the gravest evils of immigration are seldom of the Illiterate class. Illiterates do not write Black Hand letters. But is it true that the immigrants of today can not be assimnilated? Whence comes these immigrants who are so different than we? Are we really not of their blood? The Italian immigrant is the one especially attacked. Mr. Speaker. a people who have builded the greatest empire of antiquity. a people whose civilization lighted the whole known world and who discovered the new. a people to whom we go for the best in literature. in art. and in government.