Speech #630133059

Mr. Chairman. almost from the foundation of the Government we have had among us those who were opposed to immigration. The same arguments that we hear today against admitting foieigners to our shores have been made repeatedly for a century. Time and again have the exclusionists and restrictionists pointed out the dangers to our institutions by reason of the great influx of aliens. If the advice of these extremists had prevailed. our country would be but scantily populated. our industries would be undeveloped. the Nation would not hold the place it does among the Nations of the world. and many great men and women who have rendered invaluable service to the people would never have graced the pages of our history. We are essentially a Nation of immigrants. and the adoption now of an unsound and unreasonable standard of admission is in total disregard of the traditions of the country and a violation of true democratic principles. The literacy test proposed by the framers of this bill can not be sustained except as an arbitrary rule. which will exclude many who. under every rational. reasonable. or scientific test. would be admissible. It seems to me that inability to read a few words does not stamp an immigrant as undesirable. That one may not have an education does not mean that he is not honest. industrious. or capable of understanding our institutions. Gentlemen say our immigration today is so different from what it was in the good old days when it came from western and northern Europe. Yet if the standard now proposed had been applied in the days of the old immigration. it would have excluded millions who entered our country and have become some of our best citizens. These immigrants who were bitterly attacked and assailed by the restrictionists of their day are now held up as models by the presentday restrictionists. During the course of the debate a statement was made showing that in the State of Alabama. the home of the chairman of the committee. the percentage of illiteracy among the nativeborn. whites of native parentage was exceedingly high. in fact. almost five times as high as the percentage of illiteracy among the children of foreign or mixed parentage in the same State. The chairman very eloquently pointed out that his people had suffered greatly by reason of the Civil War. that his people for years after those terrible day:s suffered every trial and privation. We all realize the truth of what he has said. and yet. while he pleads this as an excuseand it is an excusefor a certain amount of the illiteracy in his State. he is not willing to take into consideration even worse conditions that have prevailed and still prevail in the countries from which our immigrants come. He is not willing to hold out a helping hand to those unfortunates who come of a people oppressed and downtrodden for centuries. He will not distinguish between a man who has had every opportunity to acquire an education and an unfortunate alien reared in an environment and in a country which not only do not afford educational facilitic... but where oftentimes education is discouraged.