Speech #630134951

This almost continuous conflict. and the exactions of European Governments to maintain their state of preparedness for war. has resulted in a great many of the toiling masses of European countries being deprived of an opportunity to secure an education. If we intend to maintain our country as the founders intended it should be maintained. as an asylum for the oppressed. and if European governmental oppression results in preventing the European of any nationality * from an opportunity to secure an education. we ought to determine the fitness of those who seek an asylum on our shores by a standard other than that of an illiteracy test. In this connection. too. it is well to note the fact that in those portions of our country to which immigration is common. .wealth and industry abound. and in those sections of the country to which immigration has not gone. and from which the protest ..against immigration is loudest. industry and wealth have lagged behind. This outcry against the immigrant has been going on .for years. It has been asserted that immigration has a tendency to lower the standard of American wages. to lower the standard of American living. and militates against the progress of American institutions. and theoretically this seems sound. but this theory can not stand in the face of the indisputable -fact that our country today is richer. more powerful. and more influential among the nations than it ever was before. The standard of American living is higher today than it has ever been in the history of the country. and the statistics issued by the Department of Labor show that the tendency of wages is upward and not downward. notwithstanding the fact that immigration has been increasing rapidly in recent years. In listening to the claim asserted during this debate that immigration is disastrous to the country. I could not avoid reflecting on the fact that the great State of New York. which ranks first in population. is also first in wealth. and its immigrant population is larger than that of any other State. Pennsylvania ranks second in population. second in wealth. and second in the number of its immigrant population. Illinois ranks third in population. third in wealth. and third in the number of its immigrant population. Ohio comes fourth in population. fourth in wealth. and it has a large foreign population. And so it is all down the row of States. wealth. population. and immigration seem to go hand in hand. When we come to the * great State of Alabama we find it is eighteenth in population. its immigrant population is less than 1 per cent of its total. and -it ranks twentyseventh in the score of wealth. We should not be influenced against the immigrant by a prejudice or a fear. The honest. intelligent. and industrious immigrant is a producer of wealth and is by no means a danger to our institutions. and. while he may be illiterate. our experience in the past has demonstrated that the children of immigrants cheerfully take advantage of our free educational institutions and have developed into the brightest. most capable. influential. and patriotic citizens of the Republic.