Speech #630136099

Mr. Chairman. since the opening of this debate I have listened with very great attention to the discussion indulged in by the gentlemen who appear as the proponents of this measure in order to determine whether any plausible argument could be advanced in favor of that feature of section 3 of the bill. the offensive literacy test. We read in the report of the committee that the plan of subjecting aliens to the reading test has been discussed by Congress and has been before the country for many years. In view of the time and thought and thorough investigation that have been given the subject. one would naturally expect at this late date to hear in the course of discussion some sound and sensible reasoning. if any could be offered. in confirmation of the attitude taken by those who seem to have consecrated their congressional careers to excluding immigrants from our shores. So far. at least. the discussion has failed to produce conviction. and inevitably so. for you may argue the question from every conceivable standpoint. and in the final analysis you can not escape the conclusion that the one great factor that has produced the marvelous development of this country has been the brawn and sinew of the army of immigrants who have come to our shores to assist in the upbuilding of this mighty and majestic Republic. The votaries of this proposition to apply a literacy test assert with animated emphasis that the ability to read English or some other language or dialect is a sound and healthy standard to apply to the admission of the alien. Nothing could be more unjust. injudicious. or unreasonable. In the process of this countrys development during the period of 100 years. thousands and tens of thousands of aliens unable to read any language have knocked for entry at our doors. and no one can gainsay the fact that these multitudes from across the seas and from contiguous territory on the north have contributed wonderfully to the growth and advancement of American ideals and American institutions. Whenever the advantages that this country has received through the admission of the hosts of immigrants who have entered our ports in the last half century are recited. the advocates of this measure are accustomed to nod their heads in assent. but they draw a distinction. however. between the older and the newer immigration in the attempt to justify their position. Yet the very same aversion that is manifested toward the newcomers of the present was extended to the older immigrants more than half a century ago by the pessimistic prol)hets of that day and generation. who raised thewoeful wail that our institutionsaye. our very fabric of governmentwere at the mercy of immigrant hordes and clans that were coming from the tyrannical Governments of Europe. In view of the fact that American enterprise has been stimulated and American genius quickened by the uniform assistance of the stout and sturdy manhood from foreign shores. is it possible that we have reached the point where anyone will declare that a failure or refusal to adopt this literacy test must shake our faith in Americas future? I think not. Our economic development hds not yet come to an end. it has only begun. and it is beyond the power of anyone to conceive the tremendous possibilities that yet remain in store. The harvest obtainable from the cultivation of American soil has not yet been exhausted. neither has the earth beneath us yielded up all of the untold wealth that is stored in its bowels. The purpose of this proposed law. we are told. is to offer a safeguard against the continuous influx of undesirables. The quality of our presentday immigration. as appears in the reports of the Immigration Commission. does not disclose any proof that the great majority of foreigners who are coming are undesirable. The commission states thatThe present movement Is not recruited in the main from the lowest economic and social strata of European populations. In European countries. as in the United States. the poorest and the least desirable element in the population. from an economic as well as a social standpoint. is found in tho larger cities. and as a rule such cities furnish comparatively few emigrants. Neither do the average or typical emigrants of today represent the lowest In the economic and social scale even among the classes from which they come. a circumstance attributable to both natural and artificial causes. In the first place. emigratIng to a strange and distant country. although less of an undertaking than formerly. is still a serious and relatively difficult matter. requiring a degree of courage and resourcefulness not possessed by weaklings of any class. This natural law In the main regulated the earlier European emigration to the United States. and under its influence the present emigration. whether or not desirable as a whole. nevertheless represents the stronger and better element of the particular class from which it is drawn. It goes without saying that we can not. continue to advance industrially without the aid of human hands that are anxious and willing to work. The burden of all our upbuilding as a nation must be borne to a great extent by the newcomer to our shores. who seeks only an opportunity to earn his bread in the sweat of his brow. Complaint is made that enormous sums of money are taken away from this country through repatriation. for the reports of the Immigration Commission state thatAt least onethird of all European immigrants who come to the United States eventually return to Europe. Granted that there is a flow of money through this channel to the Old World. Every dollar of it represents money honestly earned. and for every dollar so taken an equivalent. and more than an equivalent in production was left behind from which this country is enriched and not impoverished. Apart from the advantages so rendered to American production. the possession of this wealth in the pockets of returning immigrants leads. in the language of the Immigration Commission. to the adoption of a higher standard of living at home: The repatriates. as a rule. return with amounts of money which seem large in the surroundings from which they emigrated. Usually. also. their sojourn abroad has made them more enterprising and ambitious and created in them a desire for better things than those to which they were formerly accustomed. This desire usually leads to the adoption of a higher standard of living. improved methods of labor in agriculture and other pursuits. In several parts of Europe visited by members of the commission the dwellings of the returned emigrants are conspicuously better .thaa those of their neighbors. and their economic status as a whole Is higher. Their example. too. is often emulated by their neighbors. and in consequence the tone of whole commaunities Is frequently elevated. If this statement made in the reports of the Immigration Commission is true. and no one ill deny that it is. is it not to be concluded that the foreigner while remaining in America has bettered his moral and social condition? And if the moral standard of the repatriate has been heightened so as to elevate the tone of the commnunity to which he has returned. how can it justly be cmintained that those who remain here are incapable of assimilation? Ability to read is not and can not he regarded as a test ot capacity for labor. On the contrary. sturdy manhood is the only test. a sound mind in a sound body. and a moral sense whose development must lift its possessor always to a higher plane of living and doing. Many of the immigrants who come to our shores are illiterate. but very soon after their arrival they realize the opportunities that this country affords in the matter of acquiring education. In spite of the great influx of immigrants arriving in the United States. Americanization can be effected. and is. in truth. effected today by the splendid educational opportunities that this country offers. The children of immigrants are in many cases the unconscious agents of this transformation. for the influence of the school and library upon themwhich is often transmitted to the parentsdrives out many racial tendencies that otherwise might retard assimilation. It has been well said by a prominent educator thatIlliteracy Is a mere accident that may affect a family in one generation but be conspicuously absent from succeeding generations. Thousands of our best people are descended from illiterate ancestors. The present attempt is not the first that has been made to adopt a literacy test. President Cleveland vetoed a law of this character. and in expressing his views upon it. in 1897. declaredThe ability to read and write. as required in this bill. in and of itself affords. in my opinion. a misleading test of contented industry. and supplies unsatisfactory evidence of desirable citizenship or a proper apprehension of the benefits of our institutions. If any particular elemeht of our illiterate Immigration is to be feared for other causes than illiteracy. these causes should be dealt with directly instead of making illiteracy the pretext for exclusion to the detriment of other illiterate Immigrants. against whom the real cause of complaint can not be alleged. It is safer to admit a hundred thousand immigrants who. though unable to read and write. seek among us a home and opportunity to work than to admit one of those unruly agitators who can not only read and write. but delights In arousing by inflammatory speech the illiterate and peacefully inclined to discontent. Again. in the Sixtysecond Congress a bill containing the literacy test was passed. but was given a crushing blow by the veto of President Taft. who denounced it asA bill which in Its chief provision violates a principle that ought to be upheld in dealing with our immigration. No one who deals with the foreigner can fail to realize his common sense. a quality so essential to individual success. though not synonymous with education. Patiently and uncomplainingly he does the basic. ancillary work which the older immigrant refuses to do. a service which history shows has been done by one wave of immigratiofi after another. The Germans and the Irish. the French Canadians. and the Scandinavians. who constituted the older immigration. and who were pointed out in their day as unfit to measure up to American standards and ideals. have long since outlived this uncharitable imputation. They have proved their worth in the great task of upbuilding the structure of a Republic. and. be it said to their everlasting credit. this Nation would never have achieved the greatness it enjoys today were it not for the influence exerted upon it by these sturdy races. The laterday immigration has directed to our shores the afflicted peoples from Poland. Russia. and the Balkan Peninsula. and the sons of sunny Italy have also crossed the sea in search of new fields of endeavor. Many of these races have their abodes in the State in which I live. and.