The fact that more than 6.000 applicants during the past 12 months were rejected as physically unfit under the existing law. notwithstanding that the requirements thereof and the funds and facilities for its enforcement were wholly inadequate. indicates that the physical standard now prevailing Is far below what it should be. Irrespective of whether or not the illiteracy test is adopted. the standards of the law regarding physical and moral qualifications should be materially raised and the machinery for their enforcement extensively improved. There is no educational test recommended in the report of the Commissioner General of Immigration. sent here with the approval of the Secretary of Labor. There is no suggestion that men and women desiring to obtain a haven here and to work out their existence here should be barred by reason of an educational test. but there is a suggestion. which is humane after all and which shows that those in the administrative capacity in this Government are coming to their senses upon this question. that after all "manhood" shall be the test and that there shall be only a physical. mental. and moral qualification. Hence we have voted into this bill. as I suspected some time ago. a provision restricting immigration by an educational test. which flies directly in the teeth of the recommendation of the Commissioner of Immigration and which flies also in the teeth of the suggestion of the Secretary of Labor. You have voted the literacy test into this bill. and voted it into the bill very much as you were about to vote the Asiatic question into this bill. against the wishes of your Secretary of State. in defiance of the wishes of your Commissioner General of Immigration and your own Secretary of Labor.
Keywords matched
Immigration immigration literacy test Asiatic