Representative GALLIVAN. Mr. President. we have here some representatives of Boston opinion on this bill. they have come from the city of Samuel Adams. of William Lloyd Garrison. of Wendell Phillips and of thousands of many splendid immigrants of all races who could not have entered this country under a literacy test. They have come to protest with voice and mind and heart against this unAmerican measure that now threatens. They believe that such a test would not bar from our shores the arrogant. the brutal. the vicious. the selfish. the hateful. the uncharitable. the unwanted. but that it would close our doors against the unfortunate. the oppressed. the victims of brutalism and repression in Old World misgovernment. Mr. President. I rise to speak chiefly against the literacy test In this bill. because I believe that. based on the experience and history of this and every other country. literacy is not a measure of character or a test of fitness for citizenship. It is a convenience. not a necessity. in the life of a people. It neither adds to nor diminishes the native ability and virtue of any people. and it is the simplest commonplace to say that no nation was ever saved. no people ever freed. no government ever established by the pen of the writer and the book of the scholar: the vigor. courage. intelligence. and strong arms of men that accomplish these great ends were the endowment of those who were able to make history. even If they could neither write nor read it.
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immigrants literacy test