Speech #630424168

Speaker. were we to look into the ancestry of many of those who have served city. State. and Nation in public stationaye. of many of those who from time to time have served with honor and distinction in this Housewe would find many who came to America from foreign lands illiterate. They. like the immigrants of the present day. quickly entered into the spirit of American life and. became imbued with American habits and ideals. They. like the immigrants of the present day. eagerly sent their children to the schools. where. with remarkable aptitude for study. these children made rapid progress in education. and the rolls of honor in our colleges and universities are replete with names of the children of these foreign born. Through means of immigration our land has prospered. our wealth augmented. our cities and towns upbuilded. and our general welfare increased. Yet for over a hundred years the demand for restriction of immigration has come. more frequently from the narrow minded. the prejudiced. or the ill informed. In the debates on immigration in the House during my years of service I have pointed out. as others. too. have done. the vain fears and gloomy forbodings expressed by the enemies of immigration from the earliest period of the Republic to the present time. yet our country has grown and prospered and become the mighty Nation that it is today. while the fears and doubts and pessimistic misgivings have vanished as thin air. I Ah. but some say the quality of immigration is not today what it was years ago. Mr. Speaker. that is the same. same old cry. It is the same cry made every time restriction was proposed. Years ago it was directed against the Irish. the Germans. the Austrians. and the Scandinavians. These splendid. sturdy. industrious. and thrifty immigrants made splendid. valuable. most desirable acquisitions to our land. Who now dare deny their worth. their quality. their value to our common country. Now the hand of the restrictionist is directed against the Russian Jaw. the Italian. the Roumanian. the Hungarian. the Pole. and the Slav. You gentlemen who come from districts into which little or no immigration comes do not understand the worth and quality and value of these people. They come hopefully into this country. and. like the immigrants that preceded them. seek. through earnestness of effort. through thrift and energy. through labor. and all that makes for decent manhood and womanhood. to build for themselves and their families and for usefulness and happiness of home. So. sir. aside from those who are honestly and squarely moved to support this bill because they in their Judgment believe economic conditions demand it. I fear that much of what underlies the advocacy of the measure in the minds of some is that spirit which is born of narrowness and conceived in racial prejudice. Time does not permit me to pursue the subject longer. My views. frequently expressed on this floor on the literacy test. are well known to the membership of the House. I ask the House to sustain President Wilson in his scholarly and patriotic message. The literacy test. neither a test of fitness or character. determining neither the morality of the immigrant nor his quality. but used only as a subterfuge for arbitrary restriction. has been three times by Presidents condemned. President Cleveland. in vigorous terms. disapproved it. So did President Taft.