Speech #630424224

Is citizenship here of such small consequence that the foreigner wishing to obtain it will not learn to read just 30 words in the English or some other language? Are we to strike down the reading test. put a premium on ignorance. and throw our doors open to the scum of the earth in order that the army of cheap laborers may increase its numbers and the steamship companies ply their trade? In New York. the most populous State in the Union. the insane asylums and charitable institutions are full and overflowing with the feebleminded. the lame and -halt of the immigrant army. This condition has become so annoying and so burdensome that the governor of the State Is calling up.on the Federal Government to help New York care for the decrepit and feebleminded foreigners pouring into the State. The State commissioner of lunacy tells us that in 1911 there were in the civic hospitals 5.700 patients. and that 2.737 of these were foreigners. and the New York State hospital bulletin states that in 1912 there were 31.000 patients in the 14 State hospitals and that 41 per cent of them were of foreign birth.