Speech #640042981

Class. Percenta e . als. . rganze a. Native born of native father: W hite .. ... .................................................... 13.9 N.evro ........... .......................................... 17.9 Natie born of foreign father ........................................... 14.1 Foreign torn .......................................................... 13.4 Another argunment presented here in favor of the application of the reading test is that there is too much immigration and It should be restricted. Mr. Chairman. this is an assertion without any proof. In spite of this cry of too much immigration. the ratio between foreign born and native born in the last half of a century is practically the same. Who will claim tht there was too much immigration from 1.850 to 1860 or from 1860 to 1870? And yet census statistics show that the percentage of foreign born and native born has not changed. The following table is taken from page 788. volume 1. on population. census 1910: Per cent distribution of total population of United States. Cl~ass. -I Native............. Native .................. Total loreign born ....... Total population.. 100.0 It is also argued that the presentday immigrant comes from a source out of harmony with the spirit of American institutions. and hence not readily assimilable on that account. The same argument was used against the old immigrants. who are now so lauded as being better than tie presentday immigrant. The saoe narrow argument was used by those who opposed immigration in the first half of the ioineteenth centuy. And now we find those who were so condeined then lauded to the skies. But. Mr. Speaker. do they who say that the presentday immigrant is not readily assimilable. mean to argue that those immigrants who belong to these unassimilable races. who can read a page or two in their own language. will. because of that test. become readily assimilable? Such a test wili not keep out the undesirable ones. But is it true that the immigraants of today can not be assiliilated? Whence comes these immigrants who are so different than we? Are we really not of their blood? The Italian immigrant is the one especially attacked. Mr. Speaker. a people who have builded the greatest empire of antiquity. a people whose civilization lighted the whole known world and who discovered the new. a people to whom we go for the best in literature. in art. and in government.