We have the report of the commission which investigated this whole subject. That commission gave to the world most astounding information. revealing a condition of avarice and degradation never before dreamed of. Not only the whiteslave traffic. which horrified all men and women of clean morals. but the industry of the foreign Steamship Trust in advertising and even canvassing every European village for immigrants was a shock to the American people who have been sitting supinely by while the country has been flooded with the ignorance of Europe. I do not protest against the coming of the healthy. intelligent. upright immigrant who wishes to make the United States his home. who comes here to become a part of the Republic and follow and aid in working out its destiny. I believe in freedom and free men and a free country. and I believe intelligent men are capable of selfgovernment. but ignorant men can only add vexation and complication to the many hard problems of state now confronting the Government. My answer to all the arguments against this literacy testand that is all the act requiresis written in the laws passed by the States of Minnesota. Wisconsin. Massachusetts. New York. and Pennsylvania. These great States found it necessary to enact laws providing for the deportation of aliens quartered upon these Commonwealths. As chairman of a committee appointed by the Senate of Pennsylvania. I personally visited every public institution in the State. and my report shows that at that time there were quartered upon the Commonwealth 20.000 aliens. who. cost approximately $2.000.000 annually of State.funds to sustain. If this be relatively true in other States of the Union. then the burden imposed upon the country by these aliens must mount Into tens of millions. And while these enormous sums are being spent in a public way to take care of the indigent of other countries. thousands upon thousands oftrue Americans stand in need of better pay that they may properly provide for their own families. In opening my remarks I stated that immigration bore relationship to the tariff. and so It does. The protective tariff theory conceived by Hamilton and advocated by every public man of broad conception since his day. was that competition between American industries should bring about unhampered and unhindered the operation of the law. of supply and demand. and at the same time protect our market and our labor. But the result in recent years has seen competition strangled. and in many instances pricefixing trusts developed and become almost impregnably entrenched.
Identified stereotypes
Generalizes that immigrants are ignorant, a drain on state resources, and contribute to white slave traffic.