As I said yesterday. all of the illiteracy of our own Nation that we now have is a blight upon our Nation. and the schoolhouse. whether it be a school of the Methodist. the Presbyterian. the Baptist. the CathoSlc. the Hebrew. or the great American school. is the foundation stone of our Government. Yet we would have men by a wave of the hand for the sake of somebodys grandmother ignore all demands we make upon others- simply to let them come in here. You speak of the political refugee. If the language is not distinct and plain on that one issue. then I can not understand how it is to be written. The revolutionist. your Kosciuszko. and all those men to whom reference has been made. could enter this country under this provision. This country will always remain the home of the religious and the political refugee. but we would just as well begin now to face that other problem of imported "ignorance. Talk as you please. I have generally found that the man who could not read had a slighter or smaller appreciation of the great things of the world around about him than the one who can read. Put this literacy test into your bill and pass it and it will be the first international compulsoryeducation law that was ever written. It will set a new standard and it will mean that coming into this land means more than the possession of thirty or forty dollars and a desire for a job for six months. It will meai- the beginning of a new era. and if America has led thus far in her common school at home. has she not the right to demand universal training of men elsewhere?
Identified stereotypes
The man who cannot read has a smaller appreciation of the great things of the world.