Speech #640068119

I can not yield. I want to say one thing further. Some gentlelen seenm to be voting for this literacy test for one reason and some for another. They say because it will exclude a certain number of people. It is not that. It is because it will exclude a certain type of individual. not numbers. whether it applies to one or a thousand or a hundred tllousand or half a million. We have had the publicschool system in this country for years. free schools. yet we did not have a compulsory education clause until a few years ago. We discovered that merely to open tile doors of the schoolhouse and say that all who wanted could go in there that there were not as many entering as should go in for the welfare of this Nation. so we lave gone back of the free schools .ian] put a comlpulsory education law which takes a boy or girl under 14 years and puts them in the school whether lie or she would go or not. and I think that we should keep that clearly in mind in our legislation oil this literacy test. that we are denlanding something of the lail or woman who is going to come here. al(1. as we have iade these exemptions as provided in the bill. that. other things being equal. %ve do mhake a preference for tile one who has taken the opportunity and taken advantage of his time to improve hilmself before comling to this country. It should be kept uot as a restrictive leasure. but as a selective nmeasure. for certainly we have the right to say solething in regard to the selection of those who are to come in. I hope the anendment will be defeated.