Speech #640184457

No man can become a good citizen of the United States who does not familiarize himself with its institutions and learnand think in its language. No manl. in my judgnent. should be permitted to avail hiinself of American citizenship who declines to undergo that process of change. because ie can not be an American citizen in all that the term implies and be unfamiliar with its language. and consequently with the Nations institutions. its history. and its purposes. That class of immigrant. tip to the outbreak of the European war. was multiplying in some sections of the country. Communities existed and do exist where the English language is as much it stranger as it is in the heart of southeastern Europe. There are some communities which insist not only uponto use a common expressionflocking entirely by .themselves. but who repel those natural and proper advances for assimilation which are made in tile best of faith by others. It is that class of immigrants. that class of aliens. that class of citizens. if you please. residing in the -United States whose education should become one of the duties of every citizen coming in contact with them. Much of the complaint which aliens make. much of the reason which they offer for refusing to become American citizens is the hostility. or at least the indifferene. to them shown by others. anod particularly by nativeborn Americans. We need these people in the development of our wonderful resources. and at the close of the war in Europe we shall probably need them more thn ever. for I an unable to understand how immigration will continue in very large numbers after this war. in view of the decination of Europe and the consequent demand for labor in those countries from which our innligration has been chiefly derived. It is tile right time. in my judgment. to set at work those forces of education. of assimilation. and of contact with aliens scattered throughout the country and make of them good citizens of tie United States. The author of this amendment. as I say. has been devoting her life in the sphere of her usefulnesswhich is. of course. coiltractedto reaching the alien who can not speak tie English language and teaching him the rudiments of it. acquainting him with the importance and value of American instittutions. drawing the contrasts so easily apparent bet ween the liberty and opportunity of the individual in the United States and the absence of them in tile country of his nativity. and to awaken that spirit of interest which not only precedes but almost always produces ani affection for the institutions and opportunities of tile new country. and which make the recipients of that knowledge better men and better women..and whose improvement must result in bringing them into the fold of our citizenship. I hope it is true. and I have no doubt that it must be. that one result of tile processes of this educational system will be to instill in the ininds and tile hearts of the recipients of the bellefits of the system not only a knowledge of the needs and course of training of the foreignborn noncitizen populationand indeed some of them who lire citizensbut also anl entitisiasmn ili imparting that knowledge where it viil he benelicial. But I (1l not perceive. as I stated before. how this anlendment in ally way trenches upon the purpose or the symmetry of the bill. since it merely adds one more proc. ss of education to be applied to those for whose benefit the bill has been framed.. Mr.