I was very lnch interested in what the Senator from North Dakota has said. and I simply rise to make this observation. It may not do any good. probably it will not. For years here I have voted in favor of restricting immigration. I never voted for a bill restricting immigration because of the literacy test in my life that I did not feel that I was doing wrong. I do not feel that that is the aprropriate test at all for citizenshlip. Honest persons may have had no opportunity in youth for education. and the literacy test Is. In my opinion. unfair. Why should not character be the test of immigration? If the Immigrant has made a good citizen in the country from which he comes. why not welcome him here? I have always felt that some method of that kind could be worked out. although I have never undertaken it in detail and have never been a member of the committee charged with this responsibility. Yet I assert without any hesitation whatever that the poorest test that can be applied is the literacy test. Why not have our proposed immigration surrounded by such safeguards as the Consular Service could extend? When a person proposes to come to the United States to live. why should .he not go to the nearest American consul and apprise him of his intention. furnish him proof that he has made a good citizen in the town where he has lived or in the country where le has resided? Why is not that the appropriate test for .citizenslip here?
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Immigrant immigration literacy test