Speech #670011888

The table shows the percentage of foreignborn whites in each State. the percentage of children of native parentage. the percentage where one or both of the parents are of foreign birth. and the percentage of forciginborn children attending the schools. It is impossible to study this tablewhich I merely insert -because I do not want to take the time of the Senate .to read itwithout arriving at the conclusion that the foreigner who comes to this country is anxious to educate his child. and that he has been more attentive to that high duty than has the nativebors American citizen. 1 call attention also to the fact that those States which -possess the smallest percentage of foreignborn people are the strongest advocates of the pending bill. as shown by the votes on preceding bills of a similar character. that is to say. the State where the foreign population is very small. where the people are least acquainted with the foreigner. is found here. through its representatives. most strenuously advocating the measure. and the votes on preceding bills 4n the Senate and the House of Representatives will demonstrate that fact. On a previous bill. when the literacy test was proposed. the singular thing was that those States lowest in point of .literacy were the most strenuous advocates of the measure. -and the singular thing. -also. was that the children of the nativebordi population of those States were Iower in point of literacy than the children of the foreignborn population. Indeed. it may be broadly stated. taking the United States as -a whole. that the -.children :of the foreignborn population attend the schools better -than do the children of the nativeborn population. The States which possess the smallest percentage of foreignborn people. as -1 have said. are the strongest advocates of this bill. -while many of the States having a high percentage :of foreignborn population have in the past opposed similar measures.