Speech #680076252

Prior to the Revolutionary War America received the cream of Old World people. though she also got some of the skimmed milk in the form of criminals and paupers. During that period there were bonds of a common sympathy and common customs born of the struggle for livelihood in a new country. But in the last quarter of the last century began the deluge of immigrantsthe oppressed and fortune hunters of the earth. Since then the flood has never ceased. We are told that aliens admitted to the United States are supporting and reading more than 1.000 journals printed in more than 30 foreign languages. That in a single block in New York 18 different languages are spoken. and one public school in that city has pupils of 26 nationalities. The worst anarchistic outbreaks. the most destructive strikes. have occurred where radical foreign population is involved. The tendency of the immigrants of this countiy is to dwell In isolated groups. clinging to their native language and customs. The fire has apparently gone out under the melting pot and the original American stock is not absorbing these insoluble alien elements. In fact. as the foreign groups become more numerous and conscious of their growing power. citizens of the American strain are alarmed at the possibilities in organized alien minorities. for a State composed of groups that do not amalgamate into a people is in danger.