Speech #680076609

Franz Boas. Americas leading authority on anthropology. in his book "The Mind of Primitive Man." shows that notion to be a most ridiculous one. and on page 208 of this remarkable book states: The tendency to value ones own civilization as higher than that of the whole race of mankind Is the same which prompted the actions of primitive man who considers every stranger as an enemy and who Is not satisfied until the enemy Is killed. ButSay the enemies of the immigrantHere are statistics.- Here are figures. It Is an axiom that any man given a set of complicated figures can prove anything he wants to prove. Admiral Benson never said anything more true than when he stated in a recent naval investigation that there are three kinds of liarsliars. damned liars. and statisticians. Any fairminded man knows that the vast majority of our immigrants ate living in peace. are sending their children to the public schools of the country. are building up our larger cities. very many of them prospering. They are raising healthy families. which will be the bulwark of America generations hence. Immigration is not our most serious problem. I hope my fellow Congressmen will read in the American Journal of Sociology for the month of January. 1924. pages 430 to 442. an article dealing with the vital statistics of one of the most prominent womens colleges in the country. a college that admits practically only native Americans of good stock. You will there read that out of 4.424 women who have graduated from that institution since the year 1867 only 2.458. or 55.(6 per cent. are married. And of this number 754. or onefourth of the total number married. have no children. Six hundred and thirtyfive more have only one child in their family. kfter reading that article you will perhaps realize that we need some of these good old mothers of yesterday. who are satisfied in bringing into the world. through pain and sacrifice. a family of stalwart boys and girls. No one here will deny that such mothers are found among our immigrants.