Speech #680084577

I have heard many discussions here in the last two or three days about the insane asylums and the feebleminded homes and the jails and the prisons. and it has been stated that they are filled with persons from the Old World. While this charge has been grossly overstated. the wonder to nle Is that there are not more such persons ill our asylums and prisons. Under the immigration methods which prevailed up to very recently anybody in the world could come in. Undoubtedly those who had been doing evil in other countries. who did. not. thrive there. who were mentally defective in some way. perhaps. entered our doors by the thousands. b3ut that can not happen any more. Under our methods of examination in New York Harbor it is not possible for such persons to come in. and of course no Member of the Senate under any circumstances -would want the admission of such persons. nor would he tolerate a system which would permit it. 1 am not convinced myself that the literacy test is so important. You know. it may well happen that a man who speaks eight or ten languages and writes in every language of the world. can be a crook of the highest caliber. On the other hand. one who has not had the opportunities of educationand that is true of so many on the other sidemay have qualities of heart and of soul and of mind which will make that man. under right circumstances of development. one of our conspicuous and useful citizens.