The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-03-14
IMMIGRATION AND THE EDUCATION
Al TEST.

Although President Clevelands veto of
the immigration bill passed by the last Con-
gress killed the measure il may be revived
and introduced as a new measure i'm the
next Congress. President Mckinley is on
record i'm favor of further restrictions on
foreign immigration. and the vote by which
the late bill was passed over the veto in
the House insures its success in that branch
OF the next Congress, which will contain
a large percentage Of the old members
President Mckinley said in his inaugural
address:
Our naturalization ard immigration laws
should be further improved 10 the constant
promotion OF u safer. a better and higher
c1tlZership. A grave peril to the Republic
would be citizenship too ignorant to un-
dertsand or too vicious to appreciate the
great value and beneficence of our Consti-
tuition and laws. and against all who come
here to make upon them our gates
must be promptly and tightly closed. Nor
must We be unmindfu OF the need of i'm
provement amony our own citizens, but
with the zeal of our fOrefathers. encourage
the spread of knowledge and free educa-
ton. lliteracy must be banished from the
land if we shall attain that high destiny
as the foremost of the enlightened nations
of the world. which. under Providence, we
ought to achieve.
. 1t will be observed he recommends an i'm
provement of our naturalization as well as
of our immigration laws. The two should
go hand in hand. 1t is not more important
that undesirable immigrants should be ex-
Guided than it is that proper restrictions
and safeguards should be thrown about the
granting of the rights of citizenship to
those who are admitted. Under our present
naturalization laws a foreigner cannot be-
come a citizen of the United States until he
shall have been a resident of the country
five years, but by the laws of some OF the
States he may become a voter long before
he becomes a citizen. This is not the case
in all of the States. and should not be I'm
any. The States which allow an alien to
vote after declaring his intention of becom-
ing a citizen and a resident in the United
States of one year are Alabama, Arkansas.
Colorado. Florida, Indiana. Kansas. Louis
lana, Michigan. Minnesota, Missouri. Ne
braska, North Dakota, Oregon, South Da-
kota and Wisconsin. The remaining States,
thirty in number, require full citizen
ship-that is, residence OF five years be-
fore voting. The laws of all the States
should be uniform or this subject, and a
resiuehce OF nVe years Is not 100 much 10
ask before comforting the right of suffrage.
The Constitution of Indiana on this subject
should be changed.
The two classes of foreign immigrants
against which Mr.. Mckinley expresses
himself are the vicious and the illterate.
Paupers are already excluded. The vicious
would include Anarchists and agitators as
we'll as criminals. The educational test
would not exclude many immigrants from
| countries whence we derive our best immi-
| grafton. table compiled by an active
supporter of the bill vetoed by Mr.. Cleve-
| land shows what countries the educational
| test would strike the hardest. 1t shows
the percentage of illiterates in European
countries as follows: