Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1902-12-19
The SENATE HAGGLES.

From the formation OF the
government We have cu~g with
great tenacity TO the .sentIrns nj
that the opposed Of all lands
should find refuge here. i is
noble sentiment. It has snzbitd
millions to escape from political
thraldon, from hopeless class
distinction, and from the blight
Of grinding poverty. They be-
come good, useful, patriotic ci'i-
zens. They helped develop our
resources, they assini!ated with
our people, they freely shed their
blood in defense of our country.
Tney easily became so thorous h
ly Americanized that they could
not be distinguished from Amer
leans "to the manner born" Why
not? They we1e Of braaches of
our racial family, in some degree
of our own blood and holding to
our ideals.
But for the last fifteen or twen-
ty years our immigration has
been of a widely different char
acter. It is HOW mainly COM
posed Of Italians, Austrian.Hun-
garians, Poles, Slovaks, Croa-
tlans, Magyars and Firms; peo-
pie having no racial, nor linguis-
tic, nor historical, nor traditional
bonds in common with us, They
do not grasp our social, religious
and political ideals. They have
no conception Of the genius of
our institutions. They truly are
foreigners, aud foreigners thou
sands of them remain. We can
not assimilate them. The mass
of them are densely ignorant,
grossly debased and sensual.
Many hundreds of them are SIM
ply human cattle.
During the last year our for-
eign immigration was 73o,79S.
Of this number 1862, 7SS coulc
not read nor write in any lang.
uage. Pauperism debarred f.,
900, and all other causes COM
bined, as idiocy, insanity, disease,
criminality, fewer than 400. Oul
immigration laws are quite
liberal, somewhat loose anc
vague. They do not prohibi
the illiterate, and the statistic:
show that they are loosely ad-
ninistered in other provision:
when they debar only about one
person in 1900:
The magnitude of the evils
actual and imminent, of unre
strained immigration of thi:
character is, indeed, alarming
especially when we remembe1
that under our mischieyously
liberal naturalization laws these
creatures soon acquire the privi
lege of voting.
Legislation has been undertake
en- to render Our immigration
laws more stringent. The house
has passed a very good bill to
regulate and restrict immigration.
1t prescribes an educational test
by requiring immigrants above a
certain age to be able to read Is
words of some part OF the consti-
tuition printed in small type and
in his own language. This bill
is now before the senate, where
it is meeting much opposition,
chiefly because of this education
al test. The senators haggle
over this quite as much as we
might expect they would if the
test was that every immigrant
should be a college graduate.
Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts,,
heads the opposition, and it has
been developed that the great
railway corporation and contrac-
tors are much opposed to the ed
ucatiopal requirement.
The senate will not improve
much, it at all, on the house
bill, and surely would save time
and better serve the country by
passing the house bill and send
ing it to the president.
Sometime, perhaps, we shall
have senate a little nearer to
the people, then we may expect
prompt legislation on insistent
matters.