The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-26


 the soil in which culture and character grow, and if the stock planted In that soil Is poor. the plant will be vitiated and ultimately die
 "The class of immigrants that we are receiving today are very different people from those who developed the country generation ago. They come from different races of people, and a different characte. of immigrants from the same race or peo- pie are coming today from those who came in past generations. In the past, the strong, independent and adventurous came. Today the weak, dependent and the dissatisfied are coming to our shores to compete in the battle of life with our own people. Education Is a far greater test or intelligence, character and industry today than 1t was in the generations of the past. In the countries of Europe 100 years ago education for the masses of the people had not progressed to any great extent, nor had 1t for decades thereafter. Of ne- cessity, opportunity and desire for educa- ton had not developed amongst the masses of the people,
 Have the Opportunities.
 Today in all European countries the facilities for reduction are such that as a rule 1t can be obtained by the intel ligent and thrifty individuals composing the body polite. if they make an effort to acquire 1t. Therefore, as a rule, when immigrants come 10 In1S country cated 1t is demonstration that they are from the least intelligent and industrious of their own people. Recent immigration has imposed heavy educational burden on our country. The census of 1900 shows that 13 367 147 children were attending school. Of the total population of the country over ten years of age there were 6, ,1S0, ,069 illiterate persons, or 10B per cent of the total population. But this is not fair statement of the illiteracy in this country, for we are burdened with the de- velopment of the negro race, who are only a generation removed from slavery and only a few generations removed from the barbarity of their African homes. The census of 1900 shows that the illiteracy among the negroes of this country amounted to 44.5 per cent; thereby greatly reducing the average literacy of the na- tion On the other hand, the same census report shows that the average illiteracy among the native whites was only 46 per cent, whereas the illiteracy among the foreign whites was 12.9 per cent The great progress we have made in the edu- cation of our own people Is shown by the fact that the illiteracy in the total popu- laton over 10 years of age in 1880, was II per cent, and under the census of 1890 was 13,3 per cent great advance in the ed ucation of our children, notwithstanding the fact that millions of the ignorant of
 
 in the last two decades. At a conserva- tive estimate at least from 20 to 30 per cent of the immigrants now coming into this country are illiterate, and by their ad- mission we are placing a great burden on our own people to lift the illiterate of foreign lands to the American standard of educational advantages.
 Protection In Another Way.
 'The educational test for immigrants is a protection for us in another way. Tax ing history as a whole, the nations that have left the greatest mark in the worlds history, in art, religion and literature, have been the homogeneous peoples and decadence has followed the mixture of races. The era of greatness of the people of Judea, Greece and Rome was when they were homogeneous and before thelr blood had been contaminated by the mix ture of foreign races. The greatness Of the French German and English-speak- ing races today Is due to the homogenui- ty of their blood and the purety of their race. The people who originally settled and developed this country, who founded our republic and established our institu- tions, were practically all of the Teutonlc and Celtic races from Northern Europe; they maintained their racial integrity and refused to contamnate their. blood with the Indian races they found here on
 
 ! who settled and developed the republics of South America mixed their blood with that of the natives, to a large extent de- stroylng their own nationality, and the difference between the two Americans is such that it needs no argument to demon- strate that economic and social develop ment must be along racial lines.
 But you say, what effect will the edu- oational test have on maintaining the racial characteristics of our people? The statistics show that of the immigration that is now coming into this country from Europe there is no surer or more certain test that we can apply, that will admit the Teutonic and Celtic races of North. ern Europe, and at the same time exclude the Iberic and Slavic races of Southern and Eastern Europe. than the educational test, unless we should pass law pre- hibiting certain races from coming to this country, as we have done in the case of the Chinese The peoples of Northern and Western Europe are mostly akin, be- longing to the Teutonic and Celtic races. The statistics show that for the year BOA the illiteracy of the peoples that came to this country was: Scotch, six-tenths of one per cent; Scandinavian, seven-tenths of one per cent; English, one and three tenths per cent; Bohemian and Moravian, one and eight-tenths per cent; Finnish, two and seven-tenths per cent: French, | three and two-tenths per cent; Irish three and four-tenths per cent; Dutch and Flemish, four and one-tenth per cent: German, four and eight -tenths per cent; Northern Italian, twelve and six-tenths per cent; making an average of four per cent of illiteracy from the people of the Teutonic and Celtic races from Northern Europe. On the other hand, the lliteracy of the Slavic and Iberic, from Southern and Eastern Europe was Spanish, nine and eight -tenths per cent; Magyar, four teen and one tenth per cent; Greek twen- ty-three and siX-tenths per cent: Russian twenty per cent; Slovak, twenty-seven and nine tenths per cent Roumanian thirty-one and seven-tenths per cent; Dalmatian Bosnian and Herzegovian, thirty-five and six-tenths per cent Polish thirty-fve and eght-tenths per cent; Croatian and Slovenian, thrty-six and one-tenth per cent; Bulgarian, Serviar and Montenegrin forty-five and four tenths per cent: Lithuanian, Hfty-four and one-tenth per cent: Southern Italian, fifty-four and two-tenths per cent: Ruth enlan fifty-eight and eight-tenths per cent: Portugese, sixty-seven and five tenths per cent; making an average Of forty-two and six-tenths per cent. This clearly demonstrates that the educational test will not only separate the ignorant vicious and the lazy from the intelligent and industrious classes that are coming to this country. but to large extent it will eliminate the lower classes of im- migration from the countries that are not of Teutonic and Celtic origin. and to some degree will solve the problem of the assimilation of the dissimilar races. False and Inconsistent Theory. 'The future greatness of our republic