The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1906-07-21
LET THEM COME.


Ireland in his Fourth of July address
at Minneapolis. of immigration from
foreign lands is in line with the ex-
cellent editorial on the same subject
recently published in the Inter Noun
tain Catholic as follows:
The amazing influx of immigra-
ton to the United States during the
year ending July l has started anew
the perennial discussion of iliteracy
among the newcomers and the effect
their presence has upon the nation at
large. a good many of those who
pass judgment on the problem seem
to think that an illiterate man is ii
ton that iliteracy is necessarily a
cOncOmitant of evil and literacy
proof of good citizenship.
| No assumption could be more fall
lacious. Education is, of course. most
desirable but a knowledge of letters
and the acquisition of an education no
more imply the possession of moral
qualities than personal good looks may
be taken as evidence of an attractive
ures show. that the most dangerous
/ citizen is the educated ScOundrel who
! has not learned the obligations of his
position and disregards the spiritual
law. Every national scandal or the
past year has had to do. not with the
unfortunate illitcratc but with men of
limited opportunity, who knew no re-
| ligon but the dollar. no moral law of
amy kind, who ignored or deiied the
cdicts Of God that they might accu
muate wealth With which to crafty
the usts uf the flesh. Their crimes
We're infinitely more demOraliZing than
any of the wrong doing charged to the
| immigrant classes because their ex-
ample contaminated the very sources
of national life. made wholesale rob-
berry seem respectable and uiscretlited
the laws which they were supposed to
uphold.
Among the immigrant classes the
people from Italy and other Catholic
countries have come in for condemna-
ton by ignorant commentators seek
ing to make II point at the expense OF
historical fact. Take the Italians for
| instance: they have their faults. they
are hot -blooded. quick to anger and
prone to settle their troubles among
But they are frugal. Industrious recog-
niZe the authority of the law, and If
they had a deeper and more practical
regard for the principles of their re-
ligion they would be more honored and
respected. Again. some of the hardi-
est American stock had it's roots in the
immigration from Ireland and Scotland,
from Germany and the Scandinavian
countries. Particularly in early days,
illiteracy was no barrier to high re-
gard for personal worth. In colonial
tllleS, as correspondence sun eX:ant
shows very few of the best people So
called, We're able to write their own
names; and fewer still could spell
common English words with any de-
gree Of accuracy. Still. no one thinks
of the colonial patriots as lacking in
good citizenship; no one derides them
for the lack of educational opportuni-
ties incident to pioneer life. They
worshiped God and feared no man,
did their duty, private and public, and
founded a great nation. welcomed all
people to their shores, literate or H.
literate, and left us a great heritage
Another phase of this question comes
still closer to the problem: Long ago,
the founders Of the Faith were COM
manded to go into all the earth and