Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-02-28
URGES AN OPEN DOOR
I. FOR ALL THE WORLD
Mrs. Antin Argues Against At
tempt by U. S. to Restrict
immigration.
Declares Americans of Today Should
.. Live Up to Profession
of Founders.

y strong plea in behalf Of JInrestrict-
ed immigration to the United States
was the keynote of an address deliv-
= cred yesterday afternoon by Mrs. Mary
-Antin to an audience that taxed the
capacity of the Columbia Theater The
affair was under the auspices Of tie
Friendship House Association. Mrs.
Antin spoke from her OWN experiences
both i'll this country and in Russia.
whence she came rs an Immigrant and
where she has since visited.
Henry 7. Blair, president of Friend
ship House and president of the board
of education. in Introducing the speak
er characterized her as "an author OF
distinction and one of i life so service
able that it has attracted universal at
tention" Her life. though short in
years, said Mr.. Blair, has been fun in
accomplishment.
We rs a nation fail 10 come up to the
teachings of the fathers VINO founded our
republic" said Mrs. Alltin. who took as
her subject The Responsibility of Ameri-
can Citizenship. If We show oppositionto
the seeking of an asylum here by those
from other lands We hear TOO many
statistics on the subject of whether i'm
migration is good for this country or the
contrary.
1.-THE important thing is what the law
of the land has to say on the subject, the
basis of which law is laid down in our
Declaration of Independence. Those who
drew up that declaration. and embodied
in it their sentiments, did not mean the
instrument to apply to their own tune
only, and it must be lived up to today. II
we refuse to apply it, We render it
cheap thing.
':The question is did they mean it or
did they not? 1t is up to us to place
noble or an ignoble construction of it and
its principles. Let us. at the least. give
its sponsors the benefit of the doubt, and
decide that they did mean what they SAID
therein. and carry out today the ideas
they laid down at that time IL We do
~ it makes the settling of this country
nSthing but a land grab.
ss'Perhaps this audience did not come
cut OF its way to hear sermon, but
q see a prodigy. If 1T came to see
modigy ] can face You without en-
mrrassment, for j am not one, or per
Ups because / am but one out of
many: there are thousands like me
no could do what I have done had
{ ey but the chance. Beside the
Smplishments of some. 1 am ashamed.
BIT it is not this. really, that brought
{6u. 1t is the knowledge that ] was
able to do what i have because America
u what it is. As friends helped me
Visualize what the freedom of America
Meant so you can help others in your
t5rn.
Z Must Show Good Cause.
eff We refuse to let in those who wish
md need to come in. we must show
mod cause why. Now is our chance 10
Aake a test of whether or not we real
= believe in the words of the fathers
nd In the declaration which we
Cherish and which, with it's references
N freedom and equality. is the basis
az all our law just as surely, as the
Golden Rule is the kernel of the Mosaic
law Of the Jewish people.
Mrs. Antin denied the claim that I'M
migrants make and are responsible for
the slums, pointing out how living III
.them is question of dollars and cents
and that. as soon as able. immigration
move to typicaly American districts and
adopt the mode of life that prevails in
Sach. What happens them she asked.
The very people the immigrants are
frying to assimlate will move away and
their places and residences are taken by
foreigners eager to learn, until the To-
cality becomes a foreign one. Those
who move those who say this street is
not what it was" send their children to
college in order that they may be-
Seme many of them. settlement workers
Ia congested districts. Had their house
Holds stayed. the whole family would
have been settlement workers twenty