EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS OF VOTERS 



Males of Voting Age in American Cities 



57 



New York . . . 



Chicago 



Philadelphia . 



Boston 



St. Louis . . . . 

 Baltimore . . . 

 San Francisco 

 Cleveland . . . 



Buffalo 



Pittsburgh . . . 

 Cincinnati . . . 



Aggregate 



Voting 

 Population 



1,700,670 

 511,048 



386,953 



176,068 



171,798 



141,271 



128,985 



111,522 



97.938 



96,563 



92,799 



Native-born 



of 



Native Parents 



178,900 

 103,674 

 141,741 



47.733 

 42,588 



57.502 

 27,179 



23.637 

 20,418 

 24,719 



22,314 



Per cent. 

 Native-born of 

 Native Parents 



17.6 



20.2 



364 

 27.0 

 24.8 



40.5 

 21.6 

 21.2 

 20.8 



25-5 

 24.0 



It thus appears that in our two greatest cities the foreign-born and 

 children of foreign-bom make up 80 percent of the voters. In the 

 other cities, except Baltimore and Philadelphia, the pure American 

 stock is seen to be as a rule about one-fourth of the voting population. 

 It is in our greatest cities that the power of the political boss has devel- 

 oped on the most amazing scale. It is in the cities that the influence 

 of American ideals is weakest, and one reason for this is apparent. If 

 but twenty per cent of the population is native-born, it is clear that the 

 foreigners and their children exercise four-fifths of the weight in the 

 solution of political questions. This is why the excise question is the 

 most troublesome problem in the city of New York, and also why 

 the tenement house law is not enforced and the sweatshop not 

 abohshed. 



Aside from the direct effect upon our politics, the requirement that 

 all voters should have the ability to read and write English would un- 

 doubtedly tend to hasten the assimilation of the immigrants by our 

 own people. The principal cause of the colonization of the foreign 

 nationalities in the cities is the inability to speak the English language. 

 A person unable to speak the language of the country in which he is 

 obliged to have his domicile is greatly handicapped in his efforts to 

 make a living. He will easily fall a victim to imposture. The great 

 desideratum of the immigrant is the ability to speak the English lan- 

 guage. It would therefore seem that the best possible program for 



