The section in this proposed legislation that has caused most discussion and dissension is the illiteracy test. This measure has been pressed upon Congress by the Immigration Restrictive League ever since the organization of that Society in 1894. Senator Lodge fathered it and it was passed once and vetoed by President Cleveland. President Roosevelt recommended it in his message of December 3, 1901, and it has received the endorsement of many boards of charities and many leading men. The strongest argument in favor of it is contained in a resolution passed by the Associated Charities of Boston, although the same argument applies broadly to the question of restriction. The reading test was discussed by speakers at the National Immigration Conference, but that meeting did not include it in the resolutions adopted. The Jewish influence is thrown strongly against it, since the Russian Jews who are fleeing from oppression are among the most illiterate of the present immigration. This is due to lack of school facilities, however, for the Jews naturally take to education and the Jewish children in the public schools and high schools are carrying off the prizes. "Not long ago I saw a Jewish girl in a New England academy win the prize in constitutional history over the heads of the boys and girls from American families, though her father was an illiterate Russian Jew."[37] [Sidenote: In Favor of Illiterates] That is not by any means an unusual testimony. Another fact worthy of note is that many of those who have worked most closely among the immigrants do not favor the reading test. Mr. Brandenburg, for example, suggests that the illiterates often prove less opinionated and more easily assimilable than others of the same race who can read and write, and says that so far as his experience goes the great proportion of the rascals and undesirables can read and write; that if he had his choice between admitting to this country a wealthy educated Roman nobleman or an illiterate Neapolitan or Sicilian laborer, he would take the laborer every time, for his brain and brawn and heart make the better foundation on which to build the institutions of our Republic. Miss Kate Claghorn and other experienced workers agree in this view, and think it would be a positive misfortune to make ability to read the deciding test. Nor would these experts favor the money test. They believe the inspectors should have more leeway, as judges of human nature, and would rather rely on their judgment as to the character of the applicant than upon any arbitrary tests. So this is an open question for discussion, with good arguments on both sides. [Sidenote: Three Further Propositions]