Compelling Policy Question: Who should be allowed to immigrate into America?

Policy Case Study:

H. R. 6060 to regulate the immigration of aliens to and the residence of aliens in the United States

The following classes of aliens shall be excluded from admission into the United States

Chinese laborers

1. All idiots, insane persons, paupers or persons likely to become a public charge,

2. Persons suffering from a dangerous contagious disease,

3. Persons who have been convicted of a felony or other infamous crime or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude, polygamists,

4. Any person whose ticket or passage to America is paid for with the money of another or who is assisted by others to come, unless it is shown on special inquiry that such person does not belong to one of the listed excluded classes, or to the class of contract laborers.

5. All aliens over sixteen years of age, physically capable of reading, who can not read the English language, or some other language.

This section shall not be held to exclude persons living in the United States from sending for a relative or friend who is not of the excluded classes.

Vocabulary for above H.R. 6060

Alien - Immigrant

Pauper - a very poor person

Public Charge- a person who relies on government support to survive.

Infamous - Famous for the wrong reasons. A really bad crime.

Moral turpitude - actions considered against the “morals” of the community.

Polygamists - marriages that involve more than one wife.

Context of U.S. Immigration Policy

Below is a graph showing the number of immigrants along with the percent of the population of America who were immigrants. Source of the graph.

The United States passed its first citizenship law in 1790 during George Washington's first term. The Naturalization Rule required a person to live in the United States for 2 years before becoming a citizen. In 1875 the U.S. passed its first Exclusionary Act, known as the Page Act. This law made it illegal for convicts, prostitutes & Chinese contract workers from entering the country.

In 1882 the United States passed two major significant pieces of Immigration Legislation. The Immigration Act of 1882 did two things. First it created a tax of fifty cents that each immigrant must pay when entering the U.S.. This money would be used to pay for the costs of regulating immigration. The Act also created a system to inspect the ships carrying immigrants to America. Any ex-convicts, lunatics, idiots, and people who are unable to take care of themselves would not be allowed to enter the U.S.. The other significant piece of legislation in 1882 was the Chinese Exclusion Act. It banned all Chinese laborers from entering the U.S. (Immigration Case Study #1).

In 1885 the Alien Contract Labor Law made it illegal for Contract workers to enter America (a contract worker is someone who is hired by a company, and they work for the company until they have paid off the cost the company spent bringing them to America).

The Immigration Act 1891 made modifications to the Immigration Act of 1882. It created the Office of Immigration, which would be in control of regulating and enforcing immigration laws. In addition the Act made it illegal for paupers, polygamists, the insane, and persons with contagious diseases to enter the U.S.

In 1895, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge introduces a bill to the U.S. Senate requiring literacy test for immigrants. Immigrants would have to read five lines from the Constitution to be able to get into the United States . In 1896 Congress passed the bill, but in 1897 President Grover Cleveland vetoes the bill.

In 1903 and 1907 Groups such as Epileptics, professional beggars, and anarchists, imbeciles, the feeble-minded, people with tuberculosis, persons with physical or mental defects, and persons under 16 without parents are also excluded.

In 1907 a Literacy test is created for people who want to become American Citizens, but it is not a restriction on who can enter.

In January of 1915 Congress passes H.R.6060, but President Woodrow Wilson vetoes the bill. (Wilson's message explaining why is in the 2nd Section of documents.)

Following Wilson's veto, Congress is given a second chance to vote on the bill. If they support it by a 2/3rd's majority, they can override the veto and the bill will become a Law.

Section One Guiding Question: Why do people think America should be selective in who it allows to immigrate into America?

In 1915, the Democratic chairman on the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization from Alabama, said in his speech to Congress introducing H.R.6060...

(Modified/link to original)

Burnett's Biography

The reason we should restrict immigration is that the number of unskilled workers coming in is preventing many Americans from improving their lives.

The illiteracy test is a good idea. It is true that it does not reach the criminal, but it is not meant for that. It might exclude the good laborers, but it will exclude the laborers from southern Italy and Austria-Hungary who experts think should be excluded. It will exclude the single man who comes here only temporarily, and does not care about the country.

The recent immigrant’s lack of industrial training and experience, together with their illiteracy and inability to speak English, leads to unsafe working conditions for other workers. Americans and older immigrants consider this unsatisfactory. When the older employees found dangerous working conditions they protested. The recent immigrants, usually due to ignorance, are still willing to work in those dangerous conditions.

In mining, an untrained employee may cause danger to all the workers. The increase in employment of recent immigrants in American mines and may be the cause of the increase in mining accidents. Accidents in coal mines arise from two causes: (1) The recklessness and (2) the ignorance and inexperience of employees.

A large proportion of the new arrivals are not only illiterate and unable to read the warning signs in the mines. This is very dangerous. As a consequence, the employment of recent immigrants has caused a worsening in working conditions.

Homer Hoyt, The Relation of the Literacy Test to a Constructive Immigration Problem, Journal Of Political Economy, 1916 (modified/link to original)

Context: Hoyt was born in Missouri, and graduated from the University of Kansas when he was 18 years old. He earned two doctorate degrees from the University of Chicago, and became a professor. His studies focused on economics.

The problem of European immigration has been a political question for at least twenty-five years. One solution is the literacy test. Since the first law was made in 1882 barring aliens who were undesirable, no laws to improve immigration have been made.

We need tests that will reject immigrants based on traits that may not be evils in themselves, but will show if the immigrant has other bad traits.

The illiterate immigrant is a menace to our country. He cannot read, but he is also dangerous in other ways. He adds to our problems of crime, pauperism, and degeneracy. He is more dangerous to the U.S. because he less likely to Americanizing influences than his literate brother.

The literacy test would strengthen our established policy of excluding undesirable classes. It would keep out men whose dangerous qualities are not easily found by other tests.

In 1913, the sociologist Henry P. Fairchild wrote an article titled "The Restriction of Immigration". In the article he wrote...

source: American Journal of Sociology, 1913 (modified/link to original)

context: Fairchild was an American sociologist. He researched and taught classes on controversial topics such as race, contraception, abortion, and eugenics. He was also the head to the American Eugenics Society and helped found Planned Parenthood.

Into this favored section of the earth’s surface have been introduced ever increasing numbers of the lower classes of foreign nations. It is significant, however, that the bulk of immigration has been recruited from more and more backward races of Europe as the decades have succeeded each other.

As regards the new immigrants- those who have come during the last thirty years- the one great reason for their coming is that they believe that on the wage which they can receive in America they can establish a higher standard that the one to which they have been accustomed. And this wage for which they are willing to sell their labor is in general appreciably below that which the native american workman requires to support his standard.

What does this mean? It means that the American workman is continually underbid in the labor market by vast numbers of alien laborers.

Madison Grant, the Passing of the Great Race, 1916 (Modified/link to original)

Context: Madison Grant was an American Lawyer who wrote about and created laws based on Eugenic beliefs, such as the superiority of the “Nordic Race”. These beliefs supported restrictions on immigration and marriage restrictions. His book became very popular in the United States as well as in Germany in the 1920’s.

Whatever may be its intellectual, its literary, its artistic or its musical aptitudes, as compared with other races, the Anglo-Saxon branch of the Nordic race is again showing itself to be that upon which the nation must chiefly depend for leadership, for courage, for loyalty, for unity and harmony of action, for self-sacrifice and devotion to an ideal.

Not that members of other races are not doing their part, many of them are, but in no other human stock which has come to this country is there displayed the unanimity of heart, mind and action which is now being displayed by the descendants of the blue-eyed, fair-haired peoples of the north of Europe.

In 1895, Booker T. Washington gave his Atlanta Compromise speech known as the “Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are” speech, in which he said... (modified/link to original)

Washington was nine when the 13th Amendment ended slavery. A leader in the African American community, he helped start the Tuskegee Institute. His biography

To those of the white race who look to the incoming of foreigners to help the South’s economy, were I allowed, I would repeat what I have said to my own race: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” Cast it down among the eight millions of Negroes whose habits you know, whose devotion and love you have tested in dangerous days could have ruin of your fireside. Cast down your bucket among these people who have without strikes have worked your fields, cleared your forests, built your railroads and cities to make possible the progress of the South.

As we have proved our loyalty to you in the past… we shall stand by you with a devotion that no foreigner can approach…

Francis A. Walker, Restriction of Immigration, Atlantic, 1898 (Modified/link to original)

Context: Walker was a Civil War General and an economist who believed immigration would hurt America’s economy. He ran the 1870 and 1880 censuses.

The United States has always welcomed immigrants without discrimination. Were our forefathers wrong? Should we change our opinions and policies?

Foreigners have changed. Their entry into our political, social, and industrial life is so horrible no patriot can look upon it without fear. In all the problems of this country since 1877, the foreigners have been used by those who break the law, destroy property, and cause violence.

The competition of poor immigrant workers, working for less money than American citizens, is threatening our native cities.

The present situation is menacing to our peace and political safety.

While the people of the United States have gladly offered an asylum to millions upon millions of the distressed and unfortunate of other lands, they have no responsibility to carry their hospitality one step beyond the line where American institutions, American wages, and the American standard of living, are brought into serious peril.

In 1889, the cartoonist F. Bildstein created a cartoon titled "Result of Encouraging Emigration in the magazine "The Mascot”.

Paupers, Vagabonds, Murders and other of the European and Asiatic Scum Refused Admission elsewhere, are Readily Landed Here.

In 1903, the cartoonist F. Victor Gillam drew a cartoon titled "The Immigrant. Is he an acquisition or a detriment?" in Judge Magazine.

ONE MILLIONS IMMIGRANTS CAME TO THE UNITED STATES IN TWELVE MONTHS

“HE GIVES ME CHEAP LABOR”—CONTRACTOR

“HE IS A MENACE”—CITIZEN

“HE IS BRAWN AND MUSCLE FOR MY COUNTRY”—UNCLE SAM

“HE IS A PUZZLE TO ME”—STATESMAN

“HE CHEAPENS MY LABOR”—WORKMAN

“HE BRINGS DISEASE” —HEALTH OFFICER

“HE MAKES VOTES FOR ME”—POLITICIAN

American citizens! We appeal to you in all calmness. Is it not time to pause?, The American Patriot 1852.

Library of Congress summary of American Citizens

Thomas Nast, "The Usual Irish Way of Doing Things," Harper's Weekly, 1871

C.J. Taylor, "The Mortar of Assimilation--And the One Element that Won't Mix", Puck, 1889

The article in Puck magazine that went with the "Mortar of Assimilation-and the one element that won't mix" cartoon asked "What is an American?"

It then answers that an American is the assimilation of all immigrants who settled in this country, and urges everyone to be American, American born or American made. It argues that Americans are the product of diverse immigrants assimilating into the U.S.

The cartoonist Frank Beard drew a cartoon titled "The Immigrant: The Stranger At Our Gate" for the magazine Ram's Horn in 1896.

Caption:

EMIGRANT.--Can I come in?

UNCLE SAM.--I 'spose you can; there's no law to keep you out.

Louis Dalrymple, “The High Tide of Immigration A National Menace.” Judge, 1903.

William Allen Rogers, A Question of Labor, Harper’s Weekly, 1888

A just-off-the-boat immigrant is ready to get to work. Beneath him is a sign that reads “Imported, Duty Free, by Trust, Monopoly & Co. to compete with American Labor.”

Frederick Burr Opper, Irish industries, Puck, 1881

Library of Congress Summary- Four frame cartoon showing: "Infernal machine manufacturing" (two men making bombs), "The Irish vote manufacturers" (men at polls), "The landlord killing industry" (man shooting landlord from behind wall), and "A never-failing Irish industry" (man with world globe as head giving coins to beggar).

Joseph Keppler, Uncle Sam's lodging-house, Puck, 1882

Library of Congress Summary:

Print shows an Irishman confronting Uncle Sam in a boarding house filled with laborers, immigrants from several countries who are attempting to sleep; the "Frenchman, Japanese, Negro, Russian, Italian," and "German" sleep peacefully. The "Irishman" kicks up a row. He has thrown such bricks as "The Chinese must go," "Recall Lowell," and "Irish independence" at Uncle Sam and the female figure of liberty standing on the left. He disturbs a "Chinese" man and an "Englishman," who are in the berths next to him.

Caption: Uncle Sam "Look here, you, everybody else is quiet and peaceable, and you're all the time a-kicking up a row!"

J.S. Pughe, The Hyphenated American Puck, 1899

Ohio State Library description of "The Hyphenated American"

Section Two Guiding Question: Why do people believe in the ideas expressed in Emma Lazarus' 1883 poem "The New Colossus"?

In Emma Lazarus' 1883 poem titled "THE NEW COLOSSUS", she wrote...

"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

'Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!' cries she

With silent lips. 'Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'"

"The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World"

"The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World" was a gift from the people of France to the United States. The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in 1886. It is located in New York Harbor, a harbor many immigrants came through on their way to America.

In President Woodrow Wilson's 1915 message to Congress explaining his veto of H.R. 6060, he wrote...

(modified/link to original)

Restrictions like these, adopted earlier in our history as a Nation, would have changed the direction of our country. The right of political asylum has brought to this country many a man of noble character and elevated purpose who was marked as an outlaw in his own less fortunate land.

The literacy test and the tests and other rules in this law are a radical change in our policies. Before now we have generously kept our doors open to all who were not sick, unable to support themselves or had records that were likely to make them a menace to our country.

In this bill it is proposed to turn away from tests of character and of quality and impose tests which exclude and restrict. The new tests are not tests of quality or of character or of personal fitness, but tests of opportunity. Those who come seeking opportunity are not to be admitted unless they have already had one of the chief of the opportunities they seek, the opportunity of education.

If the people of this country have made up their minds to limit the number of immigrants by arbitrary tests and so reverse the policy of all the generations of Americans that have gone before them, it is their right to do so. I am their servant and have no license to stand in their way. But I do not believe that they have.

Monster Protest on Literacy Test, Big Meeting at Cooper Union denounces Smith-Burnett Immigration Bill. Speakers assail measure as un-American and inhuman - 3,000 persons turned away. January 26, 1915, New York Times (modified/link to original)

The Smith-Burnett Immigration bill will keep out of this country immigrants from a group that has helped the success of our nation. Its tests are not related to a person’s character, ability, or fitness.

The most known part of this bill is the entirety un-american and inhuman “literacy test.” The test has been created to shut out large numbers of immigrants, not because they are bad, but because their home countries do not educate their people.

The illiterate immigrants who came here in the past from Eastern and Southern Europe helped build our glorious country. The literacy test, if started a quarter of a century ago, would have hurt this country.

To adopt such a test would make this country take a long step backward. It would be very difficult, if not impossible to take back.

President Grover Cleveland Vetoes a Law Restricting Immigration. 1897 (modified/link to original)

Context: In 1897 President Grover Cleveland vetoed a law requiring a literacy test for immigrants proposed by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge.

America has welcomed all who came to us from other lands except those who threatened our national welfare and safety. We have encouraged those from foreign countries to join in the development of our country, in return for the blessings of American citizenship.

Some people say the recent immigrants are undesirable. The same thing was said of immigrants who, with their descendants, are now considered our best citizens. The best reason that could be given for this radical restriction of immigration is the necessity of protecting our population against social ruin and saving our national peace and quiet from imported disorder.

Boris Thomashevsky, Leben sol Columbus. “Long Live Columbus” 1915

You little America, you little land you,

you're a wonder, I swear

God's presence rests on you, we should live this way

Wars, guns, human blood, we don't need that misery.

A governor or a tsar? Completely unnecessary.

Oh, it's good! Everybody sing together:

Long life to Columbus! Drink a toast, brothers.

Long life to Columbus and to this new land.

Be happy, don't believe the blowhards.

Shout it out, Jews: Long live Columbus!

A slander's been cooked up against one of our Jews

A devil made music and Hamen played the fiddle

The lawyers, however, won't be silenced, they'll bring out the truth

Believe me, Noah, it will turn out well: they won't hang a Jew!

Oy, it's good! Jews, sing with me:

In Washington it isn't quite, Burnett is singing a song

He wants to make a new bill, a misfortune for the Jews

But Wilson doesn't want it! Just shut up, Burnett!

Jews, come, it will be well, you'll be good brothers!

In 1916, cartoonist Raymond O. Evans drew a cartoon titled “The Americanese wall - as Congressman John Lawson Burnett would build it" in Puck Magazine.

In 1880, cartoonist Joseph F. Keppler drew the cartoon "Welcome to All!" in Puck Magazine.

Summary: Uncle Sam stands on the “U.S. Ark of Refuge” welcoming pairs of immigrants who have a dark rain cloud of war hanging over them.

The sign to the left of Uncle Sam reads: "Free education, free land, free speech, free ballot, free lunch." The sign near the center of the image reads: "No oppressive taxes, no expensive kings, no compulsory military service, no knouts (whips) or dungeons

In 1893, cartoonist Joseph F. Keppler drew the cartoon "Looking Backward" in Puck Magazine.

Ohio State Library description of "Looking Backward

What did the Policy makers decide to do?

The Fate of H.R.6060:

Congress chose not to try to override Wilson’s veto in 1915, however, in 1916 Burnett again introduced his immigration bill. The bill passed both Houses and was sent to the President in January of 1917. President Woodrow Wilson vetoed the bill again, arguing the literacy test “constitutes a radical change in the policy of the Nation which is not justified in principle.” Unlike in 1915 when Wilson vetoed the bill, this time the House of Representatives voted 287 to 106 to overturn the veto, and the Senate voted 62 to 19 to overturn the veto.

Once the veto was overturned the bill became law. The Act is known as the Immigration Act of 1917 (also known as the Literacy Act and less often as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act)

What were the consequences of H.R. 6060?

The Act fell far short of what its supporters wanted in terms of reducing immigration. Only 1,450 people of 800,000 immigrants between 1920 and 1921 were excluded because they could not pass the literacy test. The literacy test was short lived.

In 1921 Congress created the Emergency Quota Act (also known as the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921). The 1921 law changed the restriction on immigration to an quota system. Only a certain number of immigrants were allowed to come from different countries. This number was determined as 3% of the total number of residents of that foreign nation currently living in the United States.

The countries from which people were emigrating could only provide immigration visas to 2 percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the U.S. based on the 1890 census. The law did continue a complete ban on immigrants from East Asia. The Quota numbers are shown in the chart below. (source for the chart)

Hallahan "The only way to handle it", Providence Evening Bulletin, 1921