"Character of Present Immigration"
Immigration and Migration
These extracts from the report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration were reprinted and circulated by the Immigration Restriction League, a Boston-based organization that favored stronger restrictions on immigration at the turn of the twentieth century. In it the Commissioner-General echoes the sentiments of many anti-immigration efforts of the time, noting the prevalence of immigration from Italy and Eastern Europe (although denying any ethnic prejudice against these groups), their concentration in eastern cities, and characterizing them as undesirable.
Immigration Restriction League
Immigration Restriction League, "Character of Present Immigration," <em>Extracts from the Report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration for the Year Ending June 30, 1903,</em> American Memory, Library of Congress, http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/gilded/people/text9/text9link.htm.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1903
1622
English
Government Document
Industrialization and Expansion (1877-1913)
"Child of the Romans"
Work
The poetry of Carl Sandburg often documented the lives of ordinary working people in his adopted city of Chicago. Here he contrasts the backbreaking work and simple lunch of a railroad laborer with the comfortable lives and fine food enjoyed by the passengers on a first-class dining car rushing by. Despite the use of the pejorative term "dago" (an ethnic slur for Italians), the poem's title and Sandburg's sympathetic portrayal suggest a loftier lineage for the humble worker.
Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg, "Child of the Romans," from <em>Chicago Poems </em>(H. Holt, 1916).
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1916
English
Fiction/Poetry
Modern America (1914-1929)
"Mulberry Bend"
Jacob Riis is best known for his 1890 work <em>How the Other Half Lives</em>, a journalistic account, replete with Riis's dramatic photographs, of the deplorable conditions of late-nineteenth century urban life. Although Riis, himself a Danish immigrant, was for the most part sympathetic to his subjects, his account nonetheless employed language rife with generalizations and ethnic stereotypes, as well as the kind of moral pronouncements that appealed to his mostly middle-class, reform-minded audience. The photograph and text below were part of a slide show Riis presented to the Washington Convention of Christians at Work, probably in 1894.
Jacob Riis
Jacob Riis, "The Other Half and How They Live; a Story in Pictures," c. 1894, text and photographs; from <em>History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web</em>, http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/Photos/question2.html#!
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1894 (Circa)
English
Photograph
Industrialization and Expansion (1877-1913)
"Tenement, New York City, 1910"
Immigration and Migration
This photograph by Lewis Hine was taken in a New York City tenement in 1910. Hine was a documentary photographer who frequently turned his lens to the plight of immigrants, workers, and the poor. This family group, perhaps among the approximately two and a half million Italians who arrived in New York in the years 1890-1910, lives in squalid and cramped conditions typical of New York tenement buildings at the turn of the century.
Lewis W. Hine
Lewis W. Hine, "Tenement, New York City, 1910," black and white photograph, 1910; in Walter Rosenblum et al., <em>America & Lewis W. Hine: Photographs 1904-1940</em> (New York: The Brooklyn Museum with Aperture, 1977).
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1910
English
Photograph
Industrialization and Expansion (1877-1913)
<em>Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars</em> (Excerpt)
Immigration and Migration
This excerpt from Elizabeth Ewen's <em>Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars</em> describes the economic relationships of working-class immigrant families at the turn of the century. The female head of the family played an important economic role, often being the recipient of pay envelopes from an entire family of workers, which may have included husbands and children as well as boarders. However, as Ewen notes, this arrangement was not without its tensions.
Elizabeth Ewen
Elizabeth Ewen, <em>Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars: Life and Culture on the Lower East Side 1890-1925</em> (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1985).
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1985
1996
English
Book
Industrialization and Expansion (1877-1913)
A "Red Scare" Leads to Backlash Against Immigrants
Immigration and Migration
After World War I a "Red Scare" broke out as anxieties about political extremists and radicals led to widespread demonization and political persecution of leftists and immigrants. A series of high-profile events from the late-nineteenth century on, such as the Haymarket Square bombing and the assassination of President McKinley by Leon Czolgosz, had cemented the connection of radical politics and violence in the public mind, with the image of the "anarchist" in particular becoming synonymous with the bomb-throwing terrorist. Since many of the leading exponents of anarchism, as well the defendants in the notorious Sacco and Vanzetti case and President McKinley's assassin were Italian, Russian, or Eastern European, these groups in particular were stigmatized as the stereotypical "anarchists," bent on violent revolution and the destruction of America's institutions. This stereotype, suggested by the bomb-wielding, dark-featured "European Anarchist" of the cartoon, became a leading justification for the passage of quota laws which severely limited immigration from Italy, Russia, and other regions of Southern and Eastern Europe.
James P. Alley
James P. Alley, "Come Unto Me, Ye Opprest!", <em>Memphis Commercial Appeal</em>, 5 July 1919.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1919
English
Cartoon
Modern America (1914-1929)
A Congressman Denounces Immigration Quotas as "Un-American"
Immigration and Migration
Restrictions on immigration, largely aimed at would-be migrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, gained considerable popular support during the 1920s. Anti-immigrant sentiment culminated in the Quota Act of 1921, which effectively reduced immigration from those areas to a quarter of pre-World War I levels, and in the even more restrictive Immigration Act of 1924. Although the later bill passed the Senate with only six dissenting votes, not everyone was persuaded. Robert H. Clancy, a congressman from Detroit, defended the Jewish, Italian, and Polish immigrants that comprised much of his constituency and denounced the quota provisions of the bill as "un-American." In a speech before Congress on April 8, 1924, Clancy traces the history of anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S. and reminds his fellow congressmen that all Americans are of foreign origin.
Robert H. Clancy
Speech by Robert H. Clancy, 8 April 1924, <em>Congressional Record, </em>68th Congress, 1st Session (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1924), vol. 65, 59295932.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1924
1862, 1865
English
Speech
Modern America (1914-1929)
A Congressman Denounces Immigration Quotas as "Un-American" (short version, with text supports)
Immigration and Migration
Restrictions on immigration, largely aimed at would-be migrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, gained considerable popular support during the 1920s. Anti-immigrant sentiment culminated in the Quota Act of 1921, which effectively reduced immigration from those areas to a quarter of pre-World War I levels, and in the even more restrictive Immigration Act of 1924. Although the later bill passed the Senate with only six dissenting votes, not everyone was persuaded. Congressman Robert H. Clancy defended the Jewish, Italian, and Polish immigrants that comprised much of his constituency and denounced the quota provisions of the bill as "un-American." In a speech before Congress on April 8, 1924, Clancy traces the history of anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S. and reminds his fellow congressmen that all Americans are of foreign origin.
Robert H. Clancy
Speech by Robert H. Clancy, 8 April 1924, Congressional Record, 68th Congress, 1st Session (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1924), vol. 65, 59295932.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1924
1862, 1256
English
Modern America (1914-1929)
A Doctor Decries the Public Health Danger of Immigrants
Immigration and Migration
Starting in the 1890s, many Americans feared that the arrival of large numbers of immigrants from countries in Eastern and Southern Europe was bad for society. They claimed that immigrants could not easily assimilate, or fit in, and that they were willing to work for very low wages. Some people also believed that these immigrants brought diseases with them and were a threat to public health. Doctors inspected immigrants entering the U.S. through Ellis Island for specific diseases, such as tuberculosis and trachoma (an eye disease). The doctor who wrote this article, however, believed that this was not enough to protect the public from immigrants.
Allan McLaughlin
Dr. Allan McLaughlin, “Immigration and the Public Health,†Popular Science (January 1904), 232, 236-237.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1904
1862, 1867
English
Industrialization and Expansion (1877-1913)
A Steelworkers' Ballot Calls "Strike!" in Many Tongues
Labor Activism
In the years after World War I, American workers sought to consolidate and expand the gains they had achieved during the war years. In September 1919, some 350,000 steelworkers went on strike, seeking higher wages, shorter hours and better working conditions. Steel companies, often with assistance of local governments, responded with violent tactics, eventually employing African Americans and Mexican Americans as strikebreakers. The strike eventually went down to defeat, with steel companies playing both on the racism of the workers and the public's aversion to the fact that many of the strikers were immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. This ballot, printed in English, Croatian, Hungarian, Italian, Slovak, and Polish and distributed by the National Committee for Organizing Iron and Steel Workers, reflects the broad range of nationalities comprising the industry's workforce.
National Committee for Organizing Iron and Steel Workers
William Z. Foster, <em>The Great Steel Strike and Its Lessons</em> (1920) American Social History Project.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1919
English
Pamphlet
Modern America (1914-1929)