Ellis Island Nation: Immigration Policy and American Identity in the Twentieth Century

Chapter 1 The Beginning of the Era of Restriction

Chapter 1 The Beginning of the Era of Restriction During the debate over immigration restriction in 1924, Representative Samuel McReynolds (D) of Tennessee declared, ‘‘This country can no longer be the melting pot for foreign nations. There was a time when that could be done, when conditions were different, but this time has long since passed.’’ Senator Arthur Capper (R) of Kansas, like many of McReynolds’s colleagues, echoed this concern, saying, ‘‘the experience of the last quarter century warns us that the capacity of the ‘melting pot’ is sadly over taxed, and that the fusing has all but ceased.’’1 These comments summarized congressional thinking concerning the nation’s ability to assimilate immigrants from southern and eastern Europe in the 1920s. Believing that the newcomers who had arrived since the 1880s could not be integrated into American culture, many demanded that the open door to immigration be closed. Passage of the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, which dramatically restricted immigration from southern and eastern Europe and Asia, demonstrated that this philosophy had become part of American law. Only a few objected to the view outlined by restrictionists such as McReynolds and Capper. Even those who tried to ‘‘Americanize’’ the newcomers thought that the ‘‘new’’ immigrants needed virtually to abandon their native culture to assimilate. Some congressmen from the immigrantheavy cities in the Northeast and Midwest, as well as a few intellectuals and ethnic organizations, dissented from the consensus and praised immigrants from southern and eastern Europe in contributionist terms, arguing that they strengthened the American economy and culture. At the same time, all sides used contributionist language with regard to the Irish and German Americans whose ancestors had arrived in the mid-nineteenth century. While the 1924 immigration law expanded the ‘‘nation of immigrants’’ to include Irish and German Americans, the Ellis Island immigrants remained 18 Chapter 1 excluded throughout the 1920s. Asians and Latinos lay even farther outside its boundaries.  During and immediately after World War I, government and private agencies supported efforts to ‘‘Americanize’’ recent immigrants. Various organizations designed programs to ensure that immigrants learned English and understood American traditions. Seeking to make English the de facto official language of the country, the Department of the Interior, through the Americanization section of its Bureau of Education, urged immigrants to take night school classes and suggested employers teach the language in their factories.2 Summarizing the primary aims of the Americanizers, Philander Claxton, commissioner of education, instructed immigrants to ‘‘learn the English language and study about the United States. You should study its geography and the location of its states and cities, its history and lives of its great men, its industries and varied business activities, its institutions and the purposes for which they were created, and above all, its government.’’3 Americanizers also sought to ensure loyalty among the recent arrivals. Concerned about the ties immigrants maintained to their countries of origin, a wide range of individuals, groups, and organizations expressed grave concerns about potential subversion in immigrant communities during World War I. These fears persisted following the conflict as the Syracuse Americanization League declared its intention ‘‘to combat antiAmericanization propaganda activities and schemes and to stamp out sedition and disloyalty wherever found.’’4 Though the advocates of these programs broke with the most extreme restrictionists by suggesting that recent newcomers could be assimilated, they took a one-sided view of this transition. In their minds, immigrants must abandon virtually all of their previous traditions to adapt to American culture. Consequently, Americanization programs featured little discussion of how immigrants benefited and reshaped the United States. According to one pamphlet written by a Massachusetts group, Americanization meant learning ‘‘a common language, common governmental, social and economic ideals and a common relationship of the aims of the United States in and after the War.’’5 Echoing this view, the Syracuse Americanization SE (2024-04-26 11:44 GMT) The Beginning of the Era of Restriction 19 League advocated the abolition of ‘‘racial prejudices, barriers, discriminations and immigrant colonies and sections which keep people in America apart; to maintain an American standard of living through the proper use of American foods.’’6 These efforts continued into the early 1920s and followed a similar narrow definition of assimilation. For example, the U.S. Army, under the auspices of the American Legion, worked to incorporate foreign-born soldiers into American society under a program called ‘‘Americans All.’’ This initiative taught recent immigrants English, American history, and civics and...