No country’s history has been more closely bound to immigration than that of the United States. During the first 15 years of the 20th century alone, over 13 million people came to the United States, many passing through Ellis
Island, the federal immigration center that opened in New York harbor in
1892. (Though no longer in service, Ellis Island reopened in 1992 as a
monument to the millions who crossed the nation’s threshold there.)
The first official census in 1790 had numbered Americans at 3,929,214.
Approximately half of the population of the original 13 states was of English
origin; the rest were Scots-Irish, German, Dutch, French, Swedish, Welsh,
and Finnish. These white Europeans were mostly Protestants. A fifth of the
population was enslaved Africans.
From early on, Americans viewed immigrants as a necessary resource for
an expanding country. As a result, few official restrictions were placed upon
immigration into the United States until the 1920s. As more and more im-
migrants arrived, however, some Americans became fearful that their culture
was threatened.
The Founding Fathers, especially Thomas Jefferson, had been ambivalent
over whether or not the United States ought to welcome arrivals from every
corner of the globe. Jefferson wondered whether democracy could ever rest
safely in the hands of men from countries that revered monarchs or replaced
royalty with mob rule. However, few supported closing the gates to newcomers
in a country desperate for labor.
Immigration lagged in the late 18th and early 19th centuries as wars dis-
rupted trans-Atlantic travel and European governments restricted movement
to retain young men of military age. Still, as European populations increased, more people on the same land constricted the size of farming lots to a point
where families could barely survive. Moreover, cottage industries were falling victim to an Industrial Revolution that was mechanizing production. Thousands of artisans unwilling or unable to find jobs in factories were out of work in Europe.
In the mid-1840s millions more made their way to the United States as
a result of a potato blight in Ireland and continual revolution in the German
homelands. Meanwhile, a trickle of Chinese immigrants, most from impov-
erished Southeastern China, began to make their way to the American West
Coast.
Almost 19 million people arrived in the United States between 1890 and
1921, the year Congress first passed severe restrictions. Most of these immi-
200
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
grants were from Italy, Russia, Poland, Greece, and the Balkans. Non-Euro-
peans came, too: east from Japan, south from Canada, and north from Mexico.
By the early 1920s, an alliance was forged between wage-conscious
organized labor and those who called for restricted immigration on racial or
religious grounds, such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Immigration Restriction
League. The Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924 permanently curtailed
the influx of newcomers with quotas calculated on nation of origin.
The Great Depression of the 1930s dramatically slowed immigration still
further. With public opinion generally opposed to immigration, even for per-
secuted European minorities, relatively few refugees found sanctuary in the
United States after Adolf Hitler’s ascent to power in 1933.
Throughout the postwar decades, the United States continued to cling
to nationally based quotas. Supporters of the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952
argued that quota relaxation might inundate the United States with Marxist
subversives from Eastern Europe.
In 1965 Congress replaced national quotas with hemispheric ones. Rela-
tives of U.S. citizens received preference, as did immigrants with job skills
in short supply in the United States. In 1978 the hemispheric quotas were
replaced by a worldwide ceiling of 290,000, a limit reduced to 270,000 after
passage of the Refugee Act of 1980.
Since the mid-1970s, the United States has experienced a fresh wave of
immigration, with arrivals from Asia, Africa, and Latin America transforming
communities throughout the country. Current estimates suggest a total annual
arrival of approximately 600,000 legal newcomers to the United States.
Because immigrant and refugee quotas remain well under demand, how-
ever, illegal immigration is still a major problem. Mexicans and other Latin
Americans daily cross the Southwestern U.S. borders to find work, higher
wages, and improved education and health care for their families. Likewise,
there is a substantial illegal migration from countries like China and other
Asian nations. Estimates vary, but some suggest that as many as 600,000
illegals per year arrive in the United States.
Large surges of immigration have historically created social strains along
with economic and cultural dividends. Deeply ingrained in most Americans,
however, is the conviction that the Statue of Liberty does, indeed, stand as a symbol for the United States as she lifts her lamp before the “golden door,”
welcoming those “yearning to breathe free.” This belief, and the sure knowl-
edge that their forebears were once immigrants, has kept the United States a
nation of nations.
201
202
C H A P T E R
10WAR,
PROSPERITY,
AND
DEPRESSION
Depression era soup line,
1930s.
CHAPTER 10: WAR, PROSPERITY, AND DEPRESSION
“The chief business
of the American people
is business.”
President Calvin Coolidge, 1925
WAR AND NEUTRAL RIGHTS
can carriers, confiscating “contra-
T
band” bound for Germany . Germa-
o the American public of 1914, ny employed its major naval weapon,
the outbreak of war in Europe — the submarine, to sink shipping
with Germany and Austria-Hun- bound for Britain or France . Presi-
gary fighting Britain, France, and dent Wilson warned that the United
Russia — came as a shock . At first States would not forsake its tradi-
the encounter seemed remote, but tional right as a neutral to trade with
its economic and political effects belligerent nations . He also declared
were swift and deep . By 1915 U .S . that the nation would hold Germa-
industry, which had been mildly de- ny to “strict accountability” for the
pressed, was prospering again with loss of American vessels or lives . On
munitions orders from the West- May 7, 1915, a German submarine
ern Allies . Both sides used propa- sunk the British liner Lusitania, kill-ganda to arouse the public passions ing 1,198 people, 128 of them Amer-
of Americans — a third of whom icans . Wilson, reflecting American
were either foreign-born or had one outrage, demanded an immediate
or two foreign-born parents . More- halt to attacks on liners and mer-
over, Britain and Germany both act- chant ships .
ed against U .S . shipping on the high
Anxious to avoid war with the
seas, bringing sharp protests from United States, Germany agreed to
President Woodrow Wilson .
give warning to commercial ves-
Britain, which controlled the sels — even if they flew the enemy
seas, stopped and searched Ameri- flag — before firing on them . But
204
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
after two more attacks — the sink-
President Wilson contributed
ing of the British steamer Arabic in greatly to an early end to the war August 1915, and the torpedoing of by defining American war aims that
the French liner Sussex in March characterized the struggle as be-
1916 — Wilson issued an ultimatum ing waged not against the German
threatening to break diplomatic re- people but against their autocratic
lations unless Germany abandoned government . His Fourteen Points,
submarine warfare . Germany agreed submitted to the Senate in January
and refrained from further attacks 1918, called for: abandonment of se-
through the end of the year .
cret international agreements; free-
Wilson won reelection in 1916, dom of the seas; free trade between
partly on the slogan: “He kept us out nations; reductions in national ar-
of war .” Feeling he had a mandate maments; an adjustment of colonial
to act as a peacemaker, he delivered claims in the interests of the inhabit-
a speech to the Senate, January 22, ants affected; self-rule for subjugated
1917, urging the warring nations to European nationalities; and, most
accept a “peace without victory .”
importantly, the establishment of
an association of nations to afford
UNITED STATES ENTERS
“mutual guarantees of political inde-
WORLD WAR I
pendence and territorial integrity to
O
great and small states alike .”
n January 31, 1917, however, the
In October 1918, the German gov-
German government resumed un- ernment, facing certain defeat, ap-
restricted submarine warfare . After pealed to Wilson to negotiate on the
five U .S . vessels were sunk, Wilson basis of the Fourteen Points . After
on April 2, 1917, asked for a decla- a month of secret negotiations that
ration of war . Congress quickly ap- gave Germany no firm guarantees,
proved . The government rapidly an armistice (technically a truce, but
mobilized military resources, indus- actually a surrender) was concluded
try, labor, and agriculture . By Octo- on November 11 .
ber 1918, on the eve of Allied victory,
a U .S . army of over 1,750,000 had
THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
been deployed in France .
In the summer of 1918, fresh It was Wilson’s hope that the final
American troops under the com- treaty, drafted by the victors, would
mand of General John J . Pershing be even-handed, but the passion and
played a decisive role in stopping a material sacrifice of more than four
last-ditch German offensive . That years of war caused the European
fall, Americans were key partici- Allies to make severe demands . Per-
pants in the Meuse-Argonne of- suaded that his greatest hope for
fensive, which cracked Germany’s peace, a League of Nations, would
vaunted Hindenburg Line .
never be realized unless he made
205
CHAPTER 10: WAR, PROSPERITY, AND DEPRESSION
concessions, Wilson compromised world order . Wilson’s defeat showed
somewhat on the issues of self-de- that the American people were not
termination, open diplomacy, and yet ready to play a commanding role
other specifics . He successfully re- in world affairs . His utopian vision
sisted French demands for the entire had briefly inspired the nation, but
Rhineland, and somewhat moder- its collision with reality quickly led
ated that country’s insistence upon to widespread disillusion with world
charging Germany the whole cost of affairs . America reverted to its in-
the war . The final agreement (the stinctive isolationism .
Treaty of Versailles), however, pro-
vided for French occupation of the
POSTWAR UNREST
coal- and iron-rich Saar Basin, and
a very heavy burden of reparations The transition from war to peace
upon Germany .
was tumultuous . A postwar eco-
In the end, there was little left of nomic boom coexisted with rapid
Wilson’s proposals for a generous increases in consumer prices . La-
and lasting peace but the League of bor unions that had refrained from
Nations itself, which he had made striking during the war engaged in
an integral part of the treaty . Dis- several major job actions . During the
playing poor judgment, however, the summer of 1919, several race riots oc-
president had failed to involve lead- curred, reflecting apprehension over
ing Republicans in the treaty nego- the emergence of a “New Negro”
tiations . Returning with a partisan who had seen military service or gone
document, he then refused to make north to work in the war industry .
concessions necessary to satisfy Re-
Reaction to these events merged
publican concerns about protecting with a widespread national fear of
American sovereignty .
a new international revolutionary
With the treaty stalled in a Senate movement . In 1917, the Bolsheviks
committee, Wilson began a national had seized power in Russia; after the
tour to appeal for support . On Sep- war, they attempted revolutions in
tember 25, 1919, physically ravaged Germany and Hungary . By 1919, it
by the rigors of peacemaking and seemed they had come to America .
the pressures of the wartime presi- Excited by the Bolshevik example,
dency, he suffered a crippling stroke . large numbers of militants split
Critically ill for weeks, he never fully from the Socialist Party to found
recovered . In two separate votes — what would become the Commu-
November 1919 and March 1920 — nist Party of the United States . In
the Senate once again rejected the April 1919, the postal service inter-
Versailles Treaty and with it the cepted nearly 40 bombs addressed to
League of Nations .
prominent citizens . Attorney Gen-
The League of Nations would eral A . Mitchell Palmer’s residence
never be capable of maintaining in Washington was bombed . Palmer,
206
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
in turn, authorized federal roundups ment fostered private business, ben-
of radicals and deported many who efits would radiate out to most of the
were not citizens . Strikes were often rest of the population .
blamed on radicals and depicted as
Accordingly, the Republicans
the opening shots of a revolution .
tried to create the most favorable
Palmer’s dire warnings fueled a conditions for U .S . industry . The
“Red Scare” that subsided by mid- Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922
1920 . Even a murderous bombing in and the Hawley-Smoot Tariff of
Wall Street in September failed to re- 1930 brought American trade barri-
awaken it . From 1919 on, however, a ers to new heights, guaranteeing U .S .
current of militant hostility toward manufacturers in one field after
revolutionary communism would another a monopoly of the domes-
simmer not far beneath the surface tic market, but blocking a healthy
of American life .
trade with Europe that would have
reinvigorated the international
THE BOOMING 1920s
economy . Occurring at the begin-
W
ning of the Great Depression, Haw-
ilson, distracted by the war, ley-Smoot triggered retaliation from
then laid low by his stroke, had mis- other manufacturing nations and
handled almost every postwar is- contributed greatly to a collapsing
sue . The booming economy began cycle of world trade that intensified
to collapse in mid-1920 . The Repub- world economic misery .
lican candidates for president and
The federal government also start-
vice president, Warren G . Harding ed a program of tax cuts, reflecting
and Calvin Coolidge, easily defeated Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon’s
their Democratic opponents, James belief that high taxes on individual
M . Cox and Franklin D . Roosevelt .
incomes and corporations discour-
Following ratification of the 19th aged investment in new industrial
Amendment to the Constitution, enterprises . Congress, in laws passed
women voted in a presidential elec- between 1921 and 1929, responded
tion for the first time .
favorably to his proposals .
The first two years of Harding’s
“The chief business of the Amer-
administration saw a continuance ican people is business,” declared
of the economic recession that had Calvin Coolidge, the Vermont-born
begun under Wilson . By 1923, how- vice president who succeeded to the
ever, prosperity was back . For the presidency in 1923 after Harding’s
next six years the country enjoyed death, and was elected in his own
the strongest economy in its history, right in 1924 . Coolidge hewed to the
at least in urban areas . Governmen- conservative economic policies of
tal economic policy during the 1920s the Republican Party, but he was a
was eminently conservative . It was much abler administrator than the
based upon the belief that if govern- hapless Harding, whose administra-
207
CHAPTER 10: WAR, PROSPERITY, AND DEPRESSION
tion was mired in charges of corrup- decade in which the ordinary fam-
tion in the months before his death . ily purchased its first automobile,
Throughout the 1920s, private obtained refrigerators and vacuum
business received substantial en- cleaners, listened to the radio for en-
couragement, including construc- tertainment, and went regularly to
tion loans, profitable mail-carrying motion pictures . Prosperity was real
contracts, and other indirect subsi- and broadly distributed . The Repub-
dies . The Transportation Act of 1920, licans profited politically, as a result, for example, had already restored to by claiming credit for it .
private management the nation’s
railways, which had been under gov-
TENSIONS OVER
ernment control during the war . The
IMMIGRATION
Merchant Marine, which had been
owned and largely operated by the During the 1920s, the United
government, was sold to private op- States sharply restricted foreign im-
erators .
migration for the first time in its
Republican policies in agri- history . Large inflows of foreigners
culture, however, faced mounting long had created a certain amount
criticism, for farmers shared least of social tension, but most had been
in the prosperity of the 1920s . The of Northern European stock and, if
period since 1900 had been one of not quickly assimilated, at least pos-
rising farm prices . The unprece- sessed a certain commonality with
dented wartime demand for U .S . most Americans . By the end of the
farm products had provided a strong 19th century, however, the flow was
stimulus to expansion . But by the predominantly from southern and
close of 1920, with the abrupt end Eastern Europe . According to the
of wartime demand, the commercial census of 1900, the population of the
agriculture of staple crops such as United States was just over 76 mil-
wheat and corn fell into sharp de- lion . Over the next 15 years, more
cline . Many factors accounted for than 15 million immigrants entered
the depression in American agri- the country .
culture, but foremost was the loss of
Around two-thirds of the inflow
foreign markets . This was partly in consisted of “newer” nationalities
reaction to American tariff policy, and ethnic groups — Russian Jews,
but also because excess farm produc- Poles, Slavic peoples, Greeks, south-
tion was a worldwide phenomenon . ern Italians . They were non-Prot-
When the Great Depression struck estant, non-“Nordic,” and, many
in the 1930s, it devastated an already Americans feared, nonassimilable .
fragile farm economy .
They did hard, often dangerous,
The distress of agriculture aside, low-pay work — but were accused
the Twenties brought the best life of driving down the wages of native-
ever to most Americans . It was the born Americans . Settling in squalid
208
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
urban ethnic enclaves, the new im-
CLASH OF CULTURES
migrants were seen as maintaining
Old World customs, getting along Some Americans expressed their
with very little English, and sup- discontent with the character of
porting unsavory political machines modern life in the 1920s by focus-
that catered to their needs . Nativists ing on family and religion, as an
wanted to send them back to Europe; increasingly urban, secular society
social workers wanted to American- came into conflict with older rural
ize them . Both agreed that they were traditions . Fundamentalist preach-
a threat to American identity .
ers such as Billy Sunday provided an
Halted by World War I, mass outlet for many who yearned for a
immigration resumed in 1919, but return to a simpler past .
quickly ran into determined oppo-
Perhaps the most dramatic dem-
sition from groups as varied as the onstration of this yearning was the
American Federation of Labor and religious fundamentalist crusade
the reorganized Ku Klux Klan . Mil- that pitted Biblical texts against the
lions of old-stock Americans who Darwinian theory of biological evo-
belonged to neither organization ac- lution . In the 1920s, bills to prohibit
cepted commonly held assumptions the teaching of evolution began ap-
about the inferiority of non-Nordics pearing in Midwestern and South-
and backed restrictions . Of course, ern state legislatures . Leading this
there were also practical arguments crusade was the aging William Jen-
in favor of a maturing nation putting nings Bryan, long a spokesman for
some limits on new arrivals .
the values of the countryside as well
In 1921, Congress passed a sharp- as a progressive politician . Bryan
ly restrictive emergency immigra- skillfully reconciled his anti-evo-
tion act . It was supplanted in 1924 by lutionary activism with his earlier
the Johnson-Reed National Origins economic radicalism, declaring that
Act, which established an immigra- evolution “by denying the need or
tion quota for each nationality . Those possibility of spiritual regeneration, quotas were pointedly based on the discourages all reforms .”
census of 1890, a year in which the
The issue came to a head in 1925,
newer immigration had not yet left when a young high school teacher,
its mark . Bitterly resented by south- John Scopes, was prosecuted for vio-
ern and Eastern European ethnic lating a Tennessee law that forbade
groups, the new law reduced immi- the teaching of evolution in the pub-
gration to a trickle . After 1929, the lic schools . The case became a nation-economic impact of the Great De- al spectacle, drawing intense news
pression would reduce the trickle to coverage . The American Civil Lib-
a reverse flow — until refugees from erties Union retained the renowned
European fascism began to press for attorney Clarence Darrow to defend
admission to the country .
Scopes . Bryan wrangled an appoint-
209
CHAPTER 10: WAR, PROSPERITY, AND DEPRESSION
ment as special prosecutor, then fool- manners and morals that caused
ishly allowed Darrow to call him as the decade to be called the Jazz Age,
a hostile witness . Bryan’s confused the Roaring Twenties, or the era of
defense of Biblical passages as literal “flaming youth .” World War I had
rather than metaphorical truth drew overturned the Victorian social and
widespread criticism . Scopes, nearly moral order . Mass prosperity en-
forgotten in the fuss, was convicted, abled an open and hedonistic life
but his fine was reversed on a tech- style for the young middle classes .
nicality . Bryan died shortly after the
The leading intellectuals were
trial ended . The state wisely declined supportive . H .L . Mencken, the de-
to retry Scopes . Urban sophisticates cade’s most important social critic,
ridiculed fundamentalism, but it was unsparing in denouncing sham
continue