because it was traversed by the Oregon Trail; but it was merely
a place to pass through, until the arrival of the Union Pacific
Railway and the discovery of gold in the same year (1867) gave it a
life of its own. Nearly 6000 persons spent the following winter in
Cheyenne--a cosmopolitan crowd of adventurers and speculators. After
its organization as a territory in 1859, agriculture had begun, stock
raising became important, there were local gold rushes, and the region
slowly developed until admitted to the Union in 1890.
Wyoming's population, smaller than that of any other State with the
single exception of Nevada, is less than two-thirds native stock, and
this represents a blend from all parts of the United States. Iowa,
Missouri, Illinois, have all contributed more inhabitants than either
of its neighbors, Colorado and Utah. In these mountain States the
general rule that a State is settled by its neighbors, quite breaks
down. Its foreign stock is equally mixed; while much is Nordic the
State has also attracted its quota of Slavs and Italians, and even of
Mexicans.
Idaho, after small Mormon settlements of farmers, owed most of its
early population to its mines. During the Civil War it grew remarkably,
but the fact that it could be reached more easily from the West than
from the East, due to access by the Columbia River, made its settlement
somewhat anomalous in American history, for it was settled largely by
Westerners moving east from Oregon, Washington, and northern California.
In Idaho the development of Mormon colonies has given Utah a strong
influence in the State. Apart from this, its population is made up
nowadays more from the Mississippi Valley than from the mountain and
Pacific Coast States. It is only three-fourths native, but most of the
remainder is Nordic, British and Scandinavians both having sought its
opportunities. A territory in 1863 and a State in 1890, Idaho now has a
population of nearly half a million.
Montana, in the winter of 1862 and 1863 had a total population of 670
inhabitants of whom _The Chronicle_ complacently says: "Fifty-nine
were evidently respectable women." Like Idaho, it attracted an element
of Southern men escaping from the draft into the Confederate Army,
but from then on a large part of its population was from the Northern
States. Its growth of population was closely linked up with the
fortunes of the mining industry.
Territorial status was given Montana at the time of the great gold
discoveries in 1864, and the character of its population fluctuated a
good deal, both as to quantity and quality, between that date and 1889
when it was admitted to Statehood. It has now more than half a million
inhabitants, nearly half of whom are of foreign stock and largely Roman
Catholics. Most of the natives are from the Central States; most of the
foreigners are Irish, Germans, or Canadians, though Montana has also
attracted more than 50,000 Scandinavians.
Utah's population is now about the size of that of Montana, and but
slightly more native in character (three-fifths). These natives are
to a large extent born in the State, the descendants of the Mormon
pioneers. The "Gentiles" are of widely scattered origin. The foreign
stock is mostly English or Scandinavian, the Mormon missionaries having
worked diligently in those kingdoms. Utah, therefore, represents
a Nordic population, and one with a high birthrate, whence it is
evidently destined to continue spreading steadily in the Great Basin.
Nevada sprang almost full grown from the desert, as Venus did from
the waves. It scarcely existed, though on the maps as a transmontane
part of California, until the gold rush of 1849 brought settlements
into existence to take care of the travellers. Then it was attached
administratively to Utah, which was also inconveniently distant. The
discovery of silver in the fabulously rich Comstock Lode (1859) led
to the establishment of Virginia City, and to the inrush of a torrent
of miners, particularly from California, where the gold deposits were
becoming exhausted.
In 1861 Nevada was established as a separate territory, and Lincoln's
administration pushed it through to Statehood in 1864 to get the
advantage of two more friendly senators. With the exhausting of the
silver deposits in a quarter of a century, Nevada had a severe decline,
many of her inhabitants moving away. There was another mining boom in
the first ten or fifteen years of this century, but the State has never
made a steady and substantial growth, and the 1930 census credited it
with no more than 91,058 inhabitants. Not much more than half of these
were of the native stock. The foreigners were a scattered lot, with an
unexpectedly large Italian contingent.
Arizona was cut loose from New Mexico in 1863, and, after the Civil
War, became a typical Western mining community, with a fluctuating
frontier population. A district might be active one year and a few
years later abandoned.
The Mormons made some of the early settlements in the State and still
form a significant part of its population. Like Colorado, Arizona
has more than its share of Mexicans, while some of the other Western
States, Utah and Nevada for instance, have only negligible numbers of
them. The presence of more than 100,000 Mexicans in 1930 gave Arizona,
with less than half a million inhabitants all told, a bad position as
to its proportion of native stock. If one takes account only of the
Whites, 80 per cent are natives of native parentage, the others mostly
British or German, with again a surprisingly large Canadian contingent,
considering how far removed the two regions are. The American
population is of notably cosmopolitan origin, people having gone there
from every State in the Union, in connection with mining, or for
reasons of health. But Texas is by far the largest single contributor,
with California a poor second.
New Mexico stands in the anomalous position of having an almost
unparalleled percentage of its population born not merely in the
United States, but within its own borders; and yet of having an
unparalleled proportion of its population speaking an alien language.
An official interpreter is still required in its State legislature,
so that the local statesmen who boast of their Americanism but
cannot speak English, can make their views known to the Americans.
Since the "Spanish-Americans" are classified by the census as white,
three-fourths of the population are listed as native white of native
parentage. There were also, in 1930, about 60,000 Mexicans born south
of the line, hence aliens. The other residents of foreign stock are
scattering, with no one nationality greatly predominating.
California, which in 1860 had the highest percentage of foreigners,
had not changed this situation strikingly in 1930, despite the great
influx of old American stock from the Central States. Of its 5,677,251
residents, just over a half were native Whites of native parentage. The
general character of the migration to California since the beginning of
this century is too well known to require extended comment. Every part
of the Union has contributed; even Florida is credited with a couple
of thousand converts. On the whole, this influx has been of the purest
Nordic stock, but if a constitutional convention were now to be called,
its make-up would perhaps not differ greatly from that of 1849, which
was attended by delegates born in thirty different States of the Union.
The foreign element in California is equally heterogeneous, though
largely Nordic, so far as it is white at all. Canada has sent a quarter
of a million, nearly all of English ancestry. Italy has contributed
nearly a quarter of a million, who make an important part of the
population in the northern half of the State. Unlike their fellow
nationals in the Atlantic States, these California Italians are mostly
from the northern part of that kingdom. Between North and South
Italians there is not great sympathy--representatives of the two groups
avoid intermarriage. They also avoid migrating to the same territories
and, if the Neapolitan occupies the Atlantic States, the Genoese will
push on to the other side of the continent. These northern Italians
have played a much more prominent rôle around San Francisco than one
would anticipate who knows only the southern Italian in New York or
Boston.
The State has also attracted 150,000 Russians, partly refugees since
the Bolshevik revolution, but mostly agriculturists of an earlier
period; more than half a million British, including Irish, more than
300,000 Germans, more than 200,000 Scandinavians.
It is the non-white element that has attracted attention most
continuously from the outside world. California had nearly half a
million Mexicans, until the exodus which began after the depression of
1929 had made their manual labor less valuable.
It had 45,000 Filipinos, who created serious problems in some regions,
both by competing with native labor, and by paying attention to white
girls, which is resented by the Americans.
The State's population of 37,000 Chinese is declining steadily. The
memorable agitation of the '70's for Chinese exclusion is now only a
historical event, but it was important as helping to lay the foundation
for a wise immigration policy in the United States. Mining, war times,
and the building of the transcontinental railway had kept up inflated
conditions for years. Chinese were pouring in, partly to the mines,
and partly to the railway, which used them in construction work. Some
15,000 of these Oriental laborers, turned out of work by the completion
of the Central Pacific Railway, principally in 1869-70, poured into
San Francisco and made their presence unmistakable. A decade of
dissatisfaction followed, particularly among American workingmen. The
most conspicuous agitator was the Irish drayman, Dennis Kearney. In
1879 the State voted against the further immigration of Chinese by a
majority of 154,638 to 883. There have been few issues in American
history carried by a more nearly unanimous vote. In the same year
the Federal Congress passed an exclusion act which established the
principle that an unassimilable people may be shut out entirely, if
necessary to protect American standards.
Agitation along similar lines sprang up about 1906-7, due to the
rapid increase of Japanese in the State. It was settled, first by a
"gentlemen's agreement" between the United States and Japan, by which
the latter undertook to prevent the emigration of its laboring class to
the Pacific Coast States; second, by a law later adopted in California,
which prevented alien Japanese from owning land; third, by a final
exclusion of all Orientals through national legislation.
The hundred thousand Japanese shown in the 1930 census are no
longer increasing rapidly, in spite of a fairly high birthrate.
The existence of these second-generation Japanese (and the same is
true, in proportion, of the Chinese) has, however, created a serious
problem all its own, since they are not accepted by either race. They
usually do not speak the Japanese language. They are inclined to look
down upon its institutions, and admire those of America. Hence the
real Japanese element both dislikes them, and does not employ them
because of the language barrier. On the other hand, the American does
not accept them as Americans, and they cannot be employed easily
alongside of and in competition with white natives of the United
States. The second-generation Oriental is practically a man without
a country. Because of these special racial problems, California has
had difficulties that some of the other States have not fully or
sympathetically understood.
Oregon's million inhabitants are two-thirds native Whites of the old
stock. Canada, the British Isles, Germany, and Scandinavia, have been
the other large contributors. The American population is largely from
the Central States.
Washington now has more than a million and a half inhabitants, 56 per
cent of whom are of old native stock. Eastern Washington felt a boom in
1862 when it began to accumulate population attracted partly by mines
and partly by farming possibilities, until it reached an equilibrium
with the Puget Sound end of the State which has always been an
important political factor. Many settlers at this time were immigrants
from the "border States" of the Civil War, who became disgusted with
the guerrilla warfare to which they were subjected, and who were
not enthusiastically for either side. During the '80's, the rapid
construction of railway lines brought the population of Washington up
to a respectable figure in a very few years.
The present Whites are mainly from the States of the upper Mississippi
Valley. Canada has furnished 100,000 more of British ancestry, and a
slightly larger number has come direct from the British Isles. Germany
has contributed 100,000, Scandinavia 175,000. As against this, Italy is
represented by less than 25,000, and the Slav countries altogether by
not much more than 60,000. Hence Washington is entitled to claim that
it is one of the most Nordic of the States.
XIV
CHECKING THE ALIEN INVASION
During the earlier part of the immigration period, the tradition of
an "Asylum for the Oppressed" of all nations was the ruling principle
in the national attitude towards aliens, though even then there was
occasional objection to the undesirable character of some of the
immigrants.
Various States adopted their own restrictions. Massachusetts, Maryland,
Pennsylvania, and others tried to control the flow of new arrivals by
head taxes and administrative regulations, while foreign governments
sometimes opposed these measures, as in the case of Wurtemberg in 1855.
The United States having sent back some paupers who had been dumped
on its shores, public resolutions are said to have been passed by the
Wurtembergers, protesting at this lack of hospitality. If the paupers
were returned, they complained bitterly, "we shall have defrayed the
expense of their journey in vain." But the right to deport undesirable
aliens had been set forth by the famous Alien and Sedition Acts of
1798, and the Federal Government has never wavered in its assertion of
this right.
For a generation before the Civil War, the undesirability of
unrestricted immigration was debated, but without definite action.
The first federal restriction was the law of 1875, excluding foreign
convicts and prostitutes. President Roosevelt in 1907 appointed an
Immigration Commission which made a long investigation and a voluminous
report that served as a base for future measures and by 1914 most of
the undesirable classes, except illiterates, were formally excluded.
The opposition to restriction was from the steamship companies, whose
interest was obvious, and from the large employers of cheap labor,
who were likewise not at all disinterested. It also arose among alien
groups in the United States, that wished to get more of their own
people into this country.
The most active forces in its favor were, primarily, organized labor,
which wished no more competition from floating aliens with a wholly
un-American standard of living and, most of all, the native American
groups, eugenists and others who were far-sighted and unwilling to
see the racial character and national unity of America destroyed and
republican ideals endangered and undermined.
The first attempt at a general restriction to improve the quality of
immigration was the adoption by Congress of the literacy test, which
provided that those who could not read and write some language should
be excluded. This was vetoed by President Wilson.
Meanwhile the outbreak of the World War had, for the time, put a
virtual stop to international movements of population, and the nation
had a breathing space to consider its future policies. In 1917
the Burnett Act consolidated the existing provisions for excluding
undesirables, and included the literacy test. President Wilson vetoed
it also, but it was passed over his veto.
At the close of the war, there was widespread apprehension that the
unsettled and impoverished peoples of Europe would begin a new mass
migration westward. Before the war we had been receiving a million
immigrants a year; travellers and consular agents predicted that we
might look forward to receiving two million or more annually. It was
felt that the literacy test, and the provisions against mental and
physical defectives, would not be enough to stop this flood. Congress
met the emergency by the Quota Act of 1921, which provided that the
number of aliens of any nationality admitted in any one year should
be no more than 3 per cent of the number of foreign-born persons of
such nationality residing in the United States in 1910. This law was
intended to preserve the _status quo_. What the nation was in 1910,
that it should be forever.
Such a solution could not satisfy the native Americans, whose people
had made the country great. Fortunately, the demand for a more
scientific approach to regulation found an adequate representative
in the Hon. Albert Johnson, a member of Congress from the State of
Washington, under whose leadership the whole system was revised in the
famous act of 1924.
Administratively, the proceedings were made more workable and more
intelligent by placing on the United States consuls abroad the duty
of approving passports, without which no immigrant could enter. When
the quota was exhausted, the consul was required to refuse his visa on
passports until the next year. There was no longer any possibility of
hardship and apparent injustice.
Restrictively, the quota was reduced from 3 per cent to 2 per cent,
and based not on the 1910 census, but on the 1890 census. The purpose
of this was, frankly, to encourage new arrivals from the countries of
the "old immigration,"--the countries of northern and western Europe
who had contributed most to the American population and whose people
were, therefore, most easily assimilable in the United States; and,
conversely, to discourage immigration from the countries of southern
and eastern Europe, most of whose nationals had come here since 1890.
This law reduced the total possible immigration under quota to 167,750
as against 357,800 permitted by the act it supplanted, and favored the
European Nordic whose people made the United States what it is, as
against the European Alpine and the Mediterranean who were late comers
and intrusive elements. Unfortunately it did not apply to the western
hemisphere, hence offered no obstacle to the Indian peon from Mexico
nor to the Negro from the West Indies, nor were the Filipinos barred.
The most interesting provision of the law of 1924 and, in one sense,
the reason for the existence of this present book, was a provision
that the quotas should be based only temporarily on the 1890 census.
That basis had been justly criticized on the ground that it made the
immigrants of recent times, rather than the old native stock, the
determinants of the future composition of the United States. The
quotas, it was argued, should be based not on the number of aliens here
in 1890, or in any other year; but on the ratio of these aliens to
the whole population. The law therefore embodied the National Origins
provision--one of the decisive events in the racial history of America.
An investigation was ordered to find the proportions of the various
national (not _racial_) groups in the United States at the time of
the 1920 census. The general quota to apply from July 1, 1927 (later
delayed one year), was fixed at a total of 150,000. Each nationality
was to be assigned such proportion of this 150,000 as the number of
its people here in 1920 bore to the total population. Thus, if it
should transpire that 10 per cent of the total population in 1920 was
of Swedish ancestry, Sweden would receive a quota of 10 per cent of
150,000 or 15,000. Or if it were found, for example, that 2 per cent
of the total population in 1920 derived from France, the French quota
would become 3000.
While a committee of experts went to work on the necessary research
for this purpose, an amusing competition began among the alien groups
and hyphenates, to exaggerate as much as possible their claims so that
their relatives and compatriots might benefit by an increase in their
nation's quota. The Irish were perhaps the most industrious in this
occupation, for they could take advantage of the confusion, due to the
fact, pointed out in these pages time and again, that the territory
now composing the Irish Free State had long taken credit for every one
who has passed through Ireland. Actually the "Irish" immigration in
Colonial times was, as already shown, not Irish at all, but for the
most part Scotch, though taking shipping from Ulster; and the Free
State Catholics had few representatives in America at the time of the
Revolution. Such facts were conveniently ignored by the Irish patriots,
who wrote books to demonstrate that the "Irish" not only fought and won
the Revolution, but that they made up the predominant element at the
present time. "It has been estimated by good authorities," affirmed one
such enthusiast, "that at least 25,000,000 of our present population
have more or less Irish blood coursing through their veins. We"
(_i.e._, the population of the United States), he went on, warming up
to his job, "are no more Anglo-Saxon than we are Hindu!"
If the Irish Catholics were inclined to claim something like one-fourth
of the total population, the Germans were prepared to claim anything
up to one-third. The quota based on the 1890 census had, in fact, been
extraordinarily favorable for the Germans, since they were the group
that had been coming into the country in greatest number just before
that date, hence they had the largest number of actual foreign-born
here present in that year. Their allotment on that basis was almost
one-third of the quota for the entire world. The obvious unfairness of
basing future immigration on such conditions, and of ignoring almost
entirely the English and Scotch stock which was the overwhelming
element in the building of America, but which together received only 20
per cent of the quota, was generally recognized.
Scarcely had this injustice been removed and the National Origins
measure gone into effect, however, when business depression began to
throw men out of work, and it was universally felt that no new seekers
for jobs should be brought into the country to displace the workers
already here. Administrative restrictions, therefore, cut down the
incoming flow of aliens to almost nothing. At the same time, many
recent arrivals went back home, thinking they could weather the storm
better among their own people.
A direct benefit from the depression, then, was that it practically
stopped foreign immigration. When the time comes for consideration
of the renewal of present administrative restrictions, the National
Origins Act will be on the statute books as a protection. Meanwhile
Americans can consider what further measures they need to take to
extend the quota provision to the western hemisphere.
The actual contribution of the alien groups to the population of the
United States is based not merely on their net immigration, but also
on their fecundity after they settle here. Many familiar studies show
that, in general, the immigrant women are more fecund than the old
stock. They marry earlier, show a lower percentage of sterility, and
have larger families.
The fact that women are in a minority among most of the recent
immigrant groups has, however, tended to cut down their contribution.
Of the whole foreign-born group, men and women have in late decades
been in the ratio of about five to three. This means that the group, as
a group, will make a smaller contribution than it would, had each man
brought a wife with him. On the other hand, the surplus males usually
marry women of other groups, their descendants being thus assimilated
into the population more quickly, whether for good or for ill.