Immigration History – Old Magazine Articles

Explaining the 1924 Immigration Bill
(American Legion Monthly, 1929)

U.S. Senator David Reed (1880 – 1953) chose to take another victory lap as he recalled the glories of the legislation he co-authored in 1924 (the Johnson-Reed Bill, that placed restrictive quotas on immigration based on the 1890 Census). He explained why the legislation was introduced:

“The diagnosis showed that we were getting more immigrants than we could digest…we still harbor foreign colonies in our midst, animated by alien ideals, owing first loyalty to some other country, and giving only lip service – and not always that – to the land to which they have come to make their homes.”

Debating Immigration
(Time Magazine, 1923)

An occasion was provided to debate the pros and cons of American immigration policy at the National Immigration Conference that convened in New York City during December of 1923:

“Most of the speakers advocated restriction and selection, but as to the degree and variety of each there was no consensus of opinion. Especially, there were two different methods of attacking the problem – from the industrial standpoint, and from the standpoint of the welfare of the race and of citizenship.”

W.W. II-Era Immigrants and Americanization
(Newsweek Magazine, 1941)

“Convinced that the best way to combat fifth columnists is to teach aliens how to become good citizens, the Department of Justice announced a $14,000,000 program to expand Works Projects Administration classes in ‘Americanization’…”

W.W. I and Immigration
(Harper’s Weekly, 1915)

William B. Wilson (1862 – 1834) was the first to be appointed Secretary of Labor, and in this article he weighs the needs of Europe for fighting men and the needs of the United States for laborers. It is a very dry article and difficult to get through, but, happily, the most interesting factoids can be found in the opening paragraphs when he explains how many new immigrants chose to leave the United States in order to fight for their old countries in Europe.

‘Making the Immigrant Unwelcome”
(Literary Digest, 1921)

To read this 100-year-old article is to understand that the inhumane conditions of today’s alien detention centers on the Southwest border are a part of a larger continuum in American history. This article addressed the atrocious conditions and brutality that was the norm on Ellis Island in the Twenties.

But it is not the stupidity of the literacy test alone that is to be condemned. It is its inhumanity.

The Border Patrol
(Collier’s Magazine, 1940)

This article lays out the many responsibilities and challenges that made up the day of a U.S. Border Patrol officer stationed along the Rio Grande in 1940:

In one month these rookies must try to absorb French and Spanish, immigration law, criminal law, naturalization, citizenship and expatriation law, fingerprinting, criminal investigation, first aid, firearms and the laws of the open country through which refugees are tracked down in the desert and forest.

Deporting the Reds
(American Legion Weekly, 1920)

In this 1920 American Legion Weekly article the mojo of the Red Scare (1917 to 1920) is fully intact and beautifully encapsulated by W.L. Whittlesey who condemned the U.S. Government for ever having allowed large numbers of socialist immigrants to enter the country and spread their discontent throughout the fruited plane. On the other hand, the writer was grateful that the government was finally tending to the matter of deporting them in large numbers and doing so with every means available.

Quotas in 1923 Immigration
(Time Magazine, 1923)

The gross quota allowance of immigration for the new year is the same as for the last, 357,803, of which 20% or 71,000 is the maximum which may arrive in any single month… Germany has sent only 43,000 immigrants, although her quota was 67,000.

America’s First Brush With Multiculturalism

(American Legion Weekly, 1922)

Like many Americans in the Twenties, the journalist who penned the attached article was totally irked by the concept of an American territory – bound for statehood – having a majority Asian population. He wrote at a time when the nation was deeply concerned about assimilating America’s immigrants and his indignation can clearly be sensed.

America’s First Brush With Multiculturalism
(American Legion Weekly, 1922)

‘A Plan to Make Chinese Canadians”
(Literary Digest, 1929)

A brief column from an American magazine that lucidly explained the mounting frustrations within 1920s Canada concerning the influx of Chinese immigrants to that country.

Click here to read about the Canadian POWs who collaborated with the Nazis.

‘Americans All”
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1938)

In an effort to keep the writers and actors of the Works Progress Administration busy, FDR’s Department of the Interior produced a 26-part radio program intended to prove that America could never have become so great without the contributions of all the various hyphenated groups that make up the country. On Sunday afternoon throughout much of 1938, Americans could gather around their radios, if they had them, and hear their identity groups being praised by the Government: African-Americans tuned in on December 18th; the WASP show was on December fourth.

Anticipating Multiculturalism
(The Nation, 1915)

Horace M. Kallen (1888 – 1974) was a deep thinker who questioned the practice of Americanization (ie. assimilation). In this 1915 article, Kallen contended that although immigrants to American shores are required to develop allegiances to certain self-evident beliefs that are embraced throughout our republic – but outside of that, there is no reason that immigrants should not be able to maintain their own ethnic and cultural identities. In the Eighties, those who embraced this line of thinking preferred to call America a salad bowl as opposed to a melting pot.

Anti-Asian Riots
(Harper’s Weekly, 1907)

The cheap yellow and brown men have driven out the Whites and Indians from the salmon fisheries and canneries, the farms and the mines.

– So reported the the Harper’s Weekly correspondent in the attached article that documented the 1907 anti-Asian race riots in Vancouver, British Columbia. Having visited San Francisco some time earlier, the journalist mused that similar mob-violence will result in the American West if the Federal Government does not take steps to soothe the racial tensions in some manner.

The Yellow Peril in Vancouver
(Review of Reviews, 1910)

The Canadians of British Columbia were just as uncomfortable with Asian immigration as their American neighbors on the west coast. This article discusses the Canadian Prime Minister, at the time, Sir Wilfred Laurier, and what he planned to do about Asiatic immigration, such as placing a head tax on each Asian who migrated. The growth of the Indian Hindu population along the Canadian West Coast is also mentioned

Race Riots in Vancouver
(Harper’s Weekly, 1907)

A Harper’s Weekly correspondent filed the attached report that served as an eye-witness account of the 1907 anti-Asian riots that flared up in the Canadian city of Vancouver, British Columbia. The riot triggered countless acts of violence and arson targeting the Asian communities of that western city. The widespread Asian migration to the Dominion of Canada was a result of the diplomatic agreements between Japan and Great Britain (Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 1902–1922) resulting in a tremendous amount of racist tension among Canadian Whites.

Today, the surname Li is the most common last name in Canada.

Click here to read about the Japanese-American internment camps of W.W. II.

Onslaught
(The State Journal, 1923)

A report that anticipated a hefty load of European immigrants for 1923.