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1920s Quota Restriction

1920s Quota Restriction. HIS 206. Emergency Quota Restriction Act. Emergency Quota Restriction Act (1921) pocket-vetoed by Wilson, but re-passed and signed into law by Warren G. Harding in May 3% of foreign-born of each nationality in 1910 census allowed in each year Minimum quota = 400

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1920s Quota Restriction

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  1. 1920s Quota Restriction HIS 206

  2. Emergency Quota Restriction Act • Emergency Quota Restriction Act (1921) pocket-vetoed by Wilson, but re-passed and signed into law by Warren G. Harding in May • 3% of foreign-born of each nationality in 1910 census allowed in each year • Minimum quota = 400 • Total of all quotas = 387,803 • Professionals, domestic servants, religious refugees & citizens of Western hemisphere nations exempt • Act extended for 2 more years in 1922 • Immediate enforcement of act created hardships that generated bad publicity for administration • Steamships raced to port in first days of each month • Ellis Island Commissioner Frederick Wallis resigned in protest Pres. Harding

  3. James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor1921-1930 • Davis tried to give Immigration bureau to State Dept. in 1922, but Charles Evans Hughes didn’t want responsibility • Davis wrote Selective Immigration or None (1924), endorsing eugenics • Proposed “strict, but just tests of physical and mental health” • Screening in Europe would avoid scrutiny by American courts & press • Proposed registration of all aliens • Warned that while “old” immigrants were “beavers,” “new” immigrants were “rats” • Offered himself as “master puddler of humanity” James J. Davis

  4. Reed-Johnson Immigration Act • Reed-Johnson Immigration Act (1924) set immigration policy for 28 years • Overseas consular inspection instituted • $9 visa fee added to $8 head tax • Japanese excluded as “aliens ineligible to citizenship” • Basis of quotas became 2% of 1890 census • 1890 marked high point of German & Irish immigration • Wives & kids of citizens, resident aliens, professionals & Western hemisphere immigrants exempt from quotas • Within quotas, preference given to immediate family members & skilled agriculturalists • Would change to “national origins” quotas in 1927 (delayed until 1929) • Developed by John B. Trevor & introduced by Sen. David Reed • Quotas were in same ratio to 150,000 as the number of inhabitants of that national origin were to the number of inhabitants in U.S. in 1920 • Sec. of State, Labor & Commerce to prepare quotas Pres. Coolidge

  5. Calculating the Quotas • Quota Board chaired by Dr. Joseph A. Hill • 2 representatives each from State, Labor & Commerce • Samuel Boggs prepared memo explaining methods • Hard to assign quotas due to newly created countries & changed borders after World War I • “National Origins” based on assumptions • White population est. to be 90 million • Foreign-born not identified by country of origin until 1850; children not distinguished until 1890 • “Original native stock” est. at 41 million • Marcus Hansen & Howard Barker lowered est. of 1790 British pop. from 82% to 60%, but quota board only lowered est. by 10.4% • Assumptions led to over-representation of British

  6. Quota Comparison • 1890 Census Quotas: • Britain: 34,007 • Germany: 51,227 • Ireland: 28,567 • Sweden: 9,561 • Norway: 6,453 • Italy: 3,845 • Poland: 5,982 • Russia: 2,248 • Czechoslovakia: 3,073 • National Origins Quotas: • Britain: 65,721 • Germany: 25,957 • Ireland: 17,853 • Sweden: 3,314 • Norway: 2,377 • Italy: 5,802 • Poland: 6,524 • Russia: 2,784 • Czechoslovakia: 2,874

  7. “Leaving the Back Door Open”

  8. Hoover & the Great Depression • Hoover called for return to 1890 census quotas in 1928 campaign • tried to avoid issuing National Origins quotas in 1929 • Asked Congress to repeal them • State Dept. began using LPC clause to exclude virtually all immigrants in 1930 • Began with Mexicans in March • Supreme Court ruled in Gegiow v. Uhl (1915) that Immigration Bureau couldn’t use LPC clause to keep out immigrants based on labor conditions at port of entry • Courts consistently upheld State Dept’s discretionary power to issue visas, however Pres. Hoover

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