Immigration: In the News in 1924
By Jennie Shurtleff
A hundred years ago, in 1924, the presidential election, prohibition, and immigration dominated the conversations of many Americans. The presidential election that year was decided on November 4 with a victory for the incumbent President, Calvin Coolidge. Prohibition was laid to rest some nine years later in 1933 when the 21st Amendment was ratified, repealing the nationwide ban on the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol. Immigration, however, was and remains a source of controversy and debate.
A quick scan of newspaper headlines in 1924 reveals that articles on immigration even worked their way into local papers like The Vermont Standard.
On March 20, 1924, the Vermont Standard ran an article that was originally published by the Bennington Banner. This article, entitled “Immigrant Restriction,” begins with the line “The immigrant measure agreed upon by the committee of the House of Representatives and about to be reported to Congress is one of the most sensible and comprehensive that has yet been offered. If it is judged solely on its merits it should be assured speedy passage by both legislative branches of the federal government.”
What did this “sensible” legislation entail? The article goes on to state, “The outstanding features of the new bill provide for reduction of immigrants to two per cent of the number of each nationally [sic] residing in the United States in 1890 and for virtual selection of the immigrant abroad rather than at the point of entry in the United States.”
From this point, the language in the article becomes even more openly discriminatory and xenophobic stating:
“The foreign born living in the United States in 1890 are generally recognized to have been of a more acceptable type of citizen than those of later immigration periods. They were in the main, Anglo-Saxons, having much in common with Americans and cherishing much the same ideals and standards of living. In short, they were assimilable peoples who intermarried with the native born Americans and lost their national distinction in the land they adopted. Thus basing future immigration quotas on the census of 1890 will insure more of this desirable sort of immigrant, and fewer of those nationalities that differ radically from American standards.
Compelling the prospective immigrant to first obtain a certificate from the American consul in his country will do much to prevent aliens sailing for this country only to be denied admission. It will be better for them and better for this country which will be relieved of the burden of annually caring for thousands of ineligible aliens.
It goes without saying that there will be opposition to the new law which has been proposed. Representatives of various nationalistic groups are sure to voice protests. The Nation wants this law, however, and the wise legislator will align himself behind it.” – Bennington Banner.
Another article that ran in the Vermont Standard in 1924 was entitled “Many Aliens Smuggled Over Vermont Border.” During this period, many of these undocumented immigrants were from China. To keep them from entering illegally across the Vermont border, approximately twelve men on motorcycles kept a 24-hour-a-day patrol.
This article notes that for each person from China that was smuggled across Vermont’s border and delivered to either New York City or Boston, on average the smugglers received $1,000. Using an inflation calculator to adjust for inflation over the past century, that would roughly be $18,409 in today’s money. Since most of the newly-arrived migrants did not have money to pay the smugglers upfront, when they were delivered to their destination city, the smuggler’s fee would be paid by a “wealthy Chinese ring.” The newly-arrived migrant was expected to work to pay off the charges, which, according to the article meant very often that the undocumented migrant “enters into virtual slavery for the rest of his life.”
The backstory to this article and others of the period is that many people who had formerly entered Canada from China were prevented from doing so after the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, often referred to as the Chinese Exclusion Act, was passed. This act not only prohibited most immigration from China, but it also mandated that all people who were Chinese – including those who were born in Canada - had to register with the Canadian government. While theoretically the act did allow some Chinese people to legally enter the country, those were from four strictly defined groups: diplomats and governmental representatives, merchants, college students, and those who were of Chinese heritage, but born in Canada, who had left Canada for some reason such as to study abroad. Some estimates indicate that as few as fifteen Chinese immigrants were allowed to legally enter Canada during the period when the Exclusion Act was in effect.
Interestingly, while this act was clearly designed to limit immigration (at least from certain countries) just four years later, on October 4, 1928, the Vermont Standard ran another article on Canadian immigrants. This time the article was entitled “Where Immigrants are Wanted.” This article states, “Canada is seeking immigrants to settle on her unproductive land. She has millions of acres of fertile prairie, now open and wild. It is home makers she is looking for, real pioneers who are ready to suffer some inconveniences and privations in order to win homes for themselves. This means years of hard work, hardships, incidental to opening a new country and people possessed of courage, industry and determination.”
The article goes on to note, “Immigrants of this type are hard to get. The present generation does not produce many of them. Canada wants no other kind so the number of homesteaders she is welcoming are few. During the last fiscal year Canada admitted 151,597 immigrants of the kind she wants. During the same period there were 73,154 Canadians who changed their homeland and crossed the line into the United States. Canada spent large sums getting those 150,000 immigrants, only to lose half the number. This is not making rapid progress towards settling the wild prairie lands. It seems that prospects for hard-working people are better in the States than they are across the line.”
The Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 was eventually repealed in 1947; however, for the twenty-four years that it was in effect (and for decades afterwards) it had a profound impact on the lives of Chinese people living in Canada, including limiting the development of their communities and preventing families from reuniting.
Canada was not the only country to restrict Chinese immigration. The United States had passed its own Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 which narrowly defined which groups of Chinese were allowed to enter the country and prohibited all Chinese immigrants from gaining citizenship. This Act was followed by the Immigration Act of 1924 which also established a national origins quota and excluded all Chinese immigrants.
The New York Times ran an article in April of 1924 with the headline “America of the Melting Pot Comes to End.” In this article, Pennsylvania Senator David Reed commented on the numerical limitation imposed by the new legislation boldly stating “The racial composition of America at the present time thus is made permanent.”
Clearly, Senator Reed did not have a crystal ball, nor do any of us today that would allow us to make definitive assertions about the future of immigration or any other issue that affects how our countries, states, or even towns will evolve.