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Leeds Thesis Template View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by White Rose E-theses Online The Political Regulation of Immigration in the United States, 1894- 1924 Robert Júlio Decker Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy - History The University of Leeds School of History February 2012 - ii - The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. © 2012 The University of Leeds and Robert Júlio Decker - iii - Acknowledgements This project would not have been possible without scholarships granted by the School of History, University of Leeds; the Worldwide Universities Network; the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C.; the German Academic Exchange Service; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the Library of the John-F.- Kennedy Institute, Free University Berlin; the Royal Historical Society and the Economic History Society. I need to thank many people who helped me along the way: The helpful staff at the National Archives, the Houghton Library, the Boston Public Library, the New York Public Library, the New York Historical Society, and the American Philosophical Society. Kate Dossett and Simon Hall for reading through endless pages of only slightly alternating versions, for countless letters of reference, for pointing me in the right direction, great advice and for their patience which I tried many times. Norbert Finzsch, Michaela Hampf and Gudrun Löhrer for their advice, letters of reference, support and encouragement. Heike Bungert, Olaf Stieglitz, Massimo Perinelli and Ralph Jessen for shaping my education. Matt Wray, Marilyn Lake, Warwick Anderson, Matthew Connelly, Jason MacDonald and many others at various conferences and workshops for their helpful comments. Jonathan Spiro, Joel Perlmann, Marion Smith and Vincent Cannato for their willingness to answer my questions. Shona Hunter and Maddy Abbas for shared efforts and helpful criticism. Paul Bedingfield, Neal Haddaway, Pete Talboys, Lucy Strawford, Emma Burke, Alice Malek Ebrahimian, Sophie Forrest, Josh Neve, Marta del Bianco, Jolyon Faria, Charlotte Manthey, Freia Muehlenbein, Cäcilia Janzen, Fabian Frenzel and many others for making Leeds a place I loved. Catherine Coombs, Andrew Hogan, Peter Whitewood, Louise Seaward, Rachael Johnson, Vincent Hirribaren, Henry Irving, Alex Lock and Dragan Bakic for the excellent company in the PhD office and elsewhere. - iv - Sönke Bauck for being a faithful friend. Maren Hohensträter for getting off at the same stops. Klaas Melcher, Claudius Grimme, Jan Kehler, Rembert Wohlers, Steffen Hauck, Katharina Friesen, Kathi Withelm, Veronika Herder, Boris Wiedmann and many others for making Berlin a great place to live. Special shout- out to Beeke Melcher for reminding me how helpful it can be to be silly. Keep it dies|das! Nick Grant for last-minute help. Tom Davies for the endurance to proofread this thesis and loads of shared fun. Say Burgin for many great conversations about dead and living racists and shared endeavours in whiteness studies and life. Eva Bischoff for relentless criticism, great advice and encouragement and her priceless way of thinking. Elisabeth Engel for helping me crystallize. Music that saved my life, sanity and mood so many times. My family for their love and support over all the years. - v - Abstract This thesis analyzes the role of the Immigration Restriction League in the political regulation of immigration in United States between 1894 and 1924. The League promoted the exclusion of the so-called new immigrants, assumed to be not ‘fully white’ and therefore inferior to Anglo-Saxons. Similar to other progressive movements, the League’s activities included the scientific investigation of a problem, the creation of public awareness and, eventually, the implementation of solution through legislation and government agencies. Based on a wide range of source material, the thesis investigates the IRL’s engagement in the racialization of the new immigrants, its interaction with eugenicists, other progressive reformers and state agencies involved in research on immigrants and border control. The League’s activities are interpreted as a biopolitical and governmental project at the intersection of political self-regulation, the construction of racial identities and the increasing power of the modern nation-state to control and regulate the population. The thesis argues that the IRL can be understood as an example for a changing mode of power in the progressive era that relied on its citizens’ participation in the optimization of the state. Since the League equated the American state with the supposedly superior Anglo-Saxon race, it concentrated on informing other white citizens of the putative racial threat posed by the new immigration. Compiling and interpreting statistical data, the IRL argued that new immigrants were more likely to be criminal, insane or paupers due to inherent racial characteristics. It thus appealed to citizens, educators, scientists, reformers and politicians to engage in the protection from this threat, resulting in stricter border controls, the passage of a literacy test and the establishment of the quota system. - vi - Table of Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................... iii Abstract ...................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ..................................................................................................... vi Part I: The Racial Discourse and the Immigration Restriction League .............. 1 1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 2 2. The discursive framework ............................................................................ 20 2.1 Scientific racism and racial differentiation .................................... 20 2.2 The emergence of the Anglo-Saxon .................................................. 25 2.3 The emergence of the new immigrant and race suicide .................... 32 3. Progressives, the IRL and racialization ........................................................ 49 3.1 The pattern of Progressivism ............................................................ 49 3.2 Progressives and immigration ........................................................... 59 3.3 The IRL as progressive movement ................................................... 64 3.3.1 Founding the League ............................................................. 64 3.3.2 Investigating the problem ...................................................... 70 3.3.3 Proposing a solution .............................................................. 72 3.4 The campaign for the literacy test, 1894-1897.................................. 78 3.4.1 Racial difference ................................................................... 80 3.4.2 Labour, politics and gender ................................................... 82 3.4.3 Poverty, criminality and insanity .......................................... 87 3.5 The literacy test debate in Congress.................................................. 90 3.6 Keeping up the fight .......................................................................... 99 3.7 Defeat: the Immigration Acts of 1903 and 1907 ............................. 107 Part II: Knowledge and Control .......................................................................... 110 4. The eugenic rationale ................................................................................. 111 4.1 Aims, measures and organizations .................................................. 114 4.2 The Eugenics Record Office, family studies, and deviance............ 117 4.3 Eugenics and immigration restriction ............................................. 123 5. The Dillingham Commission ..................................................................... 134 5.1 The Reports of the Commission ...................................................... 141 5.1.1 Deviance .............................................................................. 144 5.1.2 Social effects and assimilation ............................................ 146 - vii - 5.1.3 Economic effects of immigration ........................................ 150 5.1.4 Racial immigration restriction in the Anglosphere ............. 152 5.2 The restrictionist and the pro-immigrant discourse ........................ 156 5.2.1 The IRL and the NLIL in the early years of the Commission ........................................................................ 156 5.2.2 The statements submitted to the Commission ..................... 160 5.2.3 The Fight over the recommendations .................................. 170 6. Regulation at the Border ............................................................................ 176 6.1 Inspection at Ellis Island ................................................................. 179 6.2 Racial classification ........................................................................ 186 6.3 Predicting immigrants’ future: LPC and poor physique ................. 189 6.4 The menace of the feebleminded immigrant
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