Part 2

While Congress was developing a more stringent selective policy, immigration increased by leaps and bounds with a shift in the incoming tide from Northern and Western to Southern and Eastern Europeans. Unable to function economically, socially, or politically in their home lands, a steady stream of immigrants was spreading over the United States in answer to the demand for unskilled labor. For more than thirty years, the words of Emma Lazarus, carved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, had vital meaning:

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tost, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

_Checking the Tide_

The endless stream of newcomers, whose economic and political backgrounds differed from those of the earlier immigrants, led to a search for some method of checking the new immigration. With this end in view, the application of a literacy test was advocated. Presidents Cleveland and Taft had vetoed acts which contained this provision and President Wilson twice repudiated it. However, it became part of the General Law of 1917 over presidential objection. In a reference to the immigrants, President Wilson said:

Some of the best stuff in America has come out of foreign lands and some of the best stuff in America is in the men who are naturalized citizens of the United States.

In the meantime, during the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt, a Gentlemen’s Agreement had been made with Japan in 1907, whereby Japan undertook to check the emigration of Japanese laborers to the United States.

Immigration from Europe was largely suspended during the World War, but it rapidly increased thereafter until it was checked by the temporary Quota Limit Law of 1921 and definitely limited by the permanent Quota Limit Law of 1924. By this law, immigration was restricted to 150,000 annually, with quotas allotted to the various nations based on the Census of 1890. In 1929, the quota based on the Census of 1920 went into effect, bringing the total immigration quota to about 153,000 annually.

_Our Present Policy_

The theory that America should be a refuge for the oppressed of all nations has been quite generally honored in shaping our immigration policy. However, the United States is no longer a refuge for the oppressed peoples of all the world in the same way as it was in the past.

Our present policy is that immigration shall be limited to a fixed number, that such immigrants shall be of good character and well disposed toward American institutions. For, in the words of former President Coolidge:

Whether one traces his Americanism back three centuries to the Mayflower or three years to the steerage is not half so important as whether his Americanism today is real and genuine. No matter on what various crafts we came here, we are all now in the same boat.

Ourselves and Our Neighbors

A recent dinner in Chicago with Catholic friends, whose parents came from Italy, a conference with a group of 25 cultured Negro men and women at Chicago University, and a visit in Des Moines, Iowa, with a close personal friend of mine, a rabbi, are a few personal experiences which show in a very real way how a relatively free society enables us to enrich our lives through fellowship with men of different races and religions.

In this Nation, to which more than 38,000,000 immigrants have come during the last 120 years, the struggle of people of all races and of many creeds _has been_ and _is_ consciously toward the goal of human understanding and tolerance. This is an effort to elevate human welfare, irrespective of race, color, or creed; and to rise to new heights of civilization with the help of all contributions to our culture. A distinguishing characteristic of a true American is that he measures men of all races and creeds by their achievement, their honesty of purpose, and their humility.

J. W. STUDEBAKER, _Commissioner of Education_.

The Immigrant and Our Economic Progress

_The greatest wealth of any nation is its people._—ALLEN H. EATON.

To paint an adequate picture of the part which the immigrant has played in the economic progress of the United States, it would be necessary, as Rudyard Kipling says, “to splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comet’s hair.” The industrial and agricultural greatness of the United States has been made possible by the brawn and brain of the immigrants and their children.

_Cotton_

The important part played by the _Negro_ in the agricultural life of the South is nowhere more vividly portrayed than by the story of King Cotton. Cotton production, which amounted to 85,000,000 lb. in 1810, doubled every ten years for the following three decades. By 1840, two-thirds of the world’s cotton supply was produced in the South and, by 1850, cotton valued at $98,000,000 was raised. In 1937-1938, the United States produced four times as much cotton as the rest of the world.

Much of the credit for this amazing achievement goes to the _Negro_ whose labor has been the foundation of our Cotton Kingdom.

_Tobacco_

The story of tobacco is, too, largely the achievement of _Negro_ labor. In 1618, the Virginia planters exported 20 lb. of tobacco, which increased to 1,500,000 lb. in 1639 and reached a total of 53,000,000 lb. in 1773. In 1937, the United States raised more than one-fourth of the world’s tobacco supply.

In addition to his labor in the cotton and tobacco fields, the _Negro_ has also helped to make profitable the production of rice and sugar.

_Railroads_

The railroad played a great part in the settling of the West. With the completion of the Erie Canal, the _Irish_ transferred their energy and labor to building tracks for the transcontinental railroad. The _Chinese_ also labored on the western end. Today, _Irish_, _Chinese_, _Italian_, and _Mexican_ laborers help to maintain the railroads. In 1937, almost one-half the world’s miles of railways were in our country.

_Automobiles_

Natural resources and inventive genius have enabled us to produce each year three times as many automobiles as the rest of the world put together. The work of the _Poles_, _Slavs_, _Mexicans_, and other groups has been an important factor in this phenomenal growth.

_Steel_

Early colonial iron mills were operated by the _Germans_, whose muskets, made in Nazareth, Pa., were used by the continental troops. In later years, the _Poles_ and _Slavs_ have labored in the great steel mills of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and New York. It is the endurance and physical heritage of these sturdy people that have made it possible for us to lead the world in the production of steel.

_Coal_

The _Welsh_ with the _Scotch-Irish_ were the first to develop our coal mines in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. These, together with the _English_, _Irish_, _Germans_, _Poles_, and _Slavs_, have made us the chief coal producer of the world.

_Farming_

Our debt to the _German_ farmer is great, for he made the wilderness blossom in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri. To Minnesota and surrounding states came the _Swedes_, _Norwegians_, and _Finns_ with their advanced cooperative methods and the _Danes_ with their dairy methods.... Sturdy _Czechs_ farmed Nebraska and Iowa. The _Swiss_ in Wisconsin helped us to become the greatest cheesemakers in the world. The _Russians_ brought us important seed varieties of wheat, rye, oats, buckwheat, sunflowers, and millet.

_Finns_ and _French-Canadians_ in the lumber camps of Maine and Washington have made it possible for us to produce more than 24 million board feet of lumber in one year.... _Portuguese_ are prominent in the New England fisheries as are the _Finns_ on the Pacific Coast.... The _Greeks_ have developed a flourishing sponge industry in Florida.... _Italians_ are engaged in the marble quarries of Vermont and on truck farms of New Jersey and California.

Pulling Together—The American Way

_America is made up of the cultural strains of many countries. The mere knowledge of this matchless wealth is an inspiration to anyone who knows it._—ALLEN H. EATON.

Nature has blessed this country with great natural wealth, but immigration has brought us even greater riches in the form of human resources. Andrew Carnegie, himself an immigrant, was well aware of this when he said, “Take away my factories, my railroads, my ships. Take away my money, strip me of all these things, but leave me my men, and in two or three years, I will have everything back again.”

_Priceless Gifts_

Transforming her immigrants as they have come, the United States has, in turn, been enriched and transformed by them. The immigrant has played an important part in our cultural as well as in our economic life. One immigrant, Franklin K. Lane, who became Secretary of the Interior, wrote feelingly of the contributions which the immigrant has made to American life.

Their music—dirge and dance and wassail song, proud march and religious chant, and their instruments for the making of music.

Their poetry—winged tales of man’s many passions, folk songs and psalm, ballads of heroes and tunes of the sea, lilting scraps caught from the sky and field, or mighty dramas that tell of primal struggles of the profoundest meaning.

Their art—fancies of the mind, woven in wood or wool, silk, stone, or metal, rugs and baskets, gates of fine design and modeled gardens, houses and walls, pillars, roofs, windows, statues and painting—their art and handcraft.

Homelike familiar things—a favorite tree or fruit, an accustomed flower, a style in cookery or in costume.

Hands with which to work.

Minds that could conceive.

Hearts filled with home—stout hearts to drive live minds; live minds to direct willing hands.

Irish song and wit, German thrift and industry, Scottish virility and genius, English love of law and order, Scandinavian honesty and love of home, Negro fervor in song and story, Mexican enjoyment of life, Indian customs and traditions, Slavic dance and folk song, neatness and thoroughness of the Netherlanders, Italian love for art and music, and philosophic tendencies of the Oriental for the beautiful, are but a few of the strands that may be found woven into our national pattern.

_The Art of Living Together_

Barriers that once existed between racial and national groups in this country are fast disappearing. Cooperative effort and healthy respect are taking their place. We are “learning to understand other peoples to understand ourselves.” The newcomers brought with them an ardent desire to improve their conditions. They quickly availed themselves of the opportunity which the public school offered them.

The school took “the child of the exile of Hungary, of the half-starved emigrant from the Emerald Isle, and of the hardy Norwegian, and placed them on the same bench with the offspring of those whose ancestors’ bones bleached upon the fields of Lexington.” The library, the church, the motion picture, and radio are also powerful educational agencies in molding the pattern of the New American.

_Milestones of Progress_

The immigrant has always been a firm devotee of the ideals of democracy, for in most cases he has suffered religious, political, military, or other oppression. Even in the United States, democracy did not begin full tilt. But, just as the frontier has been conquered, so too the areas of human rights and freedoms have been extended.

The abolition of slavery, universal suffrage, the grant of full rights of citizenship to women, labor legislation, and property rights have all been milestones in the onward march of democracy.

The immigrant has not been unmindful of the blessings conferred upon him in this country. He has adjusted himself quickly to his new environment. In every crisis, he has faithfully stood by our country and institutions. He has striven to teach his children to love and honor the land which harbors them.

All human history teaches us that the price of human liberty is the continuous enlargement of that liberty. The only safe principle of democracy is justice, equity, and equal respect among all our people. Great unfinished tasks remain for us to solve. Our common loyalty must hold high the torch and pass it on, with fire unquenched, to the citizen of tomorrow.

Recordings of “Americans All—Immigrants All”

Many organizations, churches, schools, and colleges have requested that “Americans All—Immigrants All” be made available in recorded form. The Office of Education, by special arrangement with the Columbia Broadcasting System, the Committee on Scientific Aids to Learning, the American Federation of Musicians, and the Music Authors and Publishers Protective Association, have recordings for non-commercial use in both 33⅓ r.p.m. and 78 r.p.m. (suitable for use on phonographs). For complete information regarding the recordings, write to: _Educational Radio Script Exchange_, Radio Division, Office of Education, Washington, D. C.

Are People Really Different?

“_Democracy means not ‘I’m as good as you are’ but ‘you’re as good as I am.’_”—THEODORE PARKER.

Immigration has made the United States the most composite nation on earth. More peoples of widely different national and racial origins have been brought together and welded into a single political, economic, and social system than anywhere else in the world.

What constitutes a race? Does each race have certain hereditary characteristics which determine its mental life and social behavior? Is there a racial stock which is superior—physically, mentally, and morally—to other racial stocks? Just what differences, if any, exist between those who were born here and those who have adopted this country as their home land?

There is no such person as a native American, nor was there ever such a person if we are to be strictly accurate. We are told that even the American Indian is an immigrant who came from far-off Asia by way of the Bering Straits and Alaska. Our ancestors may have come on the Mayflower or in the steerage, we may be descended from immigrants who settled here generations ago, or we may have come direct from other lands, yet one fact remains crystal clear—WE ARE ALL IMMIGRANTS.

_Physical Characteristics_

From the physical standpoint, races do have certain very definite differences that are obvious. One of the most obvious is that of color. White, black, yellow, red, brown, and yellow-brown are the colors we usually associate with certain racial types. Some of us are tall, blond, and blue-eyed. Others are short, dark, and brown-eyed. Some people have long, narrow heads while others have short, round heads. However, the same physical differences may be found not only between racial and national groups, but also between individuals within the nation, tribe, or family.

_Mental Characteristics_

In answer to the contention that certain racial groups are mentally superior to others, Franz Boas, an outstanding scientist, says, “No one has ever proved that a human being through his descent from a group of people must of necessity have certain mental characteristics.... If we were to select the most intelligent, imaginative, energetic, and emotionally stable third of mankind, all races would be represented.”

Hooton, another scientist, is even more emphatic. He declares that “each racial type runs the gamut from idiots and criminals to geniuses and statesmen. No type produces a majority of individuals from either end of the scale. There are no racial monopolies of either human virtues or vices.”

Carefully controlled intelligence tests given by educators and scientists to different racial groups show that, where environment and social conditions are the same, no group can claim mental superiority. In fact, it has been clearly apparent that “man, everywhere, is basically and fundamentally similar” and that his differences, be they physical, mental, or moral, are determined not by race so much as by the social conditions and opportunities around him.

_Important Findings_

The assimilation of different groups within the United States would seem to show that:

=_1. Under favorable conditions of equal opportunity, all racial groups, whatever their original homeland conditions and status, are capable of rapid social change both as individuals and as groups._=

“It can easily be shown,” says one scientist, “how dependent mental differences are upon social conditions. For instance, exact observations have been made on Negroes who have moved from the country to the city and it has been shown that assimilation of these people to the behavior of the city population takes place within a few years.

“Likewise, it has been shown in the case of Italian immigrants that they grow to resemble the Americans in behavior the longer they have been in this country, provided they do not remain isolated. One of the most instructive illustrations of this assimilation is the ease with which children adopt the dialect and manner of expression of their environment.”

=_2. All groups, under the stimulus of opportunity and contact, have capacity to produce exceptional individuals of high creative ability or genius and thus help build up and perfect human culture._=

The Nordic and Slav, the southern European and Jew, black, white, brown, and yellow have all produced men and women of outstanding brains and genius. To confirm these statements it is only necessary to read, in the pages that follow, the contributions of the immigrant and his descendants to American life.

Research studies, conducted on an objective basis, prove that individual brilliance may be and is, found in all groups.

=_3. Under the influence of a common environment, physical and cultural, the offspring of different racial and national groups in a democracy tend toward a common culture with common customs and ideals._=

John Dewey has emphasized that, “in a democratic society, individuals give freely to others of the peculiar value, essence, quality, and contribution of the group to which they belong, and receive freely the corresponding treasures of other groups, and this without violence to the complete uniqueness of the group.”

At birth, no individual has any culture and so the culture he eventually acquires is the one he finds around him and is capable of assimilating. However, “new conditions bring the need of new ideals and new emphasis on certain aspects of old ideals.” Civilization itself is not only safeguarded but advanced when a nation, composed of many races, finds it possible for each racial group to “function creatively in building the culture of the race into the whole culture pattern.”

=_4. Within the framework of common political and economic institutions, a variety of cultural elements makes for a richer and more active social culture._=

In all history, some of the most advanced civilizations have been the product of a mixture of cultures. No great nations or civilizations have been born in isolation. Inbreeding inevitably results in one-sidedness and, eventually, in stagnation and decadence.

Spain was at its greatest “when the mixture of peoples was at its height.” England grew great because the ingredients of many racial groups ran in the Englishman’s blood. The United States will continue to be great because the intermingling of many groups tends to build a culture or civilization that unifies the best of their contributions.

=_5. A civilization of many different elements develops religious, social, and cultural tolerance. It also creates ability which may permit it to grow and change._=

Immigration from 1820 to 1936

Albania 2,846 Austria and Hungary 4,138,333 Belgium 155,024 Bulgaria 65,424 Czechoslovakia 110,928 Denmark 333,900 Estonia 1,839 Finland 18,310 France 588,023 Germany 5,938,822 Great Britain: England 2,629,335 Scotland 732,587 Wales 86,233 Not Specified 793,741 Greece 427,006 Ireland 4,588,464 Italy 4,692,447 Latvia 3,918 Lithuania 7,166 Luxemburg 854 Netherlands 249,059 Norway and Sweden 2,018,640 Poland 407,366 Portugal 254,499 Rumania 155,496 Russia 3,343,088 Spain 168,913 Switzerland 292,153 Turkey in Europe 155,568 Yugoslavia 53,394 Other Europe 21,309 ---------- TOTAL FROM EUROPE 32,434,685

China 379,982 India 9,704 Japan 277,162 Turkey in Asia 205,317 Other Asia 38,858 ---------- ASIA COMPLETE TOTAL 911,023

Canada and Newfoundland 2,957,422 Mexico 768,453 Central America 46,919 West Indies 438,633 South America 117,649 Other America 40 ---------- AMERICA TOTAL 4,329,116

AFRICA 25,311 AUSTRALIA-NEW ZEALAND 53,739 PACIFIC ISLANDS 10,610 NOT SPECIFIED 254,066 ---------- TOTAL FROM ALL COUNTRIES 38,018,550

_From 1931 to 1938, departures have exceeded admissions by 203,694._

Our Gifts to Science and to Agriculture