The Immigration Restriction League was an American nativist and

anti-immigration Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, has become a significant political ideology in many countries. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory ...

organization founded by

Charles Warren General Sir Charles Warren, (7 February 1840 – 21 January 1927) was an officer in the British Royal Engineers. He was one of the earliest European archaeologists of the Biblical Holy Land, and particularly of the Temple Mount. Much of his mi ...

Robert DeCourcy Ward Robert DeCourcy Ward (November 29, 1867 – November 12, 1931) was an American climatologist, author, educator and leading eugenics and immigration reform advocate in the early 20th Century. He became the first ever professor of climatology in the ...

, and Prescott F. Hall in 1894. According to

Erika Lee Erika Lee is the Rudolph J. Vecoli Chair and Director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota and an award-winning non-fiction writer. Early life Lee is the granddaughter of Chinese immigrants. She grew up in t ...

, in 1894 the old stock Yankee upper-class founders of the League were, “convinced that Anglo-Saxon traditions, peoples, and culture were being drowned in a flood of racially inferior foreigners from Southern and Eastern Europe.” Established during a period of increasing anti-immigration sentiment in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, the League was founded by

Boston Brahmin The Boston Brahmins or Boston elite are members of Boston's traditional upper class. They are often associated with Harvard University; Anglicanism; and traditional Anglo-American customs and clothing. Descendants of the earliest English colonis ...

s such as

Henry Cabot Lodge Henry Cabot Lodge (May 12, 1850 November 9, 1924) was an American Republican politician, historian, and statesman from Massachusetts. He served in the United States Senate from 1893 to 1924 and is best known for his positions on foreign policy. ...

with the purpose of preventing immigrants from southern and

eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

from immigrating to the U.S. due to a belief that they were racially inferior to

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

and

northern Europeans The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe Northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other g ...

. The League argued that the

American way of life The American way of life or the American way refers to the American nationalist ethos that adheres to the principle of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. At the center of the American way is the belief in an American Dream that is claim ...

was threatened by immigration from these regions, and lobbied Washington to pass anti-immigration legislation restricting the entry of what they perceived as "undesirable" immigrants in order to uphold

Old Stock Americans Old Stock Americans, Pioneer Stock, or Colonial Stock are Americans who are descended from the original settlers of the Thirteen Colonies of mostly British ancestry who emigrated to British America in the 17th and the 18th centuries. These Old ...

hegemony. The league was founded in Boston, and soon had branches in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. It attracted hundreds of prominent scholars and philanthropists and other establishment figures, mostly from the New England social and academic elite. An umbrella group, the National Association of Immigration Restriction Leagues was created in 1896, and one of the founders of the original League, Prescott F. Hall, served as its general secretary from 1896 until his death in 1921. The League used books, pamphlets, meetings, and numerous newspaper and journal articles to promote their campaign of anti-immigrationism and eugenics. As the first American anti-immigrant think tank, The League also started to employ lobbyists in Washington after 1900 and built a broad anti-immigrant coalition consisting of patriotic societies, farmers' associations, Southern and New England legislators, and eugenicists who supported the League's goals. Active in lobbying for the passage of what became the

Immigration Act of 1917 The Immigration Act of 1917 (also known as the Literacy Act and less often as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act) was a United States Act that aimed to restrict immigration by imposing literacy tests on immigrants, creating new categories of inadmissib ...

, The League disbanded after Hall's death in 1921.

Demands

Numerical limitation

On April 8, 1918, the League introduced a bill into the Congress to increase the restriction of immigration by means of numerical limitation. The goal of this bill, called "An Act to regulate the immigration of aliens to, and the residence in, the United States," was to reduce as much as possible the number of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe while increasing the number of immigrants from Northern and Western Europe who the League thought were people with kindred values. The bill provided for these reductions:

Increase of the duty on alien passengers

The bill asked for an increase of the duty paid by alien passengers to enter the United States from two to five dollars. It excluded the citizens of the United States,

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Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. The League demanded an increase in duty in order to properly support and maintain the inspection and deportation of immigrants. Among other things, the funds obtained from the increase in duty would be used for: * Enlargement of immigrant stations * The development and perfecting of the service along the Mexico–US and Canada–US borders. * More immigration inspectors * Enlarged immigration office facilities With this bill, the League also hoped to diminish the immigration of people from the poorer countries, who were considered less beneficial for the United States.

Additions to the excluded classes

The National Conference on Immigration, held in New York, proposed to add imbeciles, feeble-minded persons, and epileptics to the excluded classes. Persons of poor physique were more susceptible to diseases because of the unsanitary places where they lived. The Bill also demanded an extension of fines to

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

companies for bringing

imbeciles The term ''imbecile'' was once used by psychiatrists to denote a category of people with moderate to severe intellectual disability, as well as a type of criminal.Fernald, Walter E. (1912). ''The imbecile with criminal instincts.'' Fourth editi ...

feeble-minded The term feeble-minded was used from the late 19th century in Europe, the United States and Australasia for disorders later referred to as illnesses or deficiencies of the mind. At the time, ''mental deficiency'' encompassed all degrees of educa ...

persons,

insane Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to ...

persons or

epileptics This is a list of notable people who have, or had, the medical condition epilepsy. Following from that, there is a short list of people who have received a speculative, retrospective diagnosis of epilepsy. Finally there is a substantial list ...

into the U.S.

Prevention of unlawful landing

Previously, transportation companies were only asked to exercise care not to transport illegal immigrants into the United States when returning home from Europe. This bill ordered transportation companies to prevent the landing of "undesirable aliens".

Deportation of public charges

It was a law that would allow deportation of immigrants who entered the United States in violation of law and those becoming public charges from causes arising prior to their landing. Furthermore, it stated that the company that provided the transportation of such individuals would pay half the cost of their removal to the port of deportation.

Literacy test

The IRL made common cause with blue collar workers in labor unions in advocating a literacy requirement as a means to limit poorly-educated immigrants who would lower the wage scale. Potential immigrants had to be able to read their own language. Congress passed the literacy bill for the first time in 1896, which set the ability to read at least 40 words in any

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

as a requirement for admission to the United States. President

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...

vetoed that bill in 1897. President

William Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

also vetoed a literacy test in 1913. Again in 1915, President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

vetoed such a bill. But in 1917 Congress overrode Wilson's veto and instituted the first literacy requirement for

naturalization Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

as part of the Immigration Act of 1917. The law stated that immigrants over 16 years of age should read 30 to 80 words in ordinary use in any language. The test however proved to be largely irrelevant, as literacy rates by the late 1910s had improved dramatically in southern and eastern Europe; furthermore, the most radical (and most dreaded) immigrants often turned out to be the most literate ones.

Notable members and officers

George F. Edmunds George Franklin Edmunds (February 1, 1828February 27, 1919) was a Republican U.S. Senator from Vermont. Before entering the U.S. Senate, he served in a number of high-profile positions, including Speaker of the Vermont House of Representative ...

, founding member * John Fiske, founding member * Frank B. Gary *

Madison Grant Madison Grant (November 19, 1865 – May 30, 1937) was an American lawyer, zoologist, anthropologist, and writer known primarily for his work as a eugenicist and conservationist, and as an advocate of scientific racism. Grant is less noted f ...

, vice president * Prescott Farnsworth Hall, executive secretary * Henry Holt (publisher), publisher * Joseph Lee, vice president *

, senator *

Robert Treat Paine Robert Treat Paine (March 11, 1731 – May 11, 1814) was an American lawyer, politician and Founding Father of the United States who signed the Continental Association and the Declaration of Independence as a representative of Massachusetts. ...

, founding member * James H. Patten, secretary in Washington, D.C. *

Nathaniel Shaler Nathaniel Southgate Shaler (February 20, 1841 – April 10, 1906) was an American paleontologist and geologist who wrote extensively on the theological and scientific implications of the theory of evolution. Biography Born to a slave-holding fa ...

, founding member *

Francis Amasa Walker Francis Amasa Walker (July 2, 1840 – January 5, 1897) was an American economist, statistician, journalist, educator, academic administrator, and an officer in the Union Army. Walker was born into a prominent Boston family, the son of the econo ...

, vice president *

, founder *

Owen Wister Owen Wister (July 14, 1860 – July 21, 1938) was an American writer and historian, considered the "father" of western fiction. He is best remembered for writing '' The Virginian'' and a biography of Ulysses S. Grant. Biography Early life ...

, novelist

Notes

Sources and further reading

* Barkan, Elliott Robert. ''And Still They Come: Immigrants and American Society, 1920 to the 1990s'' (Harlan Davidson, 1996), * Decker, Julio. "Citizenship and its Duties: The Immigration Restriction League as Progressive Movement", in ''Immigrants & Minorities'', v. 32, 2 (2014), 162–182 * Decker, Julio. "The Transnational Biopolitics of Whiteness and Immigration Restriction in the United States, 1894–1924", in Norbert Finzsch, Ursula Lehmkuhl, Eva Bischoff (eds.): ''Provincializing the United States: Colonialism, Decolonization and (Post)Colonial Governance in Transnational Perspective'', (2014) 121–153 * Gratton, Brian. "Race or Politics? Henry Cabot Lodge and the Origins of the Immigration Restriction Movement in the United States." ''Journal of Policy History'' 30.1 (2018): 128-157. * Higham, John. "Origins of immigration restriction, 1882-1897: A social analysis." ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'' 39.1 (1952): 77-88
online
* Higham, John. ''Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860–1925 (Rutgers University Press, 1955) * Lee, Erika. ''America for Americans a history of xenophobia in the United States'' (2019
excerpt
* McSeveney, Samuel. "Immigrants, the Literacy Test, and Quotas: Selected American History College Textbooks' Coverage of the Congressional Restriction of European Immigration, 1917–1929," in ''The History Teacher'', v. 21 (1987), 41–51 * Solomon, Barbara Miller. ''Ancestors and Immigrants: A Changing New England Tradition'' (1956), the standard history of the League * Tichenor, Daniel J. ''Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control in America'' (2002) * Vought, Hans P. ''The Bully Pulpit and the Melting Pot'' (Mercer University Press, 2004), External links: *Harvard College Library
Immigration Restriction League (U.S.) records
*Eugenics Archive

Primary sources

*Robert DeC. Ward
"Open Letters: An Immigration Restriction League"
in ''The Century'', v. 49 (1895), 639–40, accessed Jan. 3, 2010 *U.S. Department of State

accessed Jan. 3, 2010 *Harvard University Library
Constitution of the Immigration Restriction League
accessed Jan. 3, 2010 *Immigration Restriction League

Boston, Massachusetts: Immigration Restriction League 189– *Howard B. Grose

New York:

Young People's Missionary Movement Young People's Missionary Movement of the United States and Canada (commonly, Young People's Missionary Movement, or simply, Movement) was an American publisher of Christian missionary educational literature and provider of missionary studies throu ...

, c. 1906 *Prescott Farnsworth Hall
''Immigration and Its Effects upon the United States''
New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1906