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





Pres. Harding

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

JAMES J. DAVIS, SECRETARY OF LABOR
1921-1930
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
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
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
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
“LEAVING THE BACK DOOR OPEN”
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