CPB IL GBH 2020
The Debate Over “New” Immigration

Congress Debates the Johnson-Reed Act

In Congress, the proposed Johnson-Reed Act was passionately debated. Read the excerpts from two different Congressional speeches, one opposed to the act, and one in favor of it. Then answer the questions that follow.

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Senator Ellison DuRant Smith of South Carolina
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I think that we have sufficient stock in America now for us to shut the door, Americanize what we have, and save the resources of America for the natural increase of our population. . .

Who is an American? . . . If you were to go abroad and some one were to meet you and say, “I met a typical American,” what would flash into your mind as a typical American, the typical representative of that new Nation? Would it be the son of an Italian immigrant, the son of a German immigrant, the son of any of the breeds from the Orient, the son of the denizens of Africa? . .

Thank God we have in America perhaps the largest percentage of any country in the world of the pure, unadulteratedAnglo-Saxon stock; certainly the greatest of any nation in the Nordic breed. It is for the preservation of that splendid stock that has characterized us that I would make this not an asylum for the oppressed of all countries, but a country to assimilate and perfect that splendid type of manhood that has made America the foremost Nation in her progress and in her power, and yet the youngest of all the nations.

Speech by Ellison DuRant Smith, April 9, 1924, Congressional Record, 68th Congress, 1st Session (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1924), vol. 65, 5961–5962.

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Representative Robert H. Clancy of Michigan
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Much of the animus against Poland and Russia, old and new, . . . is directed against the Jew.

We have many American citizens of Jewish descent in Detroit, tens of thousands of them—active in every profession and every walk of life. They are particularly active in charities and merchandising. One of our greatest judges, if not the greatest, is a Jew. Surely no fair-minded person with a knowledge of the facts can say the Jews or Detroit are a menace to the city’s or the country’s well-being. . . .

Forty or fifty thousand Italian -Americans live in my district in Detroit. They are found in all walks and classes of life—common hard labor, the trades, business, law, medicine, dentistry, art, literature, banking, and so forth. . . . They rapidly become Americanized, build homes, and make themselves into good citizens. . . . One finds them by thousands digging streets, sewers, and building foundations, and in the automobile and iron and steel fabric factories of various sorts. They do the hard work that the native-born American dislikes. . . . The Italian-Americans of Detroit played a glorious part in the Great War. They showed themselves as patriotic as the native born in offering the supreme sacrifice.

Speech by Robert H. Clancy, April 8, 1924, Congressional Record, 68th Congress, 1st Session (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1924), vol. 65, 5929–5932.

Questions

1. Why do you believe Senator Smith uses language like stock, natural increase, breeds, pure, unadulterated? What does his use of these words tell you about the criteria by which he judges others?

2. Senator Smith asks what would flash into your mind if you were asked to describe a typical American, “the typical representative of that new Nation.” How would he answer that question? How would you answer that question?

1. What arguments and evidence does Rep. Clancy present in support of Jewish immigrants?

2. What arguments and evidence does Rep. Clancy present in support of Italian immigrants?

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