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INSTRUCTIONS - READ BEFORE YOU START
United States History 11 Q2
Performance Task:
Emergency Immigration Act of 1921
Historical Context:
The Emergency
Immigration Act of 1921, passed on May 19, 1921, limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into
the United States through a national origins quota. The quota provided immigration visas to three
percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the United States based on the 1910
national census. It excluded immigrants from Asia. Congressmen debated
the legislation before it became law. Arguments made by two of these men are included in this task.
Lucian Parrish represented Texas in the House of Representatives; Albert Rossdale represented New
York.
Directions for beginning:
• Preview the writing prompt,
text-based questions, and sources
• Closely read and annotate your sources (with the
text-based questions in mind)
• Respond to the text-based questions #1-5
• Respond to the Writing Prompt
Source #1
April 20, 1921 House of Representatives
#1 Mr. [Lucian Walton] Parrish
[D-Tex.]. We should stop immigration entirely until such a time as we can amend our
immigration laws and so write them that hereafter no one shall be admitted except he be in full
sympathy with our Constitution and laws, willing to declare himself obedient to our flag, and willing
to release himself from any obligations he may owe to the flag of the country from which he came.
#2 It is time that we act now, because
within a few short years the damage will have been done. The endless tide of immigration will have
filled our country with a foreign and unsympathetic element. Those who are out of sympathy with our
Constitution and the spirit of our Government will be here in large numbers, and the true spirit of
Americanism left us by our fathers will gradually become poisoned by this uncertain element.
#3 The time once was when we welcomed
to our shores the oppressed and downtrodden people from all the world, but they came to us because of
oppression at home and with the sincere purpose of making true and loyal American citizens, and in
truth and in fact they did adapt themselves to our ways of thinking and contributed in a substantial
sense to the progress and development that our civilization has made. But that time has passed now;
new and strange conditions have arisen in the countries over there; new and strange doctrines are
being taught. The Governments of the orient are being overturned and destroyed, and anarchy and
bolshevism are threatening the very foundation of many of them and no one can foretell what the
future will bring to many of those countries of the Old World now struggling with these problems.
#4 Our country is a self-sustaining
country. It has taught the principles of real democracy to all the nations of the earth; its flag has
been the synonym of progress, prosperity, and the preservation of the rights of the individual, and
there can be nothing so dangerous as for us to allow the undesirable foreign element to poison our
civilization and thereby threaten the safety of the institutions that our forefathers have
established for us.
#5 Now is the time to throw out this country the most stringent immigration
laws and keep from our shores forever those who are not in sympathy with the American ideas. It is
the time now for us to act and act quickly, because every month’s delay increases the
difficulty in which we find ourselves and renders the problems of government more difficult of
solution. We must protect ourselves from the poisonous influences that are threatening the very
foundation of the Governments of Europe; we must see to it that those who come here are loyal and
true to our Nation and impress upon them that it means something to have the privileges of American
citizenship. We must hold this country true to the American thought and the American ideals.
#6 Mr. [Albert B.] Rossdale [R-N.Y.]. Will the
gentleman yield to me one minute of his time to allow me to correct a statement in his speech of the
gentleman from Texas [Mr. Parrish]?
#7 Mr. Raker. I yield to the gentleman one
minute.
#8 Mr. Rossdale. Mr. Chairman, the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Parrish] has
stated that the indications are that 2,000,000 or possibly more people will enter the United States
in the coming year. The estimated steamship facilities for bringing people from all over the world
for a year are 809,000. Now why this hysteria? The gentleman also assumes that all of these people
over there are antagonistic to American ideals and interests. Has the gentleman ever come in contact
with a lot of these immigrants and does he really know that they are of that type? I come from the
Bronx, where there are a great deal of these so-called foreigners, and I have an intimate knowledge
of their political opinions and ideals, and I can say to the gentleman from Texas that if he had even
a speaking acquaintance with them he would quickly learn that they breathe purer and higher ideals
than he had any previous knowledge of. I invite the gentleman from Texas to come to the Bronx and
find out for himself what splendid American citizens they make. [Applause]
http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/immigration.html
“The endless tide
of immigration will have filled our country with a foreign and unsympathetic element. Those who are
out of sympathy with our Constitution and the spirit of our Government will be here in large numbers,
and the true spirit of Americanism left us by our fathers will gradually become poisoned by this
uncertain element.”
Lucian Parrish
[D-Tex.]
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Source #2
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