Immigration Restriction League

Immigration to the US Resources | Other Resources

Immigration Restriction League (US). Constitution of the Immigration Restriction League. Boston, Mass.: Immigration Restriction League, 189-.

Founded in 1894 by three young Harvard College graduates, Charles Warren, Robert DeCourcy Ward, and Prescott Farnsworth Hall, the Immigration Restriction League (IRL) advocated a literacy requirement as a means to limit immigration into the United States. Watching with anxiety as immigration increased sharply in the 1880s and 1890s, League members had lost faith in the nation's ability to assimilate newcomers into its political, social, and cultural fabric. They associated immigration with the socio-economic problems of their increasingly urban and industrialized society—crowded tenements, poverty, crime and delinquency, labor unrest, and violence. In particular, League members made a distinction between the "old immigrants" of English, Irish, and German stock and the "new immigrants" from Italy and Eastern Europe. They claimed that these recently arrived "undesirables" were inherently unable to participate in self-government or to adopt American values. Many League spokesmen came to identify with the eugenics movement, which found a pseudo-scientific basis for the classification and ranking of ethnic and racial groups.

From its Boston origins, the Immigration Restriction League spread to other large cities, including New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, and it recruited new members, many of them prominent scholars and philanthropists. The local leagues affiliated into the national Association of Immigration Restriction Leagues, and founder Prescott F. Hall served as its General Secretary from 1896 to 1921. League members wrote books, pamphlets, and numerous newspaper and journal articles to alert the public to the dangers of the immigrant flood tide, and they also hired political lobbyists to pressure members of Congress to support the literacy test.

Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, an early supporter of the League, served as a powerful political ally for over 20 years. In 1896, Congress passed his literacy bill, which specified the ability to read at least 40 words in any language as a requirement for admission to the country, but President Grover Cleveland vetoed it as contrary to traditional American policy and values. Although re-introduced repeatedly, the proposal failed to become law until 1917, when Congress overrode President Woodrow Wilson's third veto. After World War I, the number of immigrants, including those from Eastern and Southern Europe, remained high despite the literacy test, and the influence of the Immigration Restriction League declined. Nonetheless, sentiment for restriction remained strong, and, in the 1920s, Congress passed a series of even more stringent measures that limited total immigration and established quotas for specific national groups, with preference for the "old immigrants" from Northern and Western Europe.

^ TOP

Immigration to the US Resources

Listed below are digital resources from the Immigration to the US collection by, about, or related to the Immigration Restriction League. These resources represent only a selection of what exists on these topics. More physical materials on these topics may be available at the owning repositories, some of which are open to the public.

Manuscripts

Immigration Restriction League (US). Records, 1893-1921. Included here:

Series: I. Correspondence to and from the IRL. B. Circular letters.
Replies from states across the country to the League's public opinion poll. Arranged by date.

(1046) Circular letters : 1898-1907. Jan. 25. 1 folder
(1047) Circular letters : 1908-1914. 1 folder
(1048) Circular letters : 1915-1919. 1 folder
(1049) Circular letters : undated. 1 folder
(1049a) Replies to circular letters : 1904-1905. 1 folder

Series: II. Record books of the IRL.
This series contains four bound volumes that are record books of the internal workings of the League. Three of the volumes are the minutes of meetings of the executive committee from 1894 to 1920. The minutes generally include date, place, and attendees of the meetings, votes taken, reports by committee members, and notes on the meetings' discussions. The fourth volume is a ledger book recording income and expenditures from 1910 to 1917, entered by date, including the name of contributor or recipient of funds.

fMS (1050) Immigration Restriction League. Minutes of meetings of the executive committee of the IRL (Vol. 1), 1894-1902 (1894 May-1902 Dec.). 1 v. 35 x 22 cm. Charles Warren, secretary, 1894 May 31 - 1896 Mar. 13; Prescott F. Hall after 1896 Mar 13.
fMS (1051) Immigration Restriction League. Minutes of meetings of the executive committee of the IRL (Vol. 2), 1903-1910 (1903 Jan.-1910 Mar.). 1 v. 35 x 22 cm.
MS (1052) Immigration Restriction League. Minutes of meetings of the executive committee of the IRL (Vol. 3), 1903-1920 (1903 Apr.-1920 Apr.). 1 v. 27 x 22 cm. 61st Congress 2nd session to 66 Congress 2nd session.
MS (1053) Immigration Restriction League. Financial ledger, 1910-1917 (1910 Jan.-1917 Feb.). 1 v. 20 x 14 cm.

Series: III. Scrapbook.

MS [Shelved with v.1 (1110)] (1054) Immigration Restriction League. Scrapbook, 1896-1898. 2 v.

This series consists of one bound volume and one folder of loose sheets (removed from the volume), forming a scrapbook containing correspondence, clippings, and resolutions signed by outside organizations favoring immigration restriction.

Publications

Eliot, Charles William. Views of Charles W. Eliot and Andrew Carnegie Opposing Restriction of Immigration: Remarks of Honorable William S. Bennet of New York. Washington: s.n., 1911.

Grose, Howard B. Aliens or Americans? New York: Young People’s Missionary Movement, c1906.

Hall, Prescott Farnsworth. Immigration and its Effects Upon the United States. New York: H. Holt, 1908.

Immigration Restriction League. Constitution of the Immigration Restriction League. Boston, Mass.: Immigration Restriction League, 189-.

The Italians in Chicago.Washington: G.P.O., 1904.

Ragsdale, Martha. The National Origins Plan of Immigration Restriction. Nashville: s.n.,1928.

Regulation and Restriction of Output. Washington: G.P.O., 1904.

Restriction of Immigration. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1924.

Restriction of Immigration: Question, Resolved, That Immigration to the United States Should be Further Restricted: A Debate Bulletin. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma, 1922.

Schulteis, Herman. Report on European Immigration to the United States of America: And the Causes which Incite the Same: With Recommendations for the Further Restriction of Undesirable Immigration and the Establishment of A National Quarantine. Washington: G.P.O., 1893.

Selected Articles on Immigration. New York: Wilson, 1920 [i.e. 1921].

United States. Japanese Immigration Legislation: Hearings before the Committee on Immigration, United States Senate, Sixty-Eighth Congress, First Session, on S. 2576, A Bill to Limit the Immigration of Aliens into the United States, and for other Purposes, March 11, 12, 13, and 15, 1924. Washington: G.P.O., 1924.

United States. Quarantine Laws of the United States: State and National Washington: Dept. of State, 1887.

United States Senate: Committee on Immigration. Digest of immigration laws and decisions, compiled by Chapman W. Maupin.Washington: G.P.O., 1899.

United States Senate: Industrial Commission. Hearings Before the Industrial Commission on the Subject of Immigration in Pursuance of an Act of Congress Authorizing the Appointment of a Nonpartisan Commission to Collate Information and to Consider and Recommend Legislation to Meet the Problems Presented by Labor, Agriculture, and Capital, Approved June 18, 1898.Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 1899.

Warne, Frank Julian. The Tide of Immigration. New York: D. Appleton, 1916.

Finding Aids

Harvard University. Immigration Restriction League (U.S.) Records: Guide.

^ TOP

Other Resources

Listed below are web sites about, or related to, the Immigration Restriction League. These resources are listed to point users to further information outside the context of the Immigration to the US collection. The Open Collections Program and Harvard University bear no responsibility for the contents of these web sites. This list is not intended to be comprehensive.

Digital History: "Immigration Restriction"

From Revolution to Reconstruction...And What Happened Afterwards: "A Nation of Nations."

^ TOP