From the 1946 book, The Building of Our Nation.

Had you ever thought of this? Can you imagine your family selling all of its goods and setting out on a long journey across thousands of miles, over land and over ocean, and finally arriving in a new world? Can you imagine finding yourself among strange people who speak a different language, who have different customs and ways of living, who dress differently, and who have a different system of government?

Think of the task, and the adventure, you would experience in going to school, in learning an entirely new language before you could talk to the people, in making friends. Think what it would take to become a part of your new country— its customs, its thoughts, its ideals.

Your father would have to find work, and he would have to search among people who did not know his language. He would have to find a place to live. And he would have to decide these things when he knew nothing of the geography, nothing of the location of cities, of rivers, of mountains, or of farming country.

Problems of this kind were faced by millions of people who poured into the United States for three hundred years. Not only English, Irish, German, and Scandinavian people, but Slavs, Serbs, Poles, Russians, Italians, Hungarians, Chinese and Japanese came in great numbers. And all learned and worked and built in their effort to become part of the country they had adopted and to make their great adventure a success. Some people easily became American citizens; for others this was more difficult.

This chapter discusses the important role these immigrants played in the building of our country. It is divided into four sections: (1) the importance of immigration, (2) the “old” and the “new” immigration, (3) putting up the bars, and (4) immigrant contributions.

1. The Importance of Immigration

The Debt of America to Immigration. The United States is wonderfully rich in its natural resources of soil and forest and water, of coal and iron ore and oil and precious metals. It is just as rich in its human resources, in the various races, or kinds of people, that make up the American nation. For three hundred years this New World nation attracted to its shores the most courageous, most adventurous, and most ambitious men and women of every Old World nation.

For three hundred years emigrants from the Old World brought to America not only their high hopes and their stout hearts and their willing hands, but also their languages and literatures, their arts and their religions. The character and culture of all the European peoples have here been blended into one people and have made what we call American character and American culture. For this contribution to the nation, America was in debt to European immigrants. In payment of this debt, America offered to European peoples an opportunity for a better life.

The Meaning of Immigration in American History. Immigration is, indeed, an important factor in American history. From the beginning to the present, our history has been a record of how Europeans changed to fit into American conditions and surroundings. For over three centuries, now, this process has gone on. Those who are proud of a long line of American forefathers sometimes forget that all Americans are either themselves immigrants or descendants of men and women who were immigrants. The first Englishmen who landed on the low shores of Virginia or at Plymouth Rock, the Dutch who came to New Amsterdam, and the Swedes who came to the banks of the Delaware, were all immigrants. They all went through the same experience of pulling up their roots in one country and putting down roots in another country. They all had to fit themselves in some way to a new set of surroundings, to new tasks, and new opportunities in a new world.

The experience of becoming Americans changed with the passing years. The problems which the English immigrant faced in the seventeenth century were very different from the problems which the German immigrant faced in the nineteenth century or the Italian immigrant in the twentieth century. Although the problems changed, there was still the same pulling up of roots in one country and planting them in another. There was still the same experience of becoming Americans in habits, customs, and character. The reasons, too, which drew the seventeenth-century Englishman, the nineteenth-century German, the twentieth-century Italian, to the New World were not very different. In nearly every case there was the same desire of the immigrant to improve his position in life, to make a place for himself and for his children in a new and better world.

The Numbers of Immigrants. In the one hundred fifty years since the founding of the American Republic, more than thirty-eight million immigrants have come to the United States. In some years, the stream of immigration ran strong and full; in others it thinned out to a mere trickle; but it has never entirely stopped.

Where the Immigrants Came From. From time to time, the countries which poured immigrants into the main stream changed. In the early years the streams from the British Isles were the broadest. Later British immigrants were fewer, and the streams from Germany and the Scandinavian countries flowed more swiftly. Still later, the broadest and deepest streams had their sources in the nations of southern and eastern Europe, that is, in Italy, Austria-Hungary, Poland, and Russia.

Nor can we forget that black stream which flowed for two hundred years from the shores of Africa to the New World, nor that thin yellow trickle which brought over half a million Orientals from China and Japan. The largest number of immigrants have come from the British Isles—about nine million in all. Of these the Irish have been far more numerous than the English or the Scotch or the Welsh. The second largest contribution has come from Germany. During the nineteenth century she sent about five million of her sons and daughters to the New World. Close on the heels of the British Isles and Germany come Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. And the three little Scandinavian countries—Norway, Sweden, and Denmark—contributed almost two and one-half million persons.

In spite of these large numbers of immigrants, there have never been more than fifteen foreign-born Americans in every one hundred inhabitants. At the present time the proportion is only about ten to one hundred.

Why the Immigrants Came. These millions and millions of men and women who crowded so eagerly into the United States came for reasons not hard to understand. Some came because they wanted to live in a land where people were free and equal. They wanted that democracy which was denied to them in the Old World. This was true of many of the Germans who came over in the 1840’s and the 1850’s. Some came for religious reasons. Because they were persecuted in their old homes, they came to find a place where they could worship as they chose. This was true of many of the Jews who fled to America at the end of the last century. But the great majority, year after year, came because times were hard at home. They thought that in this new world of opportunity and wealth, they might do better and be happier.

The United States welcomed these immigrants. And throughout the years, until very recent times, Americans welcomed these throngs of immigrants who added so much to the wealth and skill and strength of the nation. All through the nineteenth century the United States needed workers to labor in the mills and the mines, and farmers to plow the broad lands of the West. This welcome found expression in a popular ballad of an earlier time:

Of all the mighty nations in the East or in the West,
This glorious Yankee nation is the greatest and the best;
We have room for all creation, and our banner is unfurled,
Here’s a general invitation to the people of the world.
Come along, come along, make no delay,
Come from every nation, come from every, way;
Our lands are broad enough, don’t be alarmed,
For Uncle Sam is rich enough to give us all a farm.

2. The “Old” and the “New” Immigration

The “Old” Immigration. For one hundred years, from 1780 to 1880, the races of people that made up the Americans were, on the whole, the same. During this entire period the American population consisted chiefly of people who had recently come, or whose ancestors had come, from England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries. There was also a sprinkling of French, Dutch, Swiss, and others.

In the 1840’s the Irish came over in immense numbers, driven from Ireland by famine and by the way they were oppressed. In the 1850’s and the 1860’s many Germans began to come. The immigration from Norway and Sweden took on large proportions in the 1870’s.

Most of the immigrants from Germany and Scandinavia went west and took up farming. There were large colonies of Germans in Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and Texas, while Wisconsin was for a time almost a German state. The Norwegians and Swedes, too, were drawn to the rich farm in land of the West. They settled thickly in Iowa, Minnesota Nebraska, and the Dakotas.

The Irish, however, scattered widely throughout the North, most of them preferring to linger in the cities rather than to go to the farms. Soon, New York and Boston came to have as many Irish as Belfast and Dublin in Ireland. Most of the Irish who came over here were very poor and took jobs on railroads or in factories. In time they became more prosperous and entered the field of politics, for which they seemed well suited. By the end of the nineteenth century the Irish controlled the politics of many of the northern cities.

The “New” Immigration. In the 1880’s, however, there came an important change in the character of immigration. The immigrants from the British Isles and from Germany and Scandinavia had been very much like the immigrants who first came here. It was very easy to take them into the population. Sometimes politicians would talk about the danger from these immigrants. Sometimes laborers complained because they had to compete with new Irish laborers. But on the whole, there was no real problem. All of these immigrants readily became Americans.

But in the 1880’s new types appeared among the thousands who swarmed in at Castle Island, New York. Austrians and Hungarians came from the valley of the Danube, Bohemians from the River Moldau, Poles from the Vistula, and Serbs from the River Sava. Blue-eyed Italians found their way over from the banks of the Arno, and olive-skinned Italians from the South; Russians came from the Volga and the Dnieper and the steppes of the Ukraine, and bearded Jews from the ghettos of Germany and Poland. All poured into the “Promised Land.”

By the 1890’s this stream from southern and eastern Europe had become a torrent, and in the early years of the twentieth century it became a real flood. Altogether between 1880 and 1930 Italy sent us almost five million of her sons and daughters, Austria-Hungary over four million, and Russia and Poland some three and three-quarter million. From the Balkan countries came a million more, making a total from these countries of over thirteen million people.

The “new” immigrants stay in the cities. The earlier immigrants, as we have seen, scattered widely through the North and the West. But most of the new immigrants preferred to stay in the cities and the industrial centers of the East. One reason for this was the fact that most of them were poor—too poor to buy a farm, and often too poor to travel very far away from the eastern seaboard. Another reason was the fact that most of these new immigrants were Catholics and wanted to stay in those communities where they would be sure to find Catholic churches. Finally, the Italians, Hungarians, Russians, Poles, and others had languages, customs, and backgrounds very different from those of the Americans. They therefore found it easier to live together in groups, or colonies, than to mingle with the native population.

By 1900 two-thirds of the foreign-born were living in towns and cities, and by 1930 this proportion had increased to three-fourths. In New York City were hundreds of thousands of Italians, Russians, Poles, Germans, and Jews. Irish and Italians were found in large numbers in quiet old Boston; Russians in Baltimore. Poles and Italians settled in Pittsburgh; Norwegians and Swedes in St. Paul and Minneapolis; Poles, Russians, Italians, and Germans in bustling Chicago. Many of the smaller industrial cities, too, showed a very large percentage of foreign-born.

The Influence of the Foreign-Born on City Life. This coming of large groups of foreign-born into the great cities gave a color and variety to these cities which was to be found nowhere else. In the 1890’s about one half of New York, for instance, could be called Irish, and another half, German. But within these larger sections were sprinkled many smaller communities of people from other countries. Italians gathered in an area here; Frenchmen in an area there. A long line of Russian or Polish homes and shops extended in one direction, while thrifty Bohemians, Greek peddlers, or Finnish sailors established themselves in other sections. Arabs, Swiss, or Polish Jews formed smaller communities within the larger ones.

Thus, because each immigrant seems to seek his countrymen in order to live with them, we find a “Chinatown,” a “Little Italy,” a “Ghetto,” and other little “cities” of foreign-born within many of our big cities.

The “new” immigrants become industrial workers. In another way, too, the new immigrants from southern Europe differed from the old immigrants from northern Europe. Most of the English, German, and Scandinavian immigrants had become farmers or mechanics or professional men. But most of the Italians, Russians, Poles, Hungarians, and others from southern Europe were unskilled laborers. They found work in the mines and the steel and textile mills, on the railroads or in the stockyards. Almost all of the workers in the steel mills and in the soft-coal mines of Pennsylvania, for example, were of southern European stock.

The “new” immigration makes new problems. The coming of the new immigration made new problems of housing, of labor, and of making citizens of these new peoples. Every year hundreds of thousands of these immigrants poured into the cities of the North and flooded out into the industrial and mining regions. Many of them came over “under contract.” That is, big companies that needed unskilled labor imported foreigners to do this labor. These foreigners were, for the most part, poor and untrained. They took such living quarters as they could find, or as were offered to them. Soon every large city had its “Ghetto,” or Jewish quarter, its “Little Italy” or “Little Russia.” There was block after block of shaky, wooden tenements, rambling old apartment houses, in whose dark little rooms were crowded hundreds of poor immigrant families. By 1890 half of the population of New York City lived in tenements, and conditions in other large cities of the East were almost as bad.

Many of these new arrivals from southern Europe were quite uneducated. Very few of them were able to speak the American language or knew how Americans lived or how the government was run. Living together in their own quarters, as they did, they did not have a chance to learn American ways of life or fit themselves to their new country.

In many large cities there were whole communities in which the English language was spoken only by the children. In the homes, in the stores and shops, and on the streets, older people spoke only the language of the country from which they had come, and they made little or no attempt to learn the English language. The meetings of their many societies were usually conducted in a foreign language, and the newsstands were filled with newspapers printed in a foreign language.

Many communities had even their own schools, in which classes were held and all subjects were studied in their “mother tongue.” There was little to indicate that this was not a community in a foreign land. Only the social-service houses and the public schools upheld American traditions and taught American manners, customs, and ways of government. When we think of such a community, we realize what a problem it was to prepare these immigrants to live successfully in their new country.

Another problem created by the new immigration was the labor problem. As we have seen, most of the immigrants from southern Europe were unskilled laborers. When they arrived in the United States, they took whatever work they could find at whatever wages were offered to them. Many of them, indeed, had been brought over here under contract because they would work more cheaply than native American labor. Their standards of living were low, and their demands were few.

They were not used to the idea of labor organizations, and because they spoke so many different languages they were hard to organize into unions. As a result they tended to drag down the standards of labor in American industry. Because they were willing to work for low wages, they took the places of native workers and thus caused unemployment. During strikes, they were often used to fill in the places of the strikers. For these reasons, organized labor began to demand that the government put a limit upon the number of immigrants that could be admitted to this country.

Other Immigration. Three other groups of immigrants have come into the United States in varying numbers during the last half century or so: Orientals, Canadians, and Mexicans. The Canadians were easily taken up into the body of the American people, but the Orientals and Mexicans created special problems that will for many years demand the wisest thought of American government and society.

(a) Oriental Immigration. The beginnings of immigration from the Orient date back to the discovery of gold in California in 1849. Most of the Americans who flocked to California went to the gold fields, and there was a shortage of labor. So unskilled laborers were brought over from China. By 1852 there were some 25,000 Chinese on the Pacific coast, and thereafter they came at the rate of about 4,000 a year. In the 1860’s thousands of these Chinese coolies were imported to work on the Central Pacific Railroad. By the end of the 1870’s there were over 100,000 of them in California alone. By that time Westerners were alarmed and saw to it that Congress put a limit upon immigration from China. About 350,000 Chinese have come to the United States.

The Japanese did not begin to come until much later than the Chinese. Indeed not until the 1890’s did any large numbers of Japanese come to the Pacific coast, but in the first twenty years of the new century about 200,000 of them arrived. Soon the Japanese, too, were forbidden to come. But children born to these Oriental immigrants in the United States are American citizens and as such, the young men are subject to military duty. In 1942, during the Second World War, our government thought it necessary to remove all Japanese from the Pacific coast states. The presence of so many Japanese in this important zone of military operations was felt to be a danger even though the great majority of them were loyal to the land of their birth.

(b) Canadian Immigration. It was easy for Canadians to drift over the border into the United States. After the War between the North and the South many of them were attracted by the business opportunities in the United States or by cheap land. They found their way to the northern and western states. Yet Canadian immigration did not take on any large proportions until about the beginning of the twentieth century. Nearly one-third of the immigration from Canada was French-Canadian, and about two-thirds was English-Canadian. The French-Canadians settled in large numbers in the New England states, working in the textile mills and in the lumber camps. The English-Canadians scattered widely throughout the northern and western states, many of them taking up farms in the West.

(c) Mexican Immigration. Immigration from Canada did not create any serious problems. Most of the Canadians were English-speaking people, familiar with American ways and ready to adopt American institutions. With the Mexicans from the south, however, the situation was different. Large numbers came and settled mostly along our southern border.

The Mexicans were for the most part poor, and unable to read or write. Their presence in the cotton fields or the beet-sugar fields or the oil fields of the Southwest raised problems of labor and of relations between the Mexicans and the Americans. By 1940 there were more than 1,500,000 Mexicans in the United States, and the western states were beginning to demand that the government put up the bars against further immigration; yet at times there is an increased demand for Mexican laborers to help harvest our crops.

3. Putting Up the Bars

The Problem of Americanization. What is meant by Americanization? It does not mean making all Americans, of whatever race or background, exactly alike. It does not mean making people of foreign birth forget their native language or their customs or traditions. It does mean merely teaching them the English language and training them to take part in American politics and to fit themselves to American social ways and habits.

Even in colonial times, many Americans were disturbed about how new immigrants would fit into this country. There was a good deal of talk about the danger from the Irish and the Germans who came over in such large numbers. But these dangers were more imaginary than real, and the Irish and the Germans fitted themselves into their new homes without any great difficulty. Indeed, as long as the immigrants were of the same races as those already here, and as long as there was plenty of elbowroom in the open lands of the West, the problem of Americanization was not difficult.

But with the change from the “old” to the “new” immigration, and with the passing of open land in the West and the rise of the city, the question of Americanization became a more serious one. Would it be possible for the millions of olive-skinned Italians and black-haired Slavs and dark-eyed Hebrews to fit into American society? Would they be able to learn the American language to fit themselves to American life, and to give anything of their own to their adopted nation? And would Americans themselves be willing to accept these new additions to the American family, understand them and help them? Would the presence of millions of Jews for example, make for race prejudice? Would the presence of millions of Catholics make for religious prejudices?

Actually the problem of Americanization has not been tremendously difficult. Most of the immigrants have been eager to become Americans as quickly as possible. If we read such books as Jacob Riis’s Making of an American, or Mary Antin’s The Promised Land, we can see that the great ambition of these new people was to be taken for Americans. We can see that they brought with them a determination to be good Americans. And most of them quickly became good citizens, showed that they were ready and able to fit into the scheme of things in this country.

And it has always been easy for an immigrant to become an American citizen. With the exception of those who come from the Orient, any immigrant may become a citizen. But in order to become a citizen the immigrant has to go through a process called “naturalization.” All that is necessary for naturalization is that the immigrant live in the United States at least five years, pass a simple test on American history and government, and take a pledge of loyalty to the government of the United States.

The Need for Limiting Immigration. But as time went on, it became clear that the United States ought to regulate immigration in two ways: (1) it ought to limit the number of immigrants who were admitted, and (2) it ought to guard itself against the admission of any immigrants who for one reason or another would not make good citizens. The need for this regulation is easy to understand. In the first place, it was feared that the coming of large numbers of immigrants, especially from southern and eastern Europe, would tend to lower American standards of living and of labor. In the second place, it was thought that some kinds of immigrants such as Orientals, could never be made to fit into American society.

The Beginnings of Limitation. It is interesting to notice that no general immigration laws were passed until almost one hundred years after the establishment of the national government. The danger of large-scale immigration from China and Japan first forced the government to take action. In 1882, Congress passed an act closing the doors to Chinese laborers for a period of years, and in the end, this policy was made permanent. Japanese immigration did not become a problem until the beginning of this century, and then the coming of large numbers of Japanese excited alarm along the Pacific coast. So in 1907 the doors were also closed to the Japanese.

Congress Limits Immigration from Europe. For a long time, there was no such general limit placed on immigration from Europe. But beginning in the 1880’s Congress did pass a number of laws keeping out certain kinds of immigrants who, it was thought, would not make good citizens. Thus criminals, paupers, and sick people were kept out of the country.

Then in 1917 Congress passed a law of a far-reaching character. This law required that every immigrant who wanted to be admitted to the United States must be able to read or write some language. In this way it attempted to cut down the number of immigrants by admitting only those who had some education.

Recent Immigration Laws. But the law of 1917 did not go far enough. After the First World War it was feared that many millions of poor people from war-stricken Europe would try to come to the United States. But the United States was then in no position to receive them. There were hard times in this country. Many men and women were out of work, and the arrival of millions of laborers from Europe would only make things worse.

So in the 1920’s Congress adopted a new immigration policy which was called the Emergency Quota Act. This Quota Act was to do two things. First, it was to cut down the number of immigrants from Europe to about 150,000 each year. Second, it was to divide this 150,000 so that the largest possible number would come from the countries of northern Europe, and the smallest possible number from the countries of southern Europe. Thus, by the law of 1924, Great Britain and Ireland were allowed to send about 65,000 immigrants a year, and Germany about 26,000. Only 5,800 a year were allowed to come from Italy and only 2,700 a year from Russia.

4. Immigrant Contributions

The Immigrant Point of View. Immigration must be looked at not only from the point of view of Americans already here, but also from the point of view of the immigrant as well. And it is not hard to learn the immigrant point of view, for many of the immigrants have written of their hopes and their experiences.

To the immigrant, the move to America was the great adventure of life. It was often hard for Europeans to tear themselves away from family and friends and from the old familiar places where they had lived. It was hard to set out to a new and strange world,—just as hard as it would be for you and your family to move away to South America and begin life over again in a new land.

It took courage and faith to make this move, and only those came who were willing to make many sacrifices for themselves and for their children. And once in America, the problems and worries of the immigrants had just begun. They had to learn a new language and fit themselves to a new kind of society. They had to meet and overcome unfriendliness, and to make a place for themselves. And above all they had to find work.

The story of the struggles of the immigrants is a stirring one. It can be read in such books as Jacob Riis’s Making of an American, Michael Pupin’s From Immigrant to Inventor, and Carl C. Jensen’s An American Saga. It can be read, too, in the novels which tell the story of immigrant settlement in the New World. Such books are Ole Rolvaag’s Giants in the Earth, which tells about the Norwegian settlers in the Dakotas, and Willa Cather’s My Antonia, which deals with the Bohemian farmers of Nebraska. These books, and others like them, give us an understanding of the minds and souls of immigrants, and they tell us too of the gifts which the immigrants brought to America.

What the Immigrants Brought. These gifts are many. The immigrants brought to their adopted country, first, themselves—their strength and numbers. It is hard to see how the United States could have been built up as rapidly and as well as it has been, without the immigrant workers on the farms and the railroads and in the mines and the mills. Second, they brought not only willing hands, but a deep and lasting affection and loyalty for their new country. After all, America was their chosen land, and they showed themselves ready to work for it and to fight for it.

They brought, too, a feeling for democracy and equality which was all the stronger because they had, in so many cases, come from countries which were not democratic. And finally, they brought their own culture, their languages and literatures and songs, and in many instances, their artistic genius. A surprising number of the leading scientists and engineers, artists, and musicians in America have been immigrants or children of immigrants.

To no field, indeed, has the immigrant contributed more than to the field of music. Most of the singers on our concert stages and most of the players in our symphony orchestras are foreign-born or of foreign parentage. This was true back in the 1840’s when Americans listened with such rapture to the “Swedish Nightingale,” Jenny Lind. It was true in the 1890’s when Leopold Damrosch and Theodore Thomas were founding the symphony orchestras in America. And it is true today. Perhaps nothing will bring this out more clearly than a list of the conductors of some of our leading symphony orchestras: Arturo Toscanini, Leopold Stokowski, Hans Lange, Serge Koussevitsky, Wilhelm Mengelberg, Artur Rodzinski, John Barbirolli, and Vladimir Golschmann. Read this list and you will see that there is not an “American” name on it. Yet what would music in America be without these men?

Some Notable Immigrants in Other Fields. But do not suppose that immigrants contributed only to the field of music. A brief mention of some of the immigrants who have made contributions to different fields of American life will show how varied and how important those contributions have been. In politics there is Carl Schurz, the great German patriot and reformer who was long a leader in reform movements in this country. There is John Peter Altgeld, the famous Governor of Illinois who did so much for education and social reform. And there is the Canadian-born Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior in President Wilson’s Cabinet, who worked to save the forests and public lands of the United States.

In the field of science and invention we can remember the Swede, John Ericsson, who invented the ironclad Monitor; the Scotchman, Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the telephone; the Serbian, Michael Pupin, and the Greek, Nikola Tesla, two geniuses in electricity. And of course we admire and give thanks to the genius German-Jew, Albert Einstein.

Among business men and philanthropists who came from abroad there were the German, John Jacob Astor, who built up the fur trade of the West, and the Canadian, J. J. Hill, the “Empire Builder” of the Northwest. Best known of all was Andrew Carnegie, the poor Scotch boy who became the foremost philanthropist in the world. The greatest of American labor leaders, Samuel Gompers, was born in London of Dutch-Jewish parents.

Among artists we need mention only two of the most distinguished: the painter, John La Farge, born in New York of French parents, and the Irish-French Augustus Saint-Gaudens, greatest of American sculptors. It would be easy to add to this list, but these names alone should bring home to us how much modern America owes to her immigrants.