American Passage_ The History of Ellis I - Vincent J. Cannato [245]
101 The IRL worked closely: Daniel J. Tichenor, Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control in America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002), 77, 85.
102 The descendants: Solomon, Ancestors and Immigrants, 73, 107, 114, 120; Julia H. Twells, “The Burden of Indiscriminate Immigration,” American Journal of Politics, December 1894.
103 Among its proposals: “Constitution of the Immigration Restriction League,” August 22, 1894, IRL.
103 For a young man: NYT, December 12, 1894.
103 Like so many: BH, April 5, 1895.
103 In mid-December 1895: “Immigration Restriction League, Annual Report of the Executive Committee for 1895,” January 13, 1896, and “IRL Annual Report of the Executive Committee for 1896,” January 11, 1897, File 1138, IRL; Brookline Chronicle, January 18, 1895; Boston Journal, January 25, 1896. 104 So in April 1896: NYT, April 21, 1896.
104 In its April 1896 investigation: “Immigration: Its Effects upon the United States, Reasons for Further Restriction.” Publication of the Immigration Restriction League, No. 16, February 13, 1897, IRL. It is certainly true that many Italians were illiterate, due in large part to the poor schools of their native country, but in Italy illiteracy rates went down considerably during the era of peak immigration, from almost 69 percent in 1872 to an estimated 23 percent in 1922. Antonio Stella, Some Aspects of Italian Immigration to the United States (New York, Arno Press, 1975), 53.
104 The IRL members: “Immigration Restriction League, Annual Report of the Executive Committee for 1895,” January 13, 1896, File 1138, IRL; Prescott F. Hall, “Immigration and the Educational Test,” NAR, October 1897.
104 Such a test would: Henry Cabot Lodge, “The Restriction of Immigration,” Our Day, May 1896.
105 Not all restrictionists: Francis A. Walker, “Immigration,” Yale Review, August 1892.
105 Writing to the secretary: Letter from Herman Stump to John Carlisle, February 20, 1897, Grover Cleveland Papers, LOC.
106 For years, immigration restrictionists: President Grover Cleveland’s Veto Message of the Educational Test Bill, March 2, 1897, reprinted by the National Liberal Immigration League, File 1125, Folder 4, IRL. Many years later, Theodore Roosevelt told Madison Grant that General Leonard Wood had told him that Cleveland had regretted his veto of the literacy test, confirming what many restrictionists had come to believe. There is no definite proof that Cleveland ever expressed regret about his veto. Letter from Madison Grant to Theodore Roosevelt, November 15, 1915, TR.
CHAPTER SIX: FEUD
107 Just after midnight: Victor Safford, Immigration Problems: Personal Experiences of an Official (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1925), 199–200.
108 To some, it was: Thomas M. Pitkin, Keepers of the Gate: A History of Ellis Island (New York: New York University Press, 1975), 26; NYT, June 17, 1897; NYW, June 16, 1897; HW, February 26, 1898.
108 Officials then moved: NYT, June 19, 1897.
109 Victor Safford remembered: Safford, Immigration Problems, 76.
109 Befitting someone from: Letter from Edward McSweeney to Archbishop Michael Corrigan, January 12, 1900, ANY; Letter from A. J. You to Terence V. Powderly, June 11, 1900, Box 137, TVP.
110 McSweeney remained: Pitkin, Keepers of the Gate, 29.
110 Meanwhile, the McKinley: Robert E. Weir, Knights Unhorsed: Internal Conflict in a Gilded Age Social Movement (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2000), 16; Craig Phelan, Grand Master Workman: Terence Powderly and the Knights of Labor (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000), 1–2.
111 McSweeney seemed: Phelan, Grand Master Workman, 47.
111 One historian described: Weir, Knights Unhorsed, 15; Vincent J. Falzone, Terence V. Powderly: Middle-Class Reformer (Washington, DC: University Press of America, 1978), 174;