A historical development of organized labor’s opposition to immigration

215 Pages·011.004 MB·English

by  Gibson, Ted Aubrey

A HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ORGANIZED
LABOR'S OPPOSITION TO IMMIGRATION
A Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the Department of Economics
U niversity of Southern C alifornia
In P artial Fulfillm ent
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts
by
Ted Aubrey Gibson
August 1950
UMI Number: EP44704
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This thesis, written by
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and approved by all its members, has been
presented to and accepted by the Council on
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MASTER OF ARTS
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1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION . ............................................................. . 1
The problem . . . . . . . . . . . ................... 1
Statement of the problem ..................................... 1
Importance of the s t u d y ....................... 2
D efinitions of terms used ................................. 5
The old Immigrants . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The new Immigrants . . . . . . . 6
Displaced persons .................................................... 7
Sources of Information . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Method o f approach ........................ . . . . . . .
^
II. LABOR AND IMMIGRATION PRIOR TO 1882 . . . . . 13
Opposition during the colonial period . . . 13
L ittle opposition at fir s t . . . . . . . . 1^
Opposition to paupers and crim inals . . . 16
R eligious opposition ................................................ 19
The foreign colony argument . . . . . . . 20
Summary ....................... 20
The Interim period, 1783-1820 . 21
The old Immigration . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Sources, quantity and distribution of
Immigration, 1820-1882 . . . . . . . . . 23
The Irish in v a sio n .................................................... 26
i i
CHAPTER PAGE
The German Invasion . . . . ........................ 28
The S can d in avian s.................................................... 30
Other immigrant s o u r c e s ....................... 31
Summary . * ................................ 32
The reactions of organized la b o r ....................... 33
The early reactions, 1825-1837 ........................ 35
The "peace** period . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
The post-war era . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
The Act of 1 8 6 4 ......................................................... 44
Increasing union opposition . . . . . . . 46
Sum m ary................................................................. 48
III. ORGANIZED LABOR'S OPPOSITION TO THE NEW
IMMIGRATION........................................................ 52
The new immigrants . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Geographic sources and volume of the new
immigration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Inducements to the new immigrants . . . . 54
D istribution of the new immigrants . . . . 59
Sex and age distribution of the new
Immigrants . . . . . . . . . . ................... 62
Organized labor and contract labor . . . . . 63
The UBe of contract labor . . . . . . . . 64
The Alien-Contract Labor Law . . . . . . . 66
Continued opposition . . . . . . . . . . . 67
l i i
CHAPTER PAGE
The post-war e r a ................................. 68
General union opposition ........................................... 69
Importance to the u n io n s . . 71
The economic argument . . . ............................. 73
The depression argument . . . . . . . . . 75
A psychological fa c to r ............................ 75
The d iffic u ltie s in unionizing the new
im m igrants.................................................................. 76
E ffects on .existin g unions . . . . . . . . 78
The weapons of organized la b o r ............................. 79
A gitation for restrictio n . . . ................... 81
Sum m ary................................................................................ 84
IV. ORGANIZED LABOR AND RESTRICTIVE LEGISLATION . 86
Organized labor*s point of v i e w ........................ 87
Q ualitative leg isla tio n ........................................... 90
Federal leg isla tio n prior to 1917 . . . . 90
The litera cy t e s t ............................................... -. 92
The Immigration Act of 1 9 1 7 ............................. 93
The emergency quota act of 1 9 2 1 ........................ 95
The war period ........................ 95
The post-war period . . . . . . . . . . . 96
The Act o f .1921 . . . ..................................... 99
The provisions of the a c t ............................ , 99
The resu lts of the a c t ........................................... 101
iv
CHAPTER PAGE
The struggle resum ed...................................................... 101
The Immigration act of 1924 103
The Johnson h ill . 103
The quota provisions of the a c t .......................... 104
Other provisions ........................................................... 106
Results of the a c t ................................................... 108
Summary . ............................................................. 109
V. UNION OPPOSITION DURING THE PERIOD OF
RESTRICTION, 1925 TO 1944 . . . . . . . . . I ll
The Immigrant stream, 1925 to 1944 . . . . . 112
Volume of the Immigrant stream .............................. 112
Sources of the immigration stream . . . . 11?
Additional characteristics of the
immigrant stream ...................................... 120
C onclusion....................................................................... 123
The h isto rica l s e t t in g ...................................................... 124
Before the quota leg isla tio n . . . . . . . 124
After the quota le g is la t io n ................................... 125
The deoline in union membership . . . . . 126
The increase in union membership.......................... 127
The •’lag* of the American labor movement . 127
The rise of industrial u n io n ism .......................... 128
The unions and immigration * 129
The period from 1925 to 1930 . . . . . . . 129
CHAPTER PAGE
The Great D epression............................................... 130
A gitation for greater restriction s . . . . 132
World War II . . . ................................................ 135
Summary .................................................... . . . . . . 136
VI. ORGANIZED LABOR'S OPPOSITION TO CHINESE AND
JAPANESE IMMIGRATION.................................................... 137
The C h in e s e ....................................................................... 137
The h isto rica l s e tt in g ................................. 138
Organized labor's opposition to the
Chinese . . . . . . . . . ............................. 141
Federal leg isla tio n ................................................ 146
The Jap anese........................................................ 148
Volume and distribution ................... 148
Early opposition to the Jap anese................... 149
The growing in ten sity of anti-Japanese
f e e l i n g ....................................................................... 151
The Gentlemen's A greem en t................................. 153
The picture b r id e s .................................................... 154
Continued o p p o sitio n ................................................ 154
A fter World War I ................... 155
A gitation for exclusion by organized labor 157
Japanese exclusion ........................ . . . . . . 158
Sum m ary....................... 158
VII. LABOR'S ATTITUDE TOWARD THE DISPLACED PERSONS 160
v i
CHAPTER PAGE
The h isto rica l s e t t in g ..................................... 161
The basic p o lic y ............................................... 163
The International Refugee Organization . . 165
Displaced persons le g is la t io n ............................. 166
The G ossett b i l l ............................................... 166
The Stratton b i l l .................................................... 168
The Fellows b ill ........................... ..................... 169
The Wiley-Revercomb b i l l ............................. 170
The Displaced Persons Act of 19^8 . . . . 171
The C eller b i l l ............................................... 173
The Kilgore “su b stitu te * ........................ 17**
Public Law 555 .............................................................. 176
Organized labor's attitude . . . . . . . . . 177
The peculiar characteristics of the
displaced persons issue ............................. 178
The reasons for organized lab or's attitude 179
Organized labor's attitude remains
b asically unchanged ................................................. 181
Sum mary.......................................................................... . 183
VIII. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS...................................... 186
Summary ...................................................................... 186
C o n clu sio n s................................ . . 192
BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................... 195
v ii
LIST OP TABLES
TABLE PAGE
I. Immigration to the United States from Selected
Countries of Origin, 1820-1882 . . . . . . . 25
II. R elative Proportion of the Old and New
Immigration by D ecades............................................... 5**
III. Total Immigrants by Decades ....................... 55
IV. D istribution of Immigrants by Decades . . . . 61
V. Quota and Nonquota Immigration, 1925-19^ . . 116
VI. Sources of Immigration, 1925-19^ . . . . . . 118
VII. Proportion o f Males to Females in Recent
Immigration . . . . . . . . . . 121