Fascist and Anti-Fascist Propaganda in America: The Dispatches o ...

American historians justify the passage of the Quota Act of 1921—also known as the Johnson Bill—on the basis of economic crisis. In fact, between 1918 and 1921, the United States went through an economic crisis, followed by recovery, succeeded by a second crisis during which prices soared, and the cost of living went up 77 points to a high of 105, based on the index of 1914. Exports dropped from $8.2 billion in 1920 to $4.3 billion in 1921. The price of farm products declined, and production dropped seriously. In the industrial field, a decline in production followed low consumer demand and resulted in the unemployment of 6,500,000 people. However, the same phenomenon affected all nations bearing the consequences of World War I. Postwar fallout caused the American economic crises of the time—not immigration.²

Racial Prejudice or Economic Necessity?

Between 1919 and 1921, historians contend, the war-boom economy followed by two economic crises ultimately justified the restriction of immigration, and so goes the argument for the Johnson Bill. Such a conclusion seems unwarranted. From the last quarter of the 19th century to the first decades of the 20th century, no alarming symptoms of impoverishment rankled society after cyclical periods of economic depression. From a report presented by Louis Dublin to the Commission of Immigration and Naturalization, Oscar Handlin concludes: In periods of economic instability, immigration reached very low quotas and therefore did not play a major role in unemployment. Practical common sense on the part of potential immigrants halted their immigration to the United States during economic crises; those already here returned home in times of low wages and depression.³ Immigration did not play a hand in causing or heightening the economic crises confronting American industry in the early 1920s.

The fact that the Johnson Bill favored immigration from northern populations and limited immigration from southern Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, certainly hints at racial and national motives for its passage. Many Americans judged all Mediterranean races inferior and morally far below those of northern Europe.