The Dillingham Report, Franz Boas, and the Measurement of U.S. ‘New’ Immigrants, 1911 By Tibor Frank The Dillingham Commission On February 20, 1907 the U.S. Congress established an Immigration Commission consisting of ten Senators and Representatives. Its influential members included Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, one of the most powerful leaders of the Senate. The timing and selection of the Commission members was in response to a growing anti-immigrant movement as numerous ‘White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant’ Americans were mobilized against the millions of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Czarist ‘new’ immigrants arriving from Russia, Romania, Italy, and the Ottoman Empire. The newcomers were generally characterized as members of inferior races, biologically unprepared for assimilation or democratic self-government, and were considered undesirable. Americans had never especially welcomed Catholics, Jews, and the Chinese. From the Irish to the Chinese, from the Italians and the Eastern Europeans to the Mexicans, newly arrived unskilled labourers were generally treated with contempt and generated fears that they would become public charges, undermine labour standards, corrupt American morals. Senator John W. Daniel of Virginia declared in one thing that neither time nor education can change. 1899: “There is You may change the never change the different qualities of the leopard’s spots, but you will races...” Social Darwinism and its theorists Herbert Spencer and Ernst Haeckel found many followers in American universities and political circles. With Haeckel’s ‘biogenetic law’ to racist theories, educated Americans considered lending ‘scientific’ legitimacy ‘primitive and half-child’. of scientific racism subscribed to the arguments races’ ‘half-devil Proponents of or the fall of nations is Alfred P. Schultz, whose 1908 book, ‘Race Mongrel’ argued “that due to the intermarriage with is due to racial purity; a alien stocks; [and]…a nation’s strength prophecy that America will sink to early decay unless emigration is rigorously restricted” (Hankins 1937, 778-79). The leading American Social Darwinist, Yale professor William Graham Sumner preached similar dogmas of inequality and unrestricted competition for nearly 40 years (1872-1909) (Sumner 1963). The establishment of the Dillingham Commission was a sign of the increasing presence and weight of Social Darwinism and biological racism in American political thinking.
The Dillingham Report, Franz Boas, and the Measurement of U.S. ‘New’ Immigrants, By Tibor Frank The Dillingham Commission On February 20, 1907 the U.S. Congress established an Immigration Commission consisting of ten Senators and Representatives. Its influential members included Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, one of the most powerful leaders of the Senate. The timing and selection of the Commission members was in response to a growing anti-immigrant movement as numerous ‘White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant’ Americans were mobilized against the millions of ‘new’ immigrants arriving from the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Czarist Russia, Romania, Italy, and the Ottoman Empire. The newcomers were generally characterized as members of inferior races, biologically unprepared for assimilation or democratic self-government, and were considered undesirable. Americans had never especially welcomed Catholics, Jews, and the Chinese. From the Irish to the Chinese, from the Italians and the Eastern Europeans to the Mexicans, newly arrived unskilled labourers were generally treated with contempt and generated fears that they would become public charges, undermine labour standards, corrupt American morals. Senator John W. Daniel of Virginia declared in 1899: “There is one thing that neither time nor education can change. You may change the leopard’s spots, but you will never change the different qualities of the races...” Social Darwinism and its theorists Herbert Spencer and Ernst Haeckel found many followers in American universities and political circles. With Haeckel’s ‘biogenetic law’ lending ‘scientific’ legitimacy to racist theories, educated Americans considered ‘primitive races’ ‘half-devil and half-child’. Proponents of scientific racism subscribed to the arguments of Alfred P. Schultz, whose 1908 book, ‘Race or Mongrel’ argued “that the fall of nations is due to the intermarriage with alien stocks; [and]…a nation’s strength is due to racial purity; a prophecy that America will sink to early decay unless emigration is rigorously restricted” (Hankins 1937, 778-79). The leading American Social Darwinist, Yale professor William Graham Sumner preached similar dogmas of inequality and unrestricted competition for nearly 40 years (1872-1909) (Sumner 1963). The establishment of the Dillingham Commission was a sign of the increasing presence and weight of Social Darwinism and biological racism in American political thinking. 1911
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