Chapter III:
Racial Relations During the War

The war found America with its native and foreign born peoples living far apart. The foreign born were united each in their own racial solidarity, with their own economic systems and quite independent of native American assistance; the native born were pursuing their own way toward success and happiness, quite unconscious of the separateness of the many races.

The native American has, therefore, never fully appreciated what the declaration of war in Europe meant to almost one- third of the population, for the foreign born and those of foreign parentage, unlike the native born, had a direct personal interest in the fortunes and issues of the war. They were banded together in powerful organizations. They had a press of more than 137 daily newspapers, and 1,250 publications of all kinds. They conducted business through thousands of racial banks and racial trade organizations; while in essential industries they formed the bulk of unskilled labor. They were eager to participate in the war and they were equipped with money, men and resources to act at once. They had the American interests in mind, but they had also the safety of their fellow countrymen at heart.

How serious this situation was may be seen from the fact that, when the war opened, there were gathered together in United States territory, living peaceably and pursuing ordinary vocations and trends of thought, 15% of all the Danes in the world; 8% of all the Finns, 13% of all the Germans, 7% of all the Italians; 8% of all the Czecho-Slovaks; 20% of all the Norwegians; 8% of all the Poles; 15% of all the Swedes; 3% of all the French; 5% of all the Dutch; 3% of all the Greeks; 5% of all the Lithuanians and 24% of all the Jews.

Not only were most of these immigrants in touch with the members of their own race in America, but they were in constant communication with their home countries. They corresponded with families and friends and many of their letters contained money, not alone for the assistance of their families, but to cover important financial and trade transactions. When war was declared, practically all such communications were suddenly suspended. Immigrants could hear nothing from their families and friends, and the news from the war zone, which appeared in the American press, was too general for the man interested in the happenings of a particular locality in Europe.

As immigrants were intensely interested in the progress of the war, and in preserving the independence of their respective countries, it was thus far more difficult for them to follow the command to observe neutrality than it was for the average American. Public opinion among the various races was thus unable to express itself with relation to the whole war situation and it began to vent itself in animosities among the various racial groups in America. Also, thousands of nationals in this country who were unable to participate in war activities began to leave America in order to fight in the armies of their native countries.

Until the war, immigrants had not been called upon in a public manner to choose between the old and new countries. While the test of the war was not a thorough one, inasmuch as many immigrants thought they could help their native countries most by remaining and working in munition plants, it nevertheless revealed the status of assimilation. America had supposed that it could fully count upon its immigrants; while European nations believed that, when the need arose, the older loyalty would prevail. Neither side was entirely right; hence both Europe and America awoke to a realization of what had been taking place during the hundred years of immigration to America. Many immigrants, who had been confidently counted upon, refused to answer the call of the home country and stayed in America; while others, among them many naturalized citizens, laid down their work, uprooted their homes, and departed. Many other immigrants obeyed to the letter the order to observe neutrality, while still others, to help win the war, engaged in activities on one side or the other. Early in the war period, propaganda for both the Central Powers and the Entente began to make its appearance; and in the belief that their nationals would prove cooperative, foreign language groups chiefly were selected for its dissemination.

The export of munitions from America called forth the first public expression of the influence of this propaganda. A number of American foreign language press editors, protesting against the export of munitions, signed an appeal to the people of the United States. This appeared in the form of full page advertisements in some of the English language dailies, and was later discovered, by the Senate Judiciary Committee, to have been the work of a promoter who received a part of an "alien enemy fund" for disbursement among foreign born people. Other evidences of the spread of propaganda were seen in the destruction of life and property in American munition plants, and in sabotage activities which were intended to hamper production. The radical element, always ready to seize upon any unusual conditions to further its own ends, became the ready agent of this propaganda, and capitalized alike discontent and unrest. Even so, the results were disappointing to both propagandist and radical, for the great mass of the foreign born who had remained, refused to be drawn actively into the war situation.

The restlessness and anxiety were not, however, all on the side of the immigrant. Americans, too, grew uneasy when they began to read of the war activities of some of the foreign born in America. They began to ask why aliens had not become naturalized; why naturalized citizens had not become Americanized; why America did not come first in their interests; and why naturalized citizens were returning to serve in the armies of their home countries. As the war progressed, a widespread apprehension grew among Americans as to what the foreign born ultimately might do. In some quarters, because the apparent un-Americanism of the few was taken to represent the attitude of all, this fear began to develop into a deep seated resentment against the whole foreign born population. The breach between native and foreign born was gradually widening, and antagonism on both sides was increasing, when America's entry into the war called for united action on the part of all, irrespective of race, creed, color, or class.

The task then before America was to mobilize millions of native and foreign born for war work, and to unite behind this program the activities of thirty- two races whose compatriots were already fighting with or against each other in Europe. In order to handle adequately a problem of such magnitude it was necessary that this country should know the location of the various races, their characteristics, organizations, alignments, and attitude of mind on international matters. It was necessary also, that it should know who among them could speak English, and for those who could not, what was the best medium for communicating with them. It was necessary that this country should have some record of the loyalty of the various leaders of racial groups and of their publications, or some means of determining it as well as of knowing in what essential war industries enemy aliens were at work. It was also highly important, since so much of the American assistance was to be financial, that the resources of these various groups should be ascertained.

America, having pursued for the past thirty years of its national administration of immigration a policy of letting immigrants strictly alone, neither possessed this information, nor had it any central authority or machinery for its immediate assembling. Because of this, the government pursued a policy of further decentralizing authority and dealt with the foreign born in a way which made it impossible to acquire the necessary information for this phase of its war work. The Department of Labor, with power to admit or exclude aliens and to naturalize them, possessed authority and information of one kind; the War Department, with power to mobilize an army, possessed powers of another kind; while the Treasury Department, with its Liberty Loan activities and War Risk Insurance; and the Department of State, with its international responsibilities, and the Department of Justice, with its secret service, all possessed authority and information of yet another kind. Each department acted within its own authority and upon its own information independently of the others and in consequence each in turn was often in controversy over the alien with other departments.

The new war agencies which were created but added to the difficulties of the situation. The Council of National Defense assumed certain duties; the Committee on Public Information assumed certain other duties; while to the Food and Fuel Administrations, and to numberless other bodies, were delegated specific powers, all differing essentially from each other, but all directly affecting the immigrant.

The character of these regulations was such as the absence of information regarding the alien and the conflict of authority of the various departments would lead us to expect. For instance, the war proclamation of the President declared only Germans to be alien enemies, but the public knew that Hungarians, Austrians, Turks and Bulgarians were fighting the Allies. The American, therefore, regarded the members of these races as alien enemies, and acted accordingly. This proclamation established war zones which excluded from certain districts all alien enemy men but not women and was, therefore, largely ineffectual for the purpose in mind. The inevitable separation of families, and the resulting hardships that followed, soon caused it to be disregarded. Because of defective registrations and confusion regarding first papers, alien enemies, barred from war zones, found themselves ordered to appear at armories within these zones. While the War Department was finding a way to teach the English language to the foreign born in the camps, and was deciding whether men might fight in the army of their home country or in the American army, and if they chose the former, what the effect would be upon insurance and help to their families here or abroad, the foreign language groups, without waiting for the decision, were organizing their members into battalions to join their colors at the front. While the Labor Department was undertaking the problem of safeguarding essential industries from alien enemy workers, the War Department was organizing a Plant Protection Service to do the same thing. While the Post Office Department was requiring foreign language newspapers to have a permit and was denying the use of the mails to some of them, the Committee on Public Information and the Treasury Department were reprimanding the same publications, irrespective of their status with the Post Office Department, for not giving larger free space to war propaganda and Liberty Loans. While numerous secret service agencies were regarding the alien as a suspicious character, the Council of National Defense and the Americanization Division of the Department of the Interior were urging his attendance at Americanization meetings. While the Alien Property Custodian was taking over the property of alien enemies, the sons and brothers of these alien enemies were often being drafted to fight with the Allies in the war. The same immigrants, therefore, often found themselves the object of suspicion as well as of solicitude; of regulation as well as of Americanization; and of inclusion in war activities as well as of exclusion from them.

These are but a few illustrations of the confusion of powers and of the conflict of orders that were issued by the forty or more Federal agencies charged with war duties which in one way or another affected aliens. Furthermore, the nation and the states were often in disagreement over the division of authority and over the methods to be employed; and when this occurred, the troubles of the alien were multiplied.

While opinions differ both as to the necessity and wisdom of some of the measures adopted for the safety of a country which was in no imminent danger of invasion, with its forces fighting three thousand miles away, it became increasingly evident as the war progressed that the confusion and injustices to which many immigrants who were unquestionably loyal were subjected, would bring new problems. Could there at the outset have been established a Board or Bureau on Aliens to which all questions affecting the foreign born could have been referred for information, for adjustment, and for advice, many of the reactions and problems inherited from the war management might have been avoided.

But as it was, men, unfamiliar with the complexity of racial questions or with international affairs, adopted policies almost at a moment's notice and, without an idea as to what their effect would be, issued orders for their immediate enforcement. For instance, to help win the war, the Committee on Public Information urged that racial solidarity and organization be increased and that propaganda to their home countries be prepared and sent out by them. By this action the government not only strengthened racial solidarities in America, but through them and independently of America, it precipitated the immigrant into foreign affairs. Again, the Foreign Language Division of the War Loan Organization of the Treasury Department, by adopting measures in order to force the immigrants to buy Liberty Bonds, created among them a resentment toward America which later resulted in their throwing these bonds upon the market in order to enable them to secure funds to buy the securities of their native countries. The creation by the Department of Justice of a Citizens' Protective Association, which became, in effect, a voluntary spy organization—at one time numbering more than a quarter of a million men—has done much to destroy the confidence which was developing before the war between the native and foreign born people in America.

While the entrance of America into the war absorbed the activities of all the people, it did not tend greatly to lessen the strained relations which had begun to appear between native and foreign born during the period of neutrality. There are many who believe that America failed to grasp the greatest opportunity in its history to unite its many peoples in a cause in which there was genuine identity of interest. Some Americans entered the war service with this high hope in mind; but the thirty years of neglect and the resulting isolation of the immigrant, the prevailing strength of the racial solidarities, and the war methods adopted by the Government, these were seemingly too great a handicap to be overcome. The possible assimilation of immigration might have been endangered still further by these conditions had they not been to some extent offset by the relationships between the native and foreign born which were established in the trenches through Red Cross and other patriotic drives; and through the many voluntary war services which sought to include the immigrant, not as an alien, but as an American.

So, when the armistice was signed, and the period of post war adjustment began, many native Americans found that they had acquired a genuine fear of immigration and a dread of what a large body of unassimilated peoples might do when a national crisis arose. They said: "Suppose we had been at war with all of Europe, would the foreign born of all races have gone back; would some of the members of each race have acted as spies; would every race involved have hindered our production; and would our country have been flooded with propaganda?" They saw a positive menace in the growing power of immigrants' organizations and of the foreign language press; and they began to favor the suppression of all languages but English; the elimination of the foreign language press; the restriction of immigration for a period of years; and the enactment of a compulsory citizenship law.

But there were others, both native and foreign born, who found in the revelations brought about by the strain of the war a great faith in the assimilation of immigration and a better way to undertake it. They recalled that approximately one- third of the men in the American Army were foreign born; that legal exemption was waived by 414,389 aliens who went into Class I while only 1,692 withdrew their declaration of intention to become American citizens in order to claim exemption, and of the latter the great majority were men belonging to the older and not to the newer immigration. They pointed to the fact that the new friendships established by the war, and the remarkable steadiness shown by immigrants under great pressure from abroad, revealed an unexpected strength in our racial relations, even as the acts of disloyal immigrants had shown their weakness.

Many immigrants have come out of the war with a sense of resentment, and in some instances of bitterness. They have lost much of their faith in American justice and fair play because they have been dealt with by Americans in a summary way, with little expressed comprehension of their own peculiar difficulties. They have acquired a supercilious and critical attitude toward Americanization because its pretensions have not coincided with their experience. They have remembered their humiliation by self- constituted bodies who took the law into their own hands; and they are less sure than they were before the war that the guarantees of the American Constitution will protect them.

This resentment might have been lessened had America been more successful in its work at the Peace Conference, and had it secured even a measure of the benefits which the immigrants hoped would result from its efforts in favor of their native country. They looked to the President to secure independence and a "square deal" for their respective countries. They were also led to believe that our Government would participate in the final settlements. This was one of the reasons for their enthusiasm over the work of the President during his stay in Europe and over the provisions in the draft of the League of Nations. Prior to the deliberations at Versailles, they felt a justification for this enthusiasm because of the President's triumphal procession in Europe. His promissory note to "make the world safe for Democracy" was suspected of being an overdraft by the various racial groups in America, who were not prepared to wait until it matured. The immigrant in America, whose native land is now struggling under the burdens imposed to a considerable extent by this overdraft, is becoming increasingly discontented and bitter over the continued sufferings among his people.

There were many who thought, when the armistice was signed, that the racial situation would revert to that of pre- war lines. Nothing of the kind occurred. The "scrapping of the whole war machine" was undertaken in the same spirit in which it was built. The lack of cooperation among the various Federal departments and the eagerness shown by men to get back to business, lost to America what might have constituted an invaluable agency for reconstruction work among immigrants. The real problem of reconstruction was not in industrial and financial fields, which had greatly prospered and expanded during the war; but it was in the field of racial relations which had greatly suffered during the war. Some racial groups which had helped to win the war had become during the period of the armistice all but embryonic republics within a great republic. They were bent upon diverting the power, which had been used to help win the war, to help settle peace terms in their home countries. They, therefore, turned their attention away from Americanization efforts which were then in full swing. They reasoned that "making the world safe for democracy" meant that the things which immigrants had sought in America could now be realized in the homeland, and without the added difficulties of learning English or of changing allegiance. Each racial group was as much possessed with the desire to establish peace and prosperity in its native land as it had been to help win the war. For this purpose, it began to raise money for political propaganda. It threw its support to one party or to the other, or to this or to that cause. It began to see that following political settlements would come economic settlements and opportunities, and so it organized trade bodies and export and import companies, and made other foreign business connections. Thus, organizations which were created for the protection of the immigrant became political bodies with economic aspirations. They began to reflect chiefly the contentions and opinions prevailing in foreign countries and in consequence soon lost much of their interest in America.

Into this situation Bolshevism was injected, and the Communist party arose. The immigrant was made the center of Bolshevist propaganda, as he had been of war propaganda. The emissaries of Lenin saw in the foreign language groups of America the most vulnerable point in the country's defenses, just as war propagandists before had discerned its penetrability. These emissaries reasoned that if they could rely upon the immigrants, located as they were in essential American industries, for the "tonnage of their movement," then the leadership of radicalism and unrest among native Americans would bring about an industrial upheaval, if not a collapse. The immigrant listened to the new propagandist, as he had listened during the war to the propagandist from Washington, for did not the one promise to him a better living and a happier time after the war was won; and did not the other make like promises to him when the Soviet would be established throughout the world?

The methods adopted by the Government to deal with Bolshevism were the result of the inevitable war reaction, and were directed chiefly against the alien. This is shown by the Attorney General in his report, where he says:

"The Federal statutes are exceedingly limited so far as they affect persons of American citizenship engaged in radical agitation. The efforts have therefore been largely centered upon the activities of alien agitators with the object of securing their deportation.

"At the same time, present unrest and tendency toward radicalism arise from social and economic conditions that are of far greater consequence than the individual agitator. An intelligent investigation of the agitator, of his work and results of his work therefore demand understanding of social and economic conditions as a whole."

The virulence of the feeling which accompanied the methods of repression was not dissimilar to that which prevailed at the close of the Revolutionary War concerning which Alexander Hamilton said:

"Nothing is more common than for a free people in times of heat and violence to gratify momentary passions, by letting into the government principles and precedents which afterward prove fatal to themselves. Of this kind is the doctrine of disqualification, disfranchisement, and banishment by acts of legislature. The dangerous consequences of this power are manifest. If it [the Legislature] may banish at discretion all of those whom particular circumstances render obnoxious without hearing or trial, no one can be safe, nor know when he may be the innocent victim of a prevailing faction. The name of liberty applied to such a government would be a mockery of common sense."

In the agitation referred to by Hamilton, it was sought to disfranchise those who had been Tories. In the agitation of 1920, it was sought to achieve, through deportation, what could not be done through the courts of law in the United States—to deport all aliens who were members of the Communist party, whether found guilty of crimes or not.

That the problems resulting from the war are still unsolved is shown by the increasing alienation of native and foreign born residents; by a loss of confidence of the native born in assimilation; by a loss of respect of the foreign born for American institutions; and by the unrest caused by the spread of Bolshevism. States, as well as the nation, are to be considered in arriving at a solution of these problems, for during the Bolshevist agitation many of the states passed repressive measures such as the restriction of the use of foreign languages and the suppression of the racial press.

What is there to indicate that America is to deal as wisely with the present situation as it did with the previous situation?

The American Bar Association, aware of where legislation of this character is likely to lead America in its international relations, reflects in the following recommendation, approved at its last annual meeting, the saner American point of view.

"That the President be authorized to direct the Attorney- General, in the name, and on behalf of the United States, to file a bill in equity in the proper district court of the United States against any person or persons threatening to violate the rights of a citizen or subject of a foreign country secured to such citizen or subject by treaty between the United States and such foreign country; and that this provision shall apply to acts threatened by state officers under the alleged justification of a law of the legislature of the state in which such acts are to be committed."

The Congress, returned by the election of 1918, showed a similar sane point of view when it refused to be stampeded either by public clamor or by an impending national election into passing the mass of proposals submitted for the repression of free speech or the restriction of immigration. It refused also to pass Americanization measures which would have been but a partial remedy. There is hope in this attitude that we may have a thorough- going study made of the whole situation before any final action is taken.

The bills now pending before Congress indicate the necessity for such a study, since they do not embody a solution of the racial problems inherited from the war. Of first importance is the bill proposed by the Commissioner General of Immigration which provides for the registration of aliens. At the same time it suspends the renewal of the registration fee, if the alien learns the English language, and about American history, and the American government. This substitutes an economic for a patriotic motive, and makes it worth about $6 a year for the alien to acquire such knowledge. This bill also classifies immigrants into those affirmatively and satisfactorily admissible, those to be provisionally admitted and those inadmissible. It places the burden of proof of admissibility upon the alien and, while it nowhere prescribes adequate tests, it establishes a new principle in that the immigrant is considered to be inadmissible until he proves himself to be otherwise. Further, this bill undertakes to regulate racial animosities and practices by providing for the deportation of those who advocate, teach, sanction, or encourage the extortion of money; or the avenging, through bodily injury, of grievances. This applies also to members of organizations which advocate these things. This provision suggests questions of ethics and niceties of judgment which are bound to be more subtle than accurate. Even a judge and jury might hesitate, without more specific legal definition, to pass upon the questions which such a provision will raise.

Such legislative proposals as are contained in this bill raise questions concerning our good faith in keeping our international agreements because they seek under penalties of deportation to deal with conditions and activities which have not been defined in law; and tend, therefore, to break down the safeguards of law. It follows, then, that the increase of deportable offenses should be safeguarded with the greatest of care. The proposals contained in this bill furnish a sound argument in favor of a comprehensive study of immigration in which the fundamental principles of American government will be the determining element in whatever practical use is made of the data.

The Welty Bill undertakes to formulate a post- war policy and includes as its important features the establishment of a percentage test for the admission of immigrants and the creation of a Board of Immigration. The omission of provisions that deal adequately with post war conditions is all the more significant when it is recalled that the bill is the work of a large organization, the leaders of which have been making a study of immigration for many years.

It is scarcely the physical examinations, or the contract labor law, or the literacy test which is restraining the great mass of people who wish to enter America. It will not be provisions like restricting immigration to the relatives of those already here that will protect the country. Half of the people of Europe can meet these requirements. Immigration to- day is restrained by technical economic matters like the rate of exchange, the price of steamship tickets, steamship accommodations, delays in the vise of passports, activities of foreign governments and their imposition of regulations. It would appear that what America needs is not more technical regulations, not the extension of hardships, not the erection of barriers based on temporary expedients, but a racial inventory and a formulation of policies, with such general powers as will enable the government to meet any situation as it arises. And it needs more than all a policy of assimilation which will cover the reception, distribution, and adjustment of immigrants after arrival so we can really ascertain if we have assimilated the immigrants who have entered, with a view to determining how many we may wisely admit.

Americans have perhaps too readily assumed that all immigrants can be assimilated with equal ease. We now realize as the result of experience in encampments during the war, and as the result of Americanization work, that some races require many times the efforts needed for other races. Backward races, unfamiliar with our language, form of government, industrial organizations, financial institutions, and standard of living require much more aggressive efforts towards assimilation. Should we not therefore make an examination of the assimilability of the various races and apportion the number accordingly? We cannot safely do this on the basis of the number of those who become citizens alone, unless naturalization is granted only after a more careful discrimination than now generally obtains or than has as yet been suggested. The education of the immigrant in America, the relative strength of the old nationalistic sentiment, the cooperation extended by the applicant's own government or the reverse, these might well be included among the determining factors.

Thus, the end of the war finds America but little better off in its racial relations than it was at the beginning. Its racial solidarities have become more fixed and more powerful and now have international political aspirations; Americanization has come and gone its way as a national enthusiasm; Bolshevism has left a harvest of discontent and unrest. And such policies as are proposed lack vision and understanding and are not only independent of each other but in many cases are in actual conflict.

In the light of what follows in the next chapter, we shall perceive only too clearly their inadequacy. For Europe reveals unmistakably to us that we stand upon the threshold of a new era in our immigration affairs, an era in which "faith and justice between nations are virtues of a nature the most necessary and sacred; they cannot be too strongly indicated nor too highly respected; their obligations are absolute and their utility unquestioned."