Tuesday, June 19, 2018

1946 encyclopedia infographic on immigration


At York's Book Nook Bonanza earlier this month, I bought an amazing old encyclopedia — the 1946 edition of Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia and Fact-Index. The illustrations, typography and graphics throughout the 15-volume set are just stunning, and I know we'll be returning to it again and again. I also expect it to make many appearances here on Papergreat.

Today, I thought I'd share this infographic from the article titled "Immigration" in Volume 7. Here are some excerpts (not necessarily endorsements) from that entry:

  • "Only the Indians can properly call themselves native Americans, and even they are believed to have come from Asian centuries ago. All the rest of the people of the United States are immigrants or descendants of immigrants."
  • "At first, the United States held out open arms to the stranger. There were canals to be dug, railroads to be built, minerals to be mined, forests to be cut, farm lands and prairies to be cultivated, great industrial plants to be manned. ... They brought their families with them. They were eager to become citizens. Stalwart, courageous, and upstanding, they were, as a rule, intelligent, educated, and skilled in the use of tools."
  • "The 'new immigration' [1905-1915] differed from the old in several respects. ... They were largely illiterate; and they were not so easily Americanized. Many of them had no intention of becoming citizens. They had a tendency to be clannish, to live together in the same part of a city, and to cling to their national customs. They became easy tools in the hands of unscrupulous politicians."
  • "Quotas are not applied to immigration from Canada or Latin American countries. Until 1929 Mexicans came in large numbers, particularly for common labor in the Southwest."
  • "Everywhere today [1940s] immigration is strictly regulated by law. Nations which still need people want immigrants who will readily become assimilated with their populations, and they want particular classes of workers. ... Totalitarian nations followed a mixed policy."

* * *

Immigration is very much in the news right now in the United States. Here are some tweets and posts of relevance, now and for the historical record...




















This one's a screen shot, in the event they try to delete the tone-deaf tweet.

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