The Dillingham Commission was founded in 1907, by Vermont Senator William Paul Dillingham, whose interest in immigration was, in part, a result of pressure by anti-immigration groups. His study eventually ran to dozens of volumes and cost more than a million dollars. Its conclusions would shape U.S. immigration policy before World War II. In 1920, Dillingham shepherded through the first immigration quotas in U.S. history. In particular, the study concluded that Southern and Eastern European immigrants were inferior to those from Northern Europe. The excerpts here are for the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts, and include reports on living conditions; birth, marriage, & death rates; ages of school children; “political conditions”; “general morality”; crime records; and “The Effect of Settlement on the Community,” which provides stereotypical characterizations by nationality and includes “Polanders” and Lithuanians.
Dillingham, William Paul. Immigrants in Industries, Part 24: Recent Immigrants in Agriculture. Government Printing Office, 1911. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/l02-074/. Accessed on October 16, 2024.
Please note: Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.