United States Congressional Joint Immigration Commission

The United States Immigration Commission was a bipartisan special committee formed in February 1907 by the United States Congress, to study the origins and consequences of recent immigration to the United States. It was a joint committee composed of members of both the House and Senate. It was known as the Dillingham Commission after its chairman, Republican Senator William P. Dillingham of Vermont.

The Commission ended its work in 1911, concluding that immigration from southern and eastern Europe was a serious threat to American society and culture and should be greatly reduced in the future.

The Commission's recommendations had a substantial impact on American immigration policy. The recommendations lead to the introduction of literacy tests, quotas based on national origin, quotas severely restricting non-Western immigrants, supplanted earlier acts to effectively ban all immigration from Asia, and placed immigration policy firmly in the hands of the federal government. The standard scholarly history by Katherine Benton-Cohen argues that recent historians have overemphasized the influence of eugenics. Instead the economists led by Jeremiah Jenks set the interpretive framework.

Commission members

Senators: William P. Dillingham, R-VT, Chairman Henry Cabot Lodge, R-MA Asbury Latimer, D-SC (1907-1910) LeRoy Percy, D-MS (1910-1911)

Representatives: Benjamin F. Howell, R-NJ William S. Bennet, R-NY John L. Burnett, D-AL

Unelected: Charles P. Neill, Department of Labor Jeremiah W. Jenks, Cornell University William R. Wheeler, California Commissioner of Immigration

Commission reports

In 1911, the Dillingham Commission issued a 41-volume report containing statistical overviews and other analyses of topics related to immigrant occupations, living conditions, education, legislation (at the state as well as the federal level), and social and cultural organizations. A planned 42nd volume, an index of the other 41 volumes, was never issued.

• Volumes 1-2: Abstracts of Reports of The Immigration Commission, with Conclusions and Recommendations and Views of the Minority. Vol. 1
• Volume 3: Frederick Croxton. Statistical Review of Immigration, 1820-1910. Distribution of Immigrants, 1850-1900.
• Volume 4: Emigration Conditions in Europe.
• Volume 5: Daniel Folkmar, assisted by Elnora Folkmar. Dictionary of Races or People
• Volumes 6-7: W. Jett Lauck. Bituminous Coal Mining. Vol. 6 Vol. 7
• Volumes 8-9: W. Jett Lauck. Iron and Steel Manufacturing. Vol. 9
• Volume 10: W. Jett Lauck. Cotton Goods Manufacturing in the North Atlantic States; Woolen and Worsted Goods Manufacturing
• Volume 11: Silk Goods and Manufacturing and Dyeing; Clothing Manufacturing; Collar, Cuff, and Shirt Manufacturing
• Volume 12: W. Jett Lauck. Leather Manufacturing; Boot and Shoe Manufacturing; Glove Manufacturing
• Volume 13: W. Jett Lauck. Slaughtering and Meat Packing.
• Volume 14: W. Jett Lauck. Glass Manufacturing; Agricultural Implement and Vehicle Manufacturing
• Volume 15: W. Jett Lauck. Cigar and Tobacco Manufacturing; Furniture Manufacturing; Sugar Refining
• Volume 16: W. Jett Lauck. Copper Mining and Smelting; Iron Ore Mining; Anthracite Coal Mining; Oil Refining.
• Volumes 17-18: W. Jett Lauck. Diversified Industries.Washington: G.P.O., 1911. Vol. 17 Vol 18
• Volumes 19-20: W. Jett Lauck. Summary Report on Immigrants in Manufacturing and Mining. Vol. 19
• Volumes 21-22: Alexander Cance. Recent Immigrants in Agriculture. Vol. 21 Vol. 22
• Volumes 23-25: Harry A. Millis. Japanese and Other Immigrant Races in the Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountain States. Vol. 23 Vol. 24 Vol. 25
• Volumes 26-27: Emanuel A. Goldenweiser. Immigrants in Cities: A Study of the Population of Selected Districts in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Milwaukee. Vol. 26 Vol. 27
• Volume 28: Joseph Hill. Occupations of the First and Second Generations of Immigrants in the United States; Fecundity of Immigrant Women
• Volumes 29-33: The Children of Immigrants in Schools. Vol. 29 Vol. 30 Vol. 31 Vol. 32
• Volumes 34-35: Immigrants as Charity Seekers. Vol. 34 Vol. 35
• Volume 36: Leslie Hayford. Immigration and Crime
• Volume 37: Steerage Conditions, Importation and Harboring of Women for Immoral Purposes, Immigrant Homes and Aid Societies, Immigrant Banks
• Volume 38: Franz Boas. Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants.
• Volume 39: Immigration Legislation
• Volume 40: The Immigration Situation in other Countries: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil
• Volume 41: Statements and Recommendations Submitted by Societies and Organizations Interested in the Subject of Immigration

See also

• California Joint Immigration Committee

Further reading

• Katherine Benton-Cohen. Inventing the Immigration Problem: The Dillingham Commission and Its Legacy. Harvard University Press, 2018. 342 pp. (cloth), ISBN 978-0-674-97644-3.
• Abstracts of Reports of the Immigration Commission: With Conclusions and Recommendations (1911, the official summary) online free to download
• Benton-Cohen, Katherine. "The Rude Birth of Immigration Reform". The Wilson Quarterly, Summer 2010.
• Benton-Cohen, Katherine. Inventing the Immigration Problem: The Dillingham Commission and Its Legacy. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2018.
  • online review
• Lund, John M. "Boundaries of Restriction: The Dillingham Commission". University of Vermont History Review, vol 6 (1994)
• Pula, James S. "American Immigration Policy and the Dillingham Commission". Polish American Studies, vol. 37, no. 1 (1980): 5–31.
• Zeidel, Robert F. Immigrants, Progressives, and Exclusion Politics: The Dillingham Commission, 1900-1927. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2004.

External links

• Online copies of report volumes; free to download
• Dillingham Commission Reports, Harvard University online copies of 400,000+ pages from 2,200+ books, pamphlets, and magazines, and 9,600+ pages from manuscript and archival collections
• Dillingham Commission's Ranking of Immigrant Groups Affected U.S. Policy for Decades - NPR interview