tarrifs and immgiration

• when was the Fordney-McCumber act?

  1922
• history of the Fordney-McCumber act

  Wilson believed in low tariffs.   He had reduced tariffs in 1913, and refused to increase them.  

  Demand was growing, however, for higher tariffs. As soon as he became President, Warren Harding passed an Emergency Tariff (May 1921) to increase duties on food imports, and in 1922 Congress passed the Fordney-McCumber Tariff.
• two main principles of the Fordney-McCumber act - 'Scientific tariff': this linked tariffs to the wages in the country of export.   If wages in, say Italy, were very low, then Italian goods were given a proportionately higher tariff. This negated the effect of lower wages in competitor countries.
• two main principles of the Fordney-McCumber act - 'American Selling Price': this linked tariffs to the price of American goods, not to the cost of production.   A German company might be able to produce, say, a certain chemical for $60, but if the selling price in America was $80, and the US tariff was 50%, the tariff would be $40.   This meant that foreign imports were ALWAYS more expensive than American-produced goods, however cheaply they had been made
• The Fordney-McCumber Act established the highest tariffs in history - some duties up to 400% and an average of 40%.
• immigration quotas - Immigration Law

  • passed in 1917
  • This required all immigrants to prove they could read English, banned all immigration from Asia, and charged an immigration fee of $8.
• immigration quotas - the emergency quota act

  • passed in 1921
  • This stated that the number of immigrants from 'the eastern hemisphere' could not be more than 3% of the number already in America in 1910. 
  • It set the maximum number of immigrants in any year at 357,000.
• immigration quotas - Reed-Johnson Act

  • passed in 1924
  • Maximum number of immigrants in any year at 154,000.   Quota from eastern hemisphere reduced to 2% of those already in America in 1890; the South and the East of Europe were thus only allowed to send 20,000 immigrants per year, and non-Europeans only 4,000.
• measures were taken to 'americanize' immigrants

  ●   The Federal Bureau of Naturalization organised naturalization proceedings, and patriotic 'Americanization Day' rallies and Fourth of July celebrations.

  ●   The Federal Bureau of Education organised courses on politics and democracy to prepare immigrants for the 'citizenship exam'. (sacco and vanseti case)
• sacco and vanseti case -

  two immigrants from Italy who were anarchists - who in 1920 were found guilty of armed robbery and murder (and executed in 1927), even though the defence produced 107 witnesses that they were elsewhere at the time, there were 61 prosecution witnessess convincng many of their guilt. in 1925 the actual murderer came forward and gave himself up. the jury did not believe the defence witnesses because they were all Italian immigrants.