![Picture](/uploads/3/8/2/9/38298825/1884744_orig.jpg)
This cartoon is just as refined and subtle as the Kool-Aid man. The opinion of the author is obvious, immigrants are bad and will harm the U.S., the obvious evidence is the bomb that replaces the head. Just how will the immigrants harm the U.S.? Well, the patched up clothes, cheap looking shoes, and bag labeled undesirable “imply” that they will be an economic drain on America (“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses” my foot), while the bomb “implies” violence, destruction, et cetera.
This was not an uncommon point of view, this cartoon was published in July 1919 when fear of the Bolshevik revolution painted everyone who wasn’t 100% American a deep red. This primarily meant people with leftist views (because the communists were a far left group) and immigrants (because the communists weren’t from America). Everyone took part in the hate, from journalists blowing everything out of proportion to the federal government functionally going back on its previous recognition of labor unions; every labor strike was considered “communist inspired” by detractors, which destroyed public support, and the federal government broke strikes and spoke out against them. There were race riots between whites and blacks in the south, the blacks were supposedly influence by communism, according to the authorities of the time.
Back to immigration, people of the time believed that immigrants were mostly or all communists and that the solution was to deport them. Warrantless raids were performed (think the Palmer raids but slightly earlier, and less publicized), people were arrested, and an entire shipload (249, it must have been a small ship) mostly members of the Union of Russian Workers (Very much like the wobblies, only more Russian) were expelled from the U.S. in what was (supposed to be) the first of many “Soviet Arks” (or “Soviet Arcs”).
So that was the bomb, now for the ragged clothing. In 1919 the Immigration Restriction League was a big deal. Their goal, obviously, was to restrict immigration of “undesirables”, exactly the term used on the sleeping bag in the cartoon. The group was a big supporter of the literacy test that was vetoed three times before the veto could be overturned by congress. They blamed “new immigrants” for the “new” social problems: poverty, crime, overcrowding, et cetera. Therefore they wanted to let in only those who met the standards of America, i.e. not poor, illiterate people.
"Close the Gate." Wikimedia Commons. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Close_the_gate_-_First_Red_Scare_political_cartoon.jpg>.
Goldman, Emma. "People & Events: Prelude to the Red Scare: The Espionage and Sedition Acts." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldman/peopleevents/e_redscare.html>.
"Immigration Restriction League." Open Collections Program: Immigration to the US,. Harvard, n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. <http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/restrictionleague.html>.
Lazarus, Emma. "New Colossus." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. <http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/new-colossus>.
"Literacy and the Immigration of "undesirables"" Gelder Lehrman Institute of American History. Gelder Lehrman Institute of American History, n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gilderlehrman.org%2Fhistory-by-era%2Fimmigration-and-migration%2Fresources%2Fliteracy-and-immigration-%E2%80%9Cundesirables%E2%80%9D-1903>.
Schmidt, Regin. "Red Scare: FBI and the Origins of Anticommunism in the United States, 1919-1943." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. <http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Fo1jblFR3BcC&oi=fnd&pg=PA9&dq=first+red+scare&ots=wgy1aDgAPM&sig=fptaqr1QK6bsMQKh5xAIOo7clDw#v=onepage&q=pot&f=false>.
Vaught, Hans P. "The Bully Pulpit and the Melting Pot." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. <http://books.google.com/books?id=ldvcd6G-FMAC&pg=PA207&lpg=PA207&dq=first+red+scare+melting+pot+of+poor&source=bl&ots=s_sMAClu6m&sig=wfFw2Ux8dJo-V-oS4mzSqhx-sEM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ixgfVMO0GqaIsQSH4ICoBA&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=immigration%20restriction%20league&f=false>.
This was not an uncommon point of view, this cartoon was published in July 1919 when fear of the Bolshevik revolution painted everyone who wasn’t 100% American a deep red. This primarily meant people with leftist views (because the communists were a far left group) and immigrants (because the communists weren’t from America). Everyone took part in the hate, from journalists blowing everything out of proportion to the federal government functionally going back on its previous recognition of labor unions; every labor strike was considered “communist inspired” by detractors, which destroyed public support, and the federal government broke strikes and spoke out against them. There were race riots between whites and blacks in the south, the blacks were supposedly influence by communism, according to the authorities of the time.
Back to immigration, people of the time believed that immigrants were mostly or all communists and that the solution was to deport them. Warrantless raids were performed (think the Palmer raids but slightly earlier, and less publicized), people were arrested, and an entire shipload (249, it must have been a small ship) mostly members of the Union of Russian Workers (Very much like the wobblies, only more Russian) were expelled from the U.S. in what was (supposed to be) the first of many “Soviet Arks” (or “Soviet Arcs”).
So that was the bomb, now for the ragged clothing. In 1919 the Immigration Restriction League was a big deal. Their goal, obviously, was to restrict immigration of “undesirables”, exactly the term used on the sleeping bag in the cartoon. The group was a big supporter of the literacy test that was vetoed three times before the veto could be overturned by congress. They blamed “new immigrants” for the “new” social problems: poverty, crime, overcrowding, et cetera. Therefore they wanted to let in only those who met the standards of America, i.e. not poor, illiterate people.
"Close the Gate." Wikimedia Commons. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Close_the_gate_-_First_Red_Scare_political_cartoon.jpg>.
Goldman, Emma. "People & Events: Prelude to the Red Scare: The Espionage and Sedition Acts." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldman/peopleevents/e_redscare.html>.
"Immigration Restriction League." Open Collections Program: Immigration to the US,. Harvard, n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. <http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/restrictionleague.html>.
Lazarus, Emma. "New Colossus." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. <http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/new-colossus>.
"Literacy and the Immigration of "undesirables"" Gelder Lehrman Institute of American History. Gelder Lehrman Institute of American History, n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gilderlehrman.org%2Fhistory-by-era%2Fimmigration-and-migration%2Fresources%2Fliteracy-and-immigration-%E2%80%9Cundesirables%E2%80%9D-1903>.
Schmidt, Regin. "Red Scare: FBI and the Origins of Anticommunism in the United States, 1919-1943." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. <http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Fo1jblFR3BcC&oi=fnd&pg=PA9&dq=first+red+scare&ots=wgy1aDgAPM&sig=fptaqr1QK6bsMQKh5xAIOo7clDw#v=onepage&q=pot&f=false>.
Vaught, Hans P. "The Bully Pulpit and the Melting Pot." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. <http://books.google.com/books?id=ldvcd6G-FMAC&pg=PA207&lpg=PA207&dq=first+red+scare+melting+pot+of+poor&source=bl&ots=s_sMAClu6m&sig=wfFw2Ux8dJo-V-oS4mzSqhx-sEM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ixgfVMO0GqaIsQSH4ICoBA&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=immigration%20restriction%20league&f=false>.