During  the  Civil  War  and  subsequent  period  of  reconstruc-
tion, anti-alien  feeling  existed  in  a  latent  state.  It  smouldered
along  until  the  early  eighties,  when  immigration  from  Italy,  *
Russia  and  Austria-Hungary  increased.  Then  the  sentiment
broke  out  anew.  In  Xew  England  especially  it  became  pro-
nounced, and  in  1893  the  Immigration  Restriction  League  was
founded,  ^

That  same  year  Senator  Lodge  introduced  the  first  literacy
test  bill,  which,  reintroduced  three  years  later,  was  passed  by
Congress  early  in  1897.  Its  supporters  thought  their  triumph  had
come,  as  there  had  been  no  systematic  opposition  to  it.  That  it
v.-as  objected  to,  hov.evcr,  was  evidenced  when  President  Cle\e-

^  By   Manoel    F.    Behar.      Reprinted    from    the    New    York    Evening   Post
by   the    National    Liberal    Immigration    League,    May,    19 16.
19


iV'[


land  vetoed  it  as  an  unjustified  "radical  departure  from  our  na-
tional policy."  The  House  promptly  passed  it  over  the  veto  by
193  votes  to  2>7y  but  it  failed  in  the  Senate,  which  had  previously
passed  it  by  52  votes  to  10.
*****

How  came  the  Lodge  bill  to  receive  so  many  votes  ?  How  is  it
that  various  exclusion  bills  are  introduced  session  after  session,
and  have  come  near  becoming  law?  There  are,  of  course,  active  in-
dividual exponents,  and  also  private  citizens,  unaffiliated  with
the  exclusionist  movement,  who  believe  that  immigration  is
largely  responsible  for  pauperism,  insanitj^  crime,  unemploy-
ment, and  other  evils.     All  these  are  the  Restrictionists.
