The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbour that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
Emma Lazarus

That first night we sat around in the house and they asked me, Well, why did you come? I told them about that first night and what the ugly shoemaker said about life, liberty and the getting of happiness. They all leaned back and laughed What you need is money, they said It was all right at home. You wanted nothing. You ate your own meat and your own things on the farm. You made your own clothes and had your own leather. The other things you got at the Jew man's store and paid him with sacks of rye. But here you want a hundred things. Whenever you walk out you see new things you want, and you must have money to buy everything.. . . . The next morning my friends woke me up at five o'clock and said, Now, if you want life, liberty and happiness, they laughed, you must push for yourself. You must get a job. Come with us.^

There are now forty-seven evening classes meeting at the House weekly, twenty-five evening clubs for adults, seventeen afternoon clubs for children, the Hull-House Music School, a choral society for adults, a children's chorus, a children's sewing school, a training school for kindergartners, a trades union for young women. In daily use are the nursery, the kindergarten, the playground, the penny provident bank, an employment bureau, a sub-station of the Chicago post office. A trained nurse reports to the house every morning and noon, to take charge of the sick-calls for the neighborhood; a kindergartner visits daily sick and crippled children. The coffeehouse serves an average of 250 meals daily, and furnishes noonday lunches to a number of women's clubs; soups and broths and wholesome food are bought by neighbors from its kitchen, and bread from its bakery, adorned with the label of the bakers' unions, goes out to the Lewis Institute, to grocery stores, to neighbors' tables.

The duty and the opportunity of the National Government and of the local community with regard to the immigrants who have been coming to the United States is clear. It is twofold: (I) to protect the immigrants against fraud and exploitation so that such traditions as they cherish with regard to America will not be lost in their first contact with us; (2) to give them an opportunity to learn the English language and to secure such a working knowledge of our laws and institutions as will enable them to join with us in the work of making the United States a really effective democracy. To do this does not mean that a new kind of service unknown to American traditions should be undertaken in behalf of the immigrant. It does mean, however, that community organizations and institutions shall be established and maintained, not for an imaginary homogeneous Anglo-Saxon population, but for the population as it is.

We have been called the melting pot of the world. We had an experience just a few years ago, during the great World War, when it looked as though we had allowed influences to enter our borders that were about to melt the pot in place of us being the melting pot. I think that we have sufficient stock in America now for us to shut the door, Americanize what we have, and save the resources of America for the natural increase of our population. We all know that one of the most prolific causes of war is the desire for increased land ownership for the overflow of a congested population. We are increasing at such a rate that in the natural course of things in a comparatively few years the landed resources, the natural resources of the country, shall be taken up by the natural increase of our population . . .. Without offense, but with regard to the salvation of our own, let us shut the door and assimilate what we have, and let us breed pure American citizens and develop our own American resources.

Essay Question

Write a well-organized essay that includes an introduction, several paragraphs, and a conclusion. Use evidence from at least five documents in the body of the essay. Support your response with relevant facts, examples and details. Include additional outside information to thoroughly answer the following:

Discuss the challenges immigrants faced in America after 1880, and review some of the ways in which immigration issues were addressed.

• There were strong contrasts between what immigrants expected to find once living in America and the lifestyle they actually found upon arrival. Propaganda suggested America was a welcoming country. Immigrants after 1890 increasingly came from countries with a variety of languages and cultural differences. Prejudice and poverty made it difficult for immigrants to arrive and prosper.
• There were both positive and negative reactions to the immigration movement.
  • Aspects of the Progressive movement helped immigrants adapt to life in America. Other reforms, like organized labor, mandatory school attendance, and child labor laws, also benefited people in the immigrants social position.
  • The nativist movement opposed new immigration in the name of preserving American ideals. Students should provide examples such as the Sacco and Venzetti case, the Red Scare, the Chinese Exclusion Act and/or the Immigration Act of 1924 to show there were factions of American society that believed immigrants posed a danger and should be restricted.