Ancient
'Tower of Babel'
A Symbol of
Different Languages,
Difficulty Communicating
Between People of
Different Cultures
US Democrat Party President Lyndon Baines Johnson (1963-1969) changed the course of American history and society more than he could have imagined, perhaps more than most US historians recognize. LBJ lifted the immigration quotas from Liberty Island in Immigration Reform of 1965. The number of Western hemisphere immigrants to be was accepted was increased to 120,000. One source notes the expected result was a sharp increase in immigrants from Italy, Greece, Poland, and Portugal.
More significantly, LBJ increased the number of immigrants to be accepted from the rest of the world to 170,000, with the restriction of 20,000 from any 1 nation.
Vice President Johnson's ascent to the Presidency occurred upon the assassination of the 35th President of the US, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. JFK faced significant 'Cold War' issues before his assassination, notably The Cuban Missile Crisis.
The reasons for the increased immigration quotas are beyond the scope of this article. But LBJ's 'War on Poverty' was to be expensive. And there has been a traditional Presidential belief that the best way to increase US revenue, 'expand the economy', or 'bail out' a weak economy was to bring new immigrants. The question of whether such new immigrants were rich or poor apparently has not been factored into this White House wisdom.
Previously, the theory of immigration quotas rested on the question of which immigrants were most like Americans, who would be easily assimilated into the US 'melting pot'. From the time of the early US Census in 1790, the US population drew mainly from the British, Scottish (Scotch), Irish, Dutch, French, German, with smaller numbers of self-identified Hebrews and Asians.
There were populations of American Indians, now termed 'Native Americans'. There were 'mestizo', a mixture of white and Indian, Negroes, and Indes Island indians. Census-takers asked questions of ancestry back to the grandfather. Many 'coloreds' did not supply this information.
There were other smaller groups of immigrants. Asians were 'imported' to California to work on the trans-continental railroad in the mid-1800s. Records were clearer, as these immigrants arrived with documents, as displayed in 'The Green Mountain' exhibit at The Smithsonian Institutes in the early 2000s.
Terminology changed. The term 'native' in 1900 meant American as opposed to new immigrant.
Immigration increased. By 1900, there were about 67 million Whites and 9 million 'coloreds'.
LBJ already had achieved his immigration goal. In 1964, 200,000 Mexicans were thought to have arrived in US California from Baja California and other parts of Mexico. Another 50,000 arrived in 1965 as 'green card' workers. Then Cabinet Secretary of Labor Willard Wirtz sought to hire Native Americans before importing Mexican contract workers in 1965. The 'green card' issues were transferred at the Cabinet level to the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture.
During this time, Western US high school students created the 'A-TEAM', 'Athletes in Temporary Employment in Agricultural Manpower', to find jobs in migrant farm labor. However, various foreign 'Migrant Aid Bills' were extended through the 1964 anti-poverty bill and subsequent groups of Mexicans and some Canadians were 'imported' for farm labor.
The pre-1965 population, largely of Western European origin, shared many of the same cultural traditions in philosophical thought, art, literature, history, ethics and morals, similar mostly Christian religions in a Judeo-Christian timeline, politics, related and proximate languages. Despite the relative homogeneity, there were many disputes. But most probably would understand the questions and answers of the discussion.
It is arguable that there is a relative 'Tower of Babel' in the US today. Ethnic and racial issues have caused divisiveness and hostilities in American society. Lawsuit settlements threaten to tip over 'the melting pot', as new immigrants come to seek reprisals or reparations, to become 'special interest groups' demanding special and separate funding, rather than to become part of the American way of life.
Email mkrause381@gmail.com or mkrause54@yahoo.com to comment or request a copy of this or other blogs posted by mary for monthlynotesstaff on http://monthlynotes22.blogspot.com (http://monthlynotes.blogspot.com through '22') on www.google.com. See http://monthlynotes18.blogspot.com or '19' for bloglist titles and URLs.
References: 'A Century of Population Growth. From the First Census of the US to the Twelfth, 1790-1900', Bureau of the Census, Bureau of Commerce and Labor, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1909.
'The Who, What & Where of America. Understanding the Census Results', Ed. Martha Farnsworth Ricks and Deirdre A. Gaquin, Bernan Press, Lanham, MD, 2003.
Graphic: 'Ancient Tower of Babel', in 'The Illustrated Book of Signs & Symbols', Miranda Bruce-Mitford, A DK Publishing Book, NY, NY: 1996.
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