Lower East Side Pushcarts With “Imported Americans” 1907
This stereoview published by Underwood & Underwood in 1907 says in its caption:
“Imported Americans”, shopping from push-carts in the Lower East Side, N.Y. City.
Although the neighborhood is unidentified it appears to be Little Italy with Mulberry Bend Park on the left.
This not so veiled aspersion of “Imported Americans” is typical of the apprehensions of many Americans to newcomers in 1907. With millions of people leaving Europe annually to come to the United States, anti-immigration forces were quite vocal as to how these “Imported Americans” could possibly assimilate.
Are the immigration worries then, different from today?
All those people arriving a century ago were inspected and processed through proper channels and immigrated legally.
Did any “undesirables” slip through back then?
Of course. But in general, criminals, unaccompanied children, anyone with an infectious disease, those who were insane or feeble-minded, and people who would be a public charge (relying on public assistance) were not admitted to the United States and sent back to their home countries. This happened to my great-great-great grandmother who was apparently ill at inspection.
The Immigration Act of 1907 further restricted who could be admitted as follows:
All idiots, imbeciles, feebleminded persons, epileptics, insane persons, and persons who have been insane within five years previous; persons who have had two or more attacks of insanity at any time previously; paupers; persons likely to become a public charge; professional beggars; persons afflicted with tuberculosis or with a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease; persons not comprehended within any of the foregoing excluded classes who are found to be and are certified by the examining surgeon as being mentally or physically defective, such mental or physical defect being of a nature which may affect the ability of such alien to earn a living.
While Homeland Security, the TSA and passport control at airports makes life miserable for American citizens, it seems anybody can simply walk over the border today unvetted and get on the public dole.
