Presidential Vetos: William Howard Taft and the Literacy Test for Immigrants
Though William Howard Taft is often seen as conservative and Theodore Roosevelt is labelled as the Progressive, Taft's attitude toward African-Americans and to immigrants to the United States, while paternalistic, was relatively progressive for its time. For example, Taft met with African-American educator Booker T. Washington and publicly expressed support for many of Washington's programs. He was also the first president to hire African Americans security guards in the White House, a small step, but nonetheless something his predecessors would not do. But in his inaugural address, Taft said that he would not appoint African Americans to offices where this would lead to racial friction. He removed most African-American office holders in the South and made appointments in the North only to minor positions.
On the issue of immigration,Taft philosophically was in favor of greater immigration, but he was also politically alive to public sentiments about "undesirables". Taft faced a conflict between these two positions when on Valentine's Day of 1913, he used his veto to quash legislation known as the Dillingham-Burnett immigration bill. The bill had been passed in the House on January 25, 1913 by a margin of 166 to 71. It required that all incoming immigrants pass a literacy test.
Taft vetoed the bill in what was described as "a short message to the senate in his own handwriting." In his veto message, Taft wrote:
"I do this with great reluctance. The bill contains many valuable amendments to the present immigration law which would ensure greater certainty in excluding undesirable immigrants. The bill received strong support in both houses and was recommended by an able commission after extended investigation and carefully drawn conclusions. But I cannot make up my mind to sign a bill which in its chief provision violates a principle that was in my opinion to be upheld in dealing with our immigration. I refer to the literacy test. For the reasons stated in Secretary Nagel's letter to me, I cannot approve that test."
Taft attached a copy of a letter from Secretary of Commerce and Labor Charles Nagel describing how the use of a literacy test was something that would "reduce the quantity of cheap labor in the United States." Taft went on to state:
"No doubt the law would exclude a considerable portion of immigration from southern Italy, among the Poles, the Mexicans and the Greeks. These exclusions would embrace in large part probably undesirable, but also a great many desirable people, and the embarrassment, expense and distress of those who seek to enter would be out of all proportion to any good that can possibly be promised for this measure. My observation leads me to the conclusion that, so far as the merits of the individual immigrant are concerned, the test is altogether overestimated. The people who come from the countries named frequently are illiterate because opportunities have been denied them. The oppression with which these people have to contend in modern times is not religious, but it consists of a denial of the opportunity to acquire reading and writing. Frequently the attempt to learn to read and write the language of the particular people is discouraged by the government and those immigrants in coming to our shores are really striving to free themselves from the conditions under which they have been compelled to live."
This was the second time that a literacy test had been the subject of a veto. President Grover Cleveland had vetoed similar legislation in 1897.
Supporters of the legislation quickly promised that the veto would be over-ridden. But this did not come to pass, at least not this time. In the next administration of Woodrow Wilson, Congress would once again pass legislation requiring immigrants to pass a literacy test in 1915. President Wilson also vetoed the bill. But in 1917, aided by wartime fever, Congress passed the bill and also overrode Wilson’s veto, instituting the first literacy requirement for naturalization as part of the Immigration Act of 1917. The law stated that immigrants over 16 years of age should read 30 to 80 words in ordinary use. After World War I, the number of immigrants, including those from Eastern and Southern Europe, remained high despite the literacy test.
On the issue of immigration,Taft philosophically was in favor of greater immigration, but he was also politically alive to public sentiments about "undesirables". Taft faced a conflict between these two positions when on Valentine's Day of 1913, he used his veto to quash legislation known as the Dillingham-Burnett immigration bill. The bill had been passed in the House on January 25, 1913 by a margin of 166 to 71. It required that all incoming immigrants pass a literacy test.
Taft vetoed the bill in what was described as "a short message to the senate in his own handwriting." In his veto message, Taft wrote:
"I do this with great reluctance. The bill contains many valuable amendments to the present immigration law which would ensure greater certainty in excluding undesirable immigrants. The bill received strong support in both houses and was recommended by an able commission after extended investigation and carefully drawn conclusions. But I cannot make up my mind to sign a bill which in its chief provision violates a principle that was in my opinion to be upheld in dealing with our immigration. I refer to the literacy test. For the reasons stated in Secretary Nagel's letter to me, I cannot approve that test."
Taft attached a copy of a letter from Secretary of Commerce and Labor Charles Nagel describing how the use of a literacy test was something that would "reduce the quantity of cheap labor in the United States." Taft went on to state:
"No doubt the law would exclude a considerable portion of immigration from southern Italy, among the Poles, the Mexicans and the Greeks. These exclusions would embrace in large part probably undesirable, but also a great many desirable people, and the embarrassment, expense and distress of those who seek to enter would be out of all proportion to any good that can possibly be promised for this measure. My observation leads me to the conclusion that, so far as the merits of the individual immigrant are concerned, the test is altogether overestimated. The people who come from the countries named frequently are illiterate because opportunities have been denied them. The oppression with which these people have to contend in modern times is not religious, but it consists of a denial of the opportunity to acquire reading and writing. Frequently the attempt to learn to read and write the language of the particular people is discouraged by the government and those immigrants in coming to our shores are really striving to free themselves from the conditions under which they have been compelled to live."
This was the second time that a literacy test had been the subject of a veto. President Grover Cleveland had vetoed similar legislation in 1897.
Supporters of the legislation quickly promised that the veto would be over-ridden. But this did not come to pass, at least not this time. In the next administration of Woodrow Wilson, Congress would once again pass legislation requiring immigrants to pass a literacy test in 1915. President Wilson also vetoed the bill. But in 1917, aided by wartime fever, Congress passed the bill and also overrode Wilson’s veto, instituting the first literacy requirement for naturalization as part of the Immigration Act of 1917. The law stated that immigrants over 16 years of age should read 30 to 80 words in ordinary use. After World War I, the number of immigrants, including those from Eastern and Southern Europe, remained high despite the literacy test.