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California Joint Immigration Committee
The California Joint Immigration Committee (CJIC) was a nativist lobbying organization active in the early to mid-twentieth century that advocated exclusion of Asian and Mexican immigrants to the United States.
The CJIC was a successor organization to the Japanese Exclusion League, which was itself a successor to the Asiatic Exclusion League (AEL), originally known as the Japanese and Korean Exclusion League.
Significant anti-Asian prejudice in the United States manifested first against Chinese laborers during the construction of the transcontinental railroad in the 1860s. By barring Chinese laborers, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 in effect excluded most Chinese immigrants to the United States. Shortly after the turn of the century, rising numbers of Japanese immigrants led to anti-Japanese agitation and anti-Japanese sentiment on the West Coast. In order to quell the unrest, a diplomatic compromise known as the Gentleman's Agreement was worked out between the United States and Japan. The agreement held that the United States would not restrict immigration from Japan, while Japan was not to allow further emigration to the United States.
The Japanese and Korean Exclusion League was formed in San Francisco, California in May 1905, two months after the California State Legislature passed a unanimous resolution requesting that Congress “limit and diminish the further immigration of Japanese.” The resolution passed within a week after the San Francisco Chronicle began printing a series of anti-Japanese articles. The league was dedicated to excluding Japanese people from the United States and was funded mostly by the California Building and Construction Trades Council, a prominent labor union. In December 1907, it was renamed the Asiatic Exclusion League, which was then reorganized as the Japanese Exclusion League (JEL) in September 1920.
The Japanese Exclusion League was a pressure group representing the interests of nativists, veteran's organizations, women's clubs, labor unions, and farmers. Its operations were led and largely financed by its volunteer special representative Valentine S. McClatchy, a former newspaper publisher. McClatchy and his friend Hiram Johnson, the senior U.S. senator for California, were the leading figures in the effort to block Japanese immigration to the United States, which was realized with the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924. McClatchy, accompanied by California Attorney General Ulysses S. Webb and former U.S. Senator James D. Phelan, testified before the Senate Committee on Immigration prior to the passage of the act. His testimony included the following remarks:
“Japanese are less assimilable and more dangerous as residents in this country than any other of the peoples ineligible under our laws…They do not come here with any desire or any intent to lose their racial or national identity…They never cease being Japanese…In pursuit of their intent to colonize this country with that race they seek to secure land and to found large families…They have greater energy, greater determination, and greater ambition than the other yellow and brown races ineligible to citizenship, and with the same low standards of living, hours of labor, use of women and child labor, they naturally make more dangerous competitors in an economic way.”
After the passage of the 1924 Immigration Act, McClatchy took formal leadership of the Japanese Exclusion League, which was reorganized and renamed the California Joint Immigration Committee, in part because of “the prejudice which the name of the [earlier] organization created." McClatchy regarded the new law as an insufficient means to combat the pro-Japanese “organized propaganda” directed by church activities. He thus formed the CJIC as an authorized and representative committee with an executive force and permanent office. The general aim of the CJIC at this early stage was to gain broad support for the maintenance of the new law, which did not allow for a quota of immigrants from Japan.
As Executive Secretary of the CJIC, McClatchy led a coordinating body composed of seven members. These included the executive officers of the following organizations, all of which shared an interest in maintaining Japanese exclusion from the United States.
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California Joint Immigration Committee
The California Joint Immigration Committee (CJIC) was a nativist lobbying organization active in the early to mid-twentieth century that advocated exclusion of Asian and Mexican immigrants to the United States.
The CJIC was a successor organization to the Japanese Exclusion League, which was itself a successor to the Asiatic Exclusion League (AEL), originally known as the Japanese and Korean Exclusion League.
Significant anti-Asian prejudice in the United States manifested first against Chinese laborers during the construction of the transcontinental railroad in the 1860s. By barring Chinese laborers, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 in effect excluded most Chinese immigrants to the United States. Shortly after the turn of the century, rising numbers of Japanese immigrants led to anti-Japanese agitation and anti-Japanese sentiment on the West Coast. In order to quell the unrest, a diplomatic compromise known as the Gentleman's Agreement was worked out between the United States and Japan. The agreement held that the United States would not restrict immigration from Japan, while Japan was not to allow further emigration to the United States.
The Japanese and Korean Exclusion League was formed in San Francisco, California in May 1905, two months after the California State Legislature passed a unanimous resolution requesting that Congress “limit and diminish the further immigration of Japanese.” The resolution passed within a week after the San Francisco Chronicle began printing a series of anti-Japanese articles. The league was dedicated to excluding Japanese people from the United States and was funded mostly by the California Building and Construction Trades Council, a prominent labor union. In December 1907, it was renamed the Asiatic Exclusion League, which was then reorganized as the Japanese Exclusion League (JEL) in September 1920.
The Japanese Exclusion League was a pressure group representing the interests of nativists, veteran's organizations, women's clubs, labor unions, and farmers. Its operations were led and largely financed by its volunteer special representative Valentine S. McClatchy, a former newspaper publisher. McClatchy and his friend Hiram Johnson, the senior U.S. senator for California, were the leading figures in the effort to block Japanese immigration to the United States, which was realized with the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924. McClatchy, accompanied by California Attorney General Ulysses S. Webb and former U.S. Senator James D. Phelan, testified before the Senate Committee on Immigration prior to the passage of the act. His testimony included the following remarks:
“Japanese are less assimilable and more dangerous as residents in this country than any other of the peoples ineligible under our laws…They do not come here with any desire or any intent to lose their racial or national identity…They never cease being Japanese…In pursuit of their intent to colonize this country with that race they seek to secure land and to found large families…They have greater energy, greater determination, and greater ambition than the other yellow and brown races ineligible to citizenship, and with the same low standards of living, hours of labor, use of women and child labor, they naturally make more dangerous competitors in an economic way.”
After the passage of the 1924 Immigration Act, McClatchy took formal leadership of the Japanese Exclusion League, which was reorganized and renamed the California Joint Immigration Committee, in part because of “the prejudice which the name of the [earlier] organization created." McClatchy regarded the new law as an insufficient means to combat the pro-Japanese “organized propaganda” directed by church activities. He thus formed the CJIC as an authorized and representative committee with an executive force and permanent office. The general aim of the CJIC at this early stage was to gain broad support for the maintenance of the new law, which did not allow for a quota of immigrants from Japan.
As Executive Secretary of the CJIC, McClatchy led a coordinating body composed of seven members. These included the executive officers of the following organizations, all of which shared an interest in maintaining Japanese exclusion from the United States.