America had a problem. Immigration had stretched America’s cultural ties to the breaking point. The country’s lax immigration policies had opened the door for more than 25 million immigrants to flood America’s shores between 1880 and 1924. A vast majority of these immigrants fled from Europe for various reasons—famines, exorbitant taxes, wars, or political or religious persecution. To immigrants, America was the “city on a hill.” To Americans, the city was crumbling.
Philander Claxton, the U.S. commissioner of education, articulated concerns about the influx of immigrants:
