1911 – Dillingham Commission Report Recommends Limiting Admission of Immigrants Based on “Economic or Business Considerations”

“[US President Theodore] Roosevelt appointed a commission to study
immigration… The Dillingham Commission (named after its chairman,
Senator William P. Dillingham, R-Vt.) labored for three years and
produced a forty-two-volume report… that had ‘enormous influence on
the future course of immigration policy.’ Mountains of data were
gathered on the economic and social characteristics and impacts of the
new immigrants… [it] construed a picture… that the new immigrants
from southern and eastern Europe tended to be less skilled, less
literate… The commission affirmed that ‘further general legislation
concerning the admission of aliens should be based primarily upon
economic or business considerations.'”