Speech #980237813

We stand linked to our history in that region. and many members of the Senate will share the misgivings voiced by Senator Borah in the 1920s. The image of American troops stationed in Nicaragua shatters the "isolationist" stereotype of the United States in the 1920s. American foreign policy in those years might better be described as nationalistic and "unilateralist." It was a decade that saw a concerted effort to stem the historical tide of immigration into the United States and to favor certain groups of immigrants over the rest. One of the first bills President Harding signed was the Emergency Quota Act of 1921. which set national quotas for immigrants. and which discriminated against those from southern and eastern Europe. The Immigration Act of 1924 was even more restrictive. cutting immigration from Italy. for example. by ninetenths. Congress and the administration of Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge also continued to press Americas wartime allies for repayment of their war debts. This forced the allies in turn to press Germany for reparations.