Favorable or Unfavorable #219: James J Davis

[vcczar]

Welsh-born JJ Davis of PA is an example of an anti-immigrant immigrant. He served 3 presidents as Sec of Labor before resigning to become US Sen of PA. He seems to be moderately progressive on labor, which isn't surprising, considering eugenics was adopted by both progressives and conservative racists. Progressives tended to favor it to prevent vice and defects, such as alcoholism or low IQs, while conservative racists tended to apply it to race and unwanted immigrants, who they wrongly believed were inherently defective. Davis seems to align with conservative racists here. He's arguably a blight on the legacy of the three presidents that kept him on the cabinet. To his credit, he wasn't one of the corrupt Harding appointees who contributed to the scandals. 

His actions:

Davis, James J	1921	Confirmed Sec of Labor for Harding; Welsh-born; would serve over 9 years
Davis, James J	1924	Architect of US Border Patrol; Eugenicist opposed to Southern and Eastern Europeans as "weak blood" and "sickly"
Davis, James J	1925	Harding appt retained by Coolidge as Sec of Labor heading into a full-term
Davis, James J	1929	Retained from Harding and Coolidge's cabinet as Sec of Labor
Davis, James J	1931	Co-sponsors Davis-Bacon Act, providing fair local wages for public works laborers and mechanics

[Pringles]

1 hour ago, vcczar said:

Eastern Europeans as "weak blood" and "sickly"

Damn. I’m offended! 😛 

[vcczar]

13 minutes ago, Pringles said:

Damn. I’m offended! 😛 

Yeah, I'm about 35% Eastern European (Slavic Germans called Sorbs & Czechs, the latter both Bohemians and Moravians). I'm also 35% German. The rest of me is mostly English. I also have a little Welsh, Scottish, and Scandinavian/Baltic. The latter might actually be English because of Danish invasion of England. However, I also have one German line that might go back to Old Prussia (present day Northern Poland), which is more Scandinavian/Baltic than German. The surname is common there, but this ancestor lives north of Berlin. 

My Czech ancestors arrived in 1907 (my most recent immigrant ancestors) and my great-great grandfather's citizenship was denied unil the early 1930s, despite having no cause for denial other than being from Eastern Europe. I've seen the paper work. It's all GOP immigration restrictions. He should have applied for citizenship when Wilson was president but for some reason he didn't. My guess is he didn't know until after WWI that he was staying in the US because the war wrecked Austria-Hungary's economy.