Americanization advocates demanded continuous surveillance and registration of the population.

Evidence

Above all, the N.A.C. now urged the suppression of unrest and disloyalty, the elimination of conditions under which “anti-American” influences flourished, and the dissolution of minority cultures. To prevent strikes or other disaffection, the committee recommended a constant surveillance of aliens by means of a semiannual registration of the whole population. It established a Man-Power Engineering Service which advised employers how and where to use alien enemies in their plants and how to guard against sabotage. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1502

Categorization

• XREF: The semiannual registration-of-all proposal reads as a precursor to modern mass-surveillance arguments justified by an internal enemy. — connects to: Colonial visibility required assigning serial numbers to people and things. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 679; State surveillance makes Muslim leaders perform Americanization while policing their own discourse — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 53

Broader Connections

• Colonial visibility required assigning serial numbers to people and things. #expands (0.85) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 679
• State surveillance makes Muslim leaders perform Americanization while policing their own discourse #exemplifies (0.80) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 53