Nativist intensity collapsed once restriction was legally secured

Evidence

In all of its manifestations 100 per cent Americanism in the midtwenties was losing its driving force. Muscular patriots kept hammering on the dangers to the nation and the crisis of the hour, but it all sounded less and less real, more and more tinny. By 1925 Will Rogers, the greatly beloved cracker-barrel philosopher of the decade, was beginning to hoot and jibe at people who called themselves 100 per cent American. The United States has nothing to be concerned about, Rogers declared happily. “The next time a Politiclan gets spouting off about what this Country needs, either hit him with a tubercular Tomato or lay right back in your seat and go to sleep. Because THIS COUNTRY HAS GOT TOO BIG TO NEED A DAMN THING.” — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1955

Categorization

• CANDY: Will Rogers riffing that America is too big to need anything — letting patriots’ hot air dissipate on its own.
• XREF: connects to: Immigration restrictions climaxed a wartime cascade of anti-foreign statutes — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1806; Restriction’s success deflated nativism even though its fodder remained. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1961; Victorious nativists immediately moved to extend restrictions to new targets — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1953 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Restriction’s success deflated nativism even though its fodder remained. #corroborates (0.95) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1961
• Victorious nativists immediately moved to extend restrictions to new targets #contradicts (0.80) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1953
• Failed official coercion pushed nativism back toward racial and religious targets #contradicts (0.75) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1807