Americanization; Civics; Immigrants -- United States; Naturalization -- United States; Noncitizens -- United States
Now the results of the election in the wards dominated by those
nationalities might rationally be held to show a pronounced effect of
that propaganda, but it was no secret, the old “aristocratic” wards
were presumably as keen about pro-Germanism as those inhabited by
voters of alien origin, and there, if anywhere, would be the seat
of the prejudice against Witt on the ground of alleged radicalism.
Why, then, did the native-born conservatives waive their prejudices
against Witt, the supposed radical, and overlook the charges of
pro-Germanism? And why did the foreign born, who are conventionally
expected to be radical, suddenly turn and vote against the only
candidate who was accused of being radical? Why did Mr. Witt gain
nothing in the heavily German wards (as in fact he did gain nothing)
from his German name, his remote German ancestry, and the accusation
of pro-Germanism? It was further noted at the time that among the
Russian Jews the attack upon Witt turned many normally Democratic
votes to the Davis Republican candidate. Why?
The following tables show what happened in the precincts studied:
TABLE XLIV
DISTRIBUTION OF DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN VOTES IN CLEVELAND IN
1913 AND 1915 AMONG CERTAIN RACIAL GROUPS
========================================================
| NUMBER OF VOTES | NUMBER OF VOTES
+--------+--------+--------+--------
PRECINCTS | 1913 | 1915
+--------+--------+--------+--------
| Baker | Davis | Witt | Davis
--------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------
Native born | 945 | 1,091 | 1,039 | 925
Czech | 343 | 223 | 275 | 373
Magyar | 207 | 204 | 302 | 204
Polish | 263 | 208 | 205 | 473
Jugo-Slav | 283 | 135 | 279 | 137
Italian | 239 | 282 | 136 | 394
Jewish | 260 | 256 | 273 | 212
========================================================
The three elections following--the presidential in 1916, the
mayoralty election in 1917, and the governorship election in
1918--exhibit no tendencies attributable either to the war or to
any special causes from which one may generalize anything with
regard to the political activities and attitudes of the foreign-born
voters which would distinguish them from the native-born. In 1912
Wilson carried Polish, Magyar, and Czech precincts. In 1916 he
repeated--this presumably not because of any aspect of the war, but
because those precincts are normally Democratic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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