Tydings-McDuffie Act
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Context
Provisions and Impacts
Overview
- Filipinos were previously inhabitants of a possession of the US
- free to move within US territories
- held jobs in Hawaii and western US
- incited a nativist response
- the act followed other laws aimed at blocking Asian immigrants
- US protectionists
- save jobs for US natives (Depression era)
- Philippine nationalists
- wanted independence
- willing to accept restrictions on immigration
- quota of 50 immigrants per year
- excluding those imported to Hawaii for agricultural labor
From the Philippine Law Library:
An act to provide for the complete independence of the Philippine Islands, to provide for the adoption of a constitution and a form of government for the Philippine Islands, and for other purposes.
Pub.L. 73–127, 48 Stat. 456
24 March 1934
- Filipinos elected delegates for constitutional convention on July 10, 1934
- Roosevelt approved Constitution on March 23, 1935
- Commonwealth
- US recognition of Philippine Islands as a self-governing nation 10 years later
- reclassified all Filipinos (even living in US) as aliens
- quota of 50 immigrants per year
http://www.thecorpusjuris.com/laws/constitutions/item/tydings-mcduffie-act.html
Background Info
- similar law (Hares-Hawes-Cutting Act) was rejected by the Philippine legislature in 1933
- US would keep too much political and military power
- restrictions on Filipino immigration and imported labor
- new Philippine legislature signed Tydings-McDuffie Act on May 1, 1934
- failed attempts to attain better terms for Filipinos
- very similar to the 1933 failed law
Arnold, Kathleen R. Anti-Immigration In The United States : A Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood Press, 2011. eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 29 Sept. 2014.
"Tydings-McDuffie Act." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 29 Sep. 2014.
Stella Swartz