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The immigrant welfare activities of the New York Bureau of Industries and Immigration (NYBII) inspired progressives in other parts of the country to develop similar programs to address their states' immigration issues. California, already under the leadership of progressive Governor Hiram W. Johnson, followed New York's lead, and in 1912–13 established first a temporary immigration commission and then a permanent agency, the California Commission of Immigration and Housing (CCIH). By 1917, the CCIH had developed an effective program of inspecting agricultural labor camps, collecting and resolving immigrants' complaints, and monitoring IWW activity. The commission's labor camp inspection and complaints resolution work was similar to that of the NYBII but the Californians' concern about labor radicalism was distinctive and reflected the unique conditions of California's unskilled labor market.

This chapter focuses on Nicholas Murray Butler's campaign to win the Republican Party nomination for president in 1920. It is impossible to locate the specific moment when Butler first began to think about the possibility that he might someday be the Republican presidential candidate, but the 1912 election could only have stimulated whatever dormant presidential impulses were already twitching within him. Butler's place on the ticket to receive the Republican electoral votes for vice president after the death of candidate James S. Sherman (and after the election was decided), although purely ceremonial, surely had an impact. By the time Butler officially announced his candidacy, in late December 1919, he had effectively been running a campaign for more than a year anchored on the exhortation to “Pick Nick for a Picnic in November.” At the Republican National Convention in Chicago, there were three initial front-runners: General Leonard Wood, Illinois governor Frank Lowden, and California senator Hiram Johnson. In the end, however, the Republicans nominated Ohio Senator Warren Harding.

This chapter addresses the social forces in the U.S. that came together after World War I to pave the way for Japanese exclusion in 1924. Congress held hearings across the West Coast about Japanese immigration in 1920, which revealed the intensity of the issue as hundreds of persons testified. Many favored Japanese exclusion, but a surprising number opposed it. As it had done earlier with both the Chinese and the Japanese, California lead the way towards exclusion, in this case through approving a ballot measure the strengthened the state’s alien land law. Votes in this measure revealed splits about Japanese exclusion within the state and within various neighborhoods within Los Angeles, the state’s largest city. A cadre of political leaders and private citizens in California, including V.S. McClatchy, James D. Phelan, and Senator Hiram Johnson, led the anti-Japanese campaign. In the end, the federal government’s approval of Japanese exclusion was not a sure thing, and throughout the process its backers were never certain of their success.