The bottom line for Cordelia Scaife May: too many people want to share my money.
In Her Own Words: The Woman Who Bankrolled the Anti-Immigration Movement
Letters and other personal writings reveal what motivated the publicity-shy heiress whose money created, and still fuels, the crusade.
By Nicholas Kulish and
- Aug. 14, 2019
This fascinating article traces the roots of the anti-immigration movement, identifying the heiress Cordelia Scaife May as the financial impetus behind a publishing industry around xenophobia. In correspondence with John D. Rockefeller below, she reveals the ultimate reasoning behind her fear: greed. She writes:”The world’s wealth actually is quite limited; mankind’s ability to expand the number who wish to share it seems limitless.”
-
Cordelia Scaife May bankrolled the founding and operation of the nation’s three largest restrictionist groups, as well as dozens of smaller ones. Associated Press 
However, the editors miss the point of this country’s receiving “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” In her poem “The New Colossus” Emma Lazarus continues, “Send these, the homeless tempest tossed to me” not for any future benefit, but because of the simple grace of hospitality. We are blessed with prosperity, and we are obligated to share it.
In an investigative story, In Her Own Words: The Woman Who Bankrolled the Anti-Immigration Movement Nicholas Kulish and Mike McIntyre, reveal the motives behind a foundation created by Ms. Scaife, which published voluminously on the dangers of liberal immigration to the United States.
It turns out that the xenophobia of the heiress Cordelia Scaife was built on motives opposite to Emma Lazarus: we have prosperity and we must protect it from the needy of the world. In correspondence with John D. Rockefeller, she reveals the ultimate reasoning behind her fear: greed. She writes:”The world’s wealth actually is quite limited; mankind’s ability to expand the number who wish to share it seems limitless” [New York Times, 15, 2019].
The reason for a welcoming immigration policy: a prosperous nation should share its resources with those in need. The foundations of immigration containment deny this obligation.