Manifest Destiny, Progressivism, War, and the Roaring Twenties 211ety to the native population. These two laws—the Immigration Act
and the Indian Citizenship Act—stood in marked contrast to each
other: the one restricted admission; the other extended citizenship
rights. Because of the Immigration Act it was believed in some quar-
ters that within a generation or so the foreign-born would cease to be a
major factor in American society. But this generalization did not take
into account the number of illegal immigrants who would daily violate
the border with Mexico and seek a new life in the United States. There
was a large and eager market for unskilled laborers, especially in the
farming industry. Fruit and vegetable growers in the Southwest chose
not to ask probing questions of their workers about their legal status.
Congress also passed the National Bud get and Accounting Act on
June 10 , 1921 , that created for the first time a Budget Bureau in the
Treasury Department to regulate and supervise the expenditures of the
national government. Later, during the Great Depression, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt moved this bureau from the Treasury Depart-
ment to the White House in order to better control and regulate the
sources and disbursement of funds.
During the 1920 s there was a considerable effort to provide social
and economic improvements. Progressives in both parties—including
such men as Senators Robert La Follette of Wisconsin, George Norris
of Nebraska, William E. Borah of Idaho, and Burton K. Wheeler of
Montana, along with Representatives Fiorello La Guardia of New
York, John M. Nelson of Wisconsin, and Victor Berger, a Socialist, of
Wisconsin—held a conference in Chicago in May 1923 in which they
agreed upon a wide program of reform. They proposed child labor
limitation, lower railroad rates, farm relief, freedom for the Philip-
pines, excess profits taxes, and limits on the power of injunctions which
were issued by the courts to halt labor strikes. It would take time—more
time than they expected or wished—but eventually most of these re-
forms were enacted into law.
The xenophobia and isolationism so prevalent during the 1920 s were
reflected in the presidential election of 1924. Naturally, the Republicans
nominated Coo lidge, but a number of Insurgent Republicans formed a
new Progressive Party and nominated Senator Robert La Follette.
During the campaign they attracted Socialists, Bull Moosers, and
Single Taxers. They proposed the nationalization of the railroads,