Why an Heiress Spent Her Fortune Trying to Keep Immigrants Out
She was an heiress without a cause — an indifferent student, an unhappy young bride, a miscast socialite. Her most enduring passion was for birds.
But Cordelia Scaife May eventually found her life’s purpose: curbing what she perceived as the lethal threat of overpopulation by trying to shut America’s doors to immigrants.
She believed that the United States was “being invaded on all fronts†by foreigners, who “breed like hamsters†and exhaust natural resources. She thought that the border with Mexico should be sealed and that abortions on demand would contain the swelling masses in developing countries.
An heiress to the Mellon banking and industrial fortune with a half-billion dollars at her disposal, Mrs. May helped create what would become the modern anti-immigration movement. She bankrolled the founding and operation of the nation’s three largest restrictionist groups — the Federation for American Immigration Reform, NumbersUSA and the Center for Immigration Studies — as well as dozens of smaller ones, including some that have promulgated white nationalist views.
Read more at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/us/anti-immigration-cordelia-scaife-may.html
wikipedia bio CIS (Center for Immigration Studies) Mark Krikorian asked about Cordelia Scaife funding NY Times has a paywall in case for anyone. This is pretty interesting, I did not know any of this here. I know of the organizations FAIR, NumbersUSA and CIS. Who would have known she helped fund or even generously funded these organizations. It's the NYT, so maybe there is a bias but very interesting still. Had people even heard her name before? I don't think I had.
See, she was a bit of a pro-choicer too, which a lot of Malthusians (people worried about overpopulation) are. Mellon Banks, big money. Lots of cash to splash around.
I almost put this in history where it could easily go. But more may see it here.
