Anthony Caminetti

Anthony Caminetti (July 30 1854 – November 17 1923) was a United States Representative from California. He was born in Jackson, Amador County, California. He attended the public schools of his native county, the grammar schools in San Francisco, and the University of California, Berkeley. He also studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1877 and commenced practice in Jackson. He was the district attorney of Amador County from 1878 until 1882.

Caminetti served in the California State Assembly in 1883–1885. He was also a member of the State Senate from 1885 to 1887. He was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-second and Fifty-third Congresses (March 4 1891 – March 3 1895). He was an unsuccessful candidate in 1894 for reelection to the Fifty-fourth Congress. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1896 and again a member of the State assembly from 1897 until 1901. In April 1897, he was appointed code commissioner and served until July 31 1899. He was member of the State Senate from 1907 to 1913 and served as United States commissioner of immigration from 1913 to 1921. As immigration chief he displayed a naked Eurocentic xenophobia and argued that the U.S. Congress should end all immigration of Chinese, Japanese and Malays because they represented the "Asiatic menace." In 1917, he was appointed a member of the War Industries Board and after the war was sent to Europe to investigate conditions there. He engaged in the practice of law in Jackson until his death in 1923. He was buried in the Protestant Cemetery.

References

*CongBio|C000069

Further reading

* Acherman, Kenneth D., "Young J. Edgar: Hoover, The Red Scare, abd The Assault on Civil Liberties. New York: Carroll & Graf. 2007. ISBN 9780786717750. ("Asiatic menace" on page 54).
* Giovinco, Joseph P., "The California Career of Anthony Caminetti, Italian-American Politician." Ph.D. dissertation, University of California at Berkeley, 1973.