The 1880s brought a sharp rise in immigration to the US and an increase in anti-immigration hostility. Even though the Irish suffered greatly from discrimination in America, some Irish had proved willing to discriminate against other, more vulnerable groups including blacks who represented competition for jobs. During the depression years of the 1870s, the Chinese in California became the target of hostility and violence. The leader of the anti-Chinese movement was an Irish immigrant named Denis KEARNEY. He rose to prominence as head of the Workingmen's Party in large measure by fanning the flames of anti-Chinese racism among his largely Irish constituents. On several occasions workers attacked the Chinese settlement in San Francisco. Kearney's efforts culminated in Congress passing the Chinese Exclusion act of 1882, which banned all future immigration from China to the US until WWII. In contrast to their lowly status in the mid-19th century, Irish Catholics by 1900 had achieved an amazing degree of upward mobility. An Irish-American middle class had emerged and more and more Irish could be found in the ranks of business, politics, and the professions. Several expressions at the time referred to those who had "made it" -- "lace curtain," "two-toilet," and "cut glass." Working-class Irishmen, however, referred to their fellow Irish entering office work and the professions as "narrowbacks" -.i.e., weaklings. In keeping with their new-found economic success, many Irish-Americans worked hard to demonstrate their love of Ireland and America. An editorial in a 1916 "Brooklyn Daily Eagle" reads: "To call the members of the Hibernian race foreigners would be an anomaly, as they are an integral part of Americanism. The Irish have become an integral part of us, and even those of us who may be descended from passengers of the 'Mayflower" can hardly look upon them as foreigners. Once here, the Irish have bound us so closely to that little isle whence they came that we can no longer look upon Ireland as a foreign country.... Everyone in the United States knows that the "Old Country" can refer only to the Emerald Isle... We feel that, after the United States, Ireland is the country in which we take the most interest. This very remarkable psychological state is due entirely to the Irishman's wonderfully passionate patriotism... But the Irishman's love for his old home has never made him relegate America to a second place."