 Historically, immigration policy had been based on economic arguments, but new research suggests eugenics as influencing public opinion on admission criteria.This change towards racial scientific theory was evident in the success of Madison Grant's works which argued that the old immigrant races were in danger of being overtaken by inferior races, particularly Southern and Eastern Europeans.Similarly, the work of Sir Francis Galton on advocating for Eugenics found heightened interest and readership during the late 1800s, reflecting the growth of racial pseudo-science based ideas amongst the American public at the time.