El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-01-19
NEW KNOW NOTHING
ERA Is THREATENED
KOhler Says Too Drastic I'm
migration Laws Work
Many Hardships.

New York, n. Y, Jan. 19.-Max ].
Kohler. in a paper on immigration and
Jews of America, read before the coun-
ell Of the Union of American Hebrews
Congregations, said in part:
THE immigration question in the
United States has of late assumed
very serious character. On the one
hand, administration of subsisting
laws has become ever harsher, the
climax being now upon us On the
other hand. the report of the national
immigration commission, appointed
pursuant OF the act of congress Of
1907, was submitted last December and
considers and tentatively recommends
legislation Of q drastic character. We
must recognize that we are in the
midst of a new Know Nothing Era
and only a campaign of education can
safeguard the best interests of the
country and maintain the open door
to continued national prosperity.
with respect to the enforcement OF
our immigration laws. as in all other
respects, the Jews of the United States
want our laws enforced. But we de-
mand fair and square administration
and justice for each and all We do
not want aliens to be admitted, of any
race or creed, suffering from loath-
some or contagious diseases, mentally
or morally defective. contract laborers
or paupers or persons likely TO be-
come public charges in fact. Bessie
our general interest as citizens in the
welfare Of our beloved country, we
realize that we Jews ourselves Will
become the chief sufferers if such
properly debarred aliens of our own
faith are permitted to enter.
THE number of alien Jews who
came over here during the past year
was $4,000 or 8-1O0 percent of the
total Of alien immigration. In fact
during this period, the grade of immi-
grants measured by the requirements
Of the law has not deteriorated. In
connection with these figures it should
be remembered that an ever increasing
number Of prospective immigrants are
barred abroad from sailing for the
United States in consequence of med
ical examinations conducted there by
the steamship companies; the immigra-
ton commission itself reports that
about four times as many aliens are
refused passage abroad each year by
the steamship companies on medical
grounds, after paying for their tickets
in whole or in paTE as are excluded
here for all grounds annually, the
steamship companies seeking to avoid
the penalties imposed for bringing
aliens over, discernibly suffering from
loathsOme dangerous or contagious
diseases, but not being obliged TO in
vestigate asf to other grounds for ex-
clusion.
While the large majority of immi
grants are in fact still admitted. no
one can tell who W become victim
of a laundering ADMINISTRATION of the
law. Nor do people often realize how
much bitterness and anita gonism is en-
gendered among relatives of such W
fortunatc5 by unjustified exclusions o
say I othing of the wreck Of hopes as
well as fortune for the poor returned
immigrant.
'The immigration commission points
out that the fact that nearly so per
cent of the appeals from exclusions
taken to the secretary of commerce
and labor are sustained proves ineffi-
cheney Of administration below, and
that similar blunders must take place
in cases not appealed; in fact, how
ever, large number Of appeals are
improperly overruled as well, as ade-
quate machinery for hearing them is
not existent, and because the presump-
ton of the correctness of decision
appealed from largely obtains, espe-
cially as the appellate tribunal realizes
that it does not itself see the immi-
grants and their Witnesses and the
commissioner commonly recommends
affirmance; and because of the aston
ishing ground for denying justice in
individual cases evolved by the re-
stricttonists that admissions on appeal
should be discountenanced because
tending to weaken the administration
of the law in other cases. But the