The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-01-04

~ oh thoSS WIZ are u~HdCCOmpaHleO Dy
their wives of families. Th immigra-
ton commission concluded unani-
mously that restriction is demanded
by economic, moral and social con-
siderations, but 1t rejected every plan
Of restriction except the literacy test.
1t is generally conceded that the
misunderstanding business is such
a profitable one that the steamship
companies take nan chances Of be-
ing fined a hundred dollars. or of be-
ing required to carry back an. exclud-
able immigrant. 1t has been recon-
mended; that the fines be made 50
heavy for a lack of compliance with
the law as to render it a dangerous
thing for a steamship company to ac-
cept passengers whom they should not
bring over, or even to connive at the
coming of deportable persons. The de-
ported immigrant has a hard life of 1t.
He has staked his all to come, and
when the steamship carries him back
1t Is to dump him in some foreign
port, without funds, to continue his
journey home. Some have proposed
that inspection be mad at the ports
of embarkation. but the immigration,
authorities do not agree with this.
They say that 1t would be a case of
beginning at the big end Of the funnel.
Where countries are willing to assist
their immigrants, as in Italy and Rus
STA, the public health service stations
it's men at the ports of embarkation,
and their recommendations as to who
will be admitted and who are likely to
be excluded, are accepted by the gov
ernments in question and by the
steamship companies. In this way the
evils of deportation are reduced to a
minimum. LAD
1t is generally conceded that some
method must be found of filtering out
the criminals who come in on the inn
migration tide. The immigration au-
thorities catch a large percentage Of
them, but there are still too many
overlooked. 1t has been proposed that
wherever possible the Immigrant be
required to show a clean bill of health
in the shape Of a certificate from his
government showing that he is not the
possessor of a criminal record. An
other proposal is that any alien con-
victed OF a crime within five years
after he comes shall be Immediately
deported, or deported Is soon as his
prison sentence ends.
The problem Of distribution OF i'm
migrants so as to keep them out of
the cities I'M to lead them to the
land, has had many solutions pro-
posed, and vet few of them seem likely
to accomplish their purpose. The
most interesting of these is the pro-
posal to establish a zone of a hundred
miles radius around each port of en-
try, n to admit no alien who does
not possess a railroad ticket for some
point beyond that one This propo-
sition is objected to by others on sew
eral grounds. One Is that the ports
themselves would hardly be willing to
accept these conditions. For instance,
overcroWded as New York Is today,
does one suppose it would be willing
to let the immigrant tide pass out Of
its gates without a fair toll Of hui
manity from 1t? Another objection is
that this would be only a process of
filling the Golfers of the railroads; that
the immigrant might go beyond the
zone in question, but would likely
drift back again.
A serious problem from the stand
point of the Immigrant is how to
avert the unpleasant conditions Of the
ooAiS Va u l0tAoAlo
In most of the stations the size Of the
rooms are adequate for the ordinary
needs of the traffic, but, for instance,
in the case of Ellis island, the steam
ship companies today may dump 5000
immigrants out of their s~teeragetquar-
ters. Perhaps three-fifths of these will
go through all right, but the other
1000 may be detained for further ex-
animation. 1t Is inevitable under such
conditions that there will be crowd
ing in the detention rooms. And
where perhaps half of the detained
know ext to nothing about cleanii-
ness, and no insignificant percentage =
Of them arrive with vermin Of one
kim or another on their persons, it is
inevitable that the detention rooms
will not always be clean. At Ellis IS
land everyone admits that there long
has been imperative need Of more
room, and yet, with all the room that
a liberal government might provide,
conditions would in all. likelihood re-
main such as would CRATE upon the
sensibilities of people who love clean
Illness.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. xvii.
Problems of Other Countries,)