Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1915-02-24
Imm gra lon Issue To Be- Te1iVed
Advocates Of Reasonable Restriction PIann
Ing campaign Of ENLIGHTENMENT.

will soon resume the consideration
of measures to strengthen the lm
migration laws Of the United
States. The failure by four votes
of the attempt in the House to
carry the Burnett bill ever the
veto of President Wilson seems to
have encouraged, rather than dis
couarged, advocates of more strin-
gent provisions to ber out uhde-
sirable immigrants. The sentl-
ment in the Senate is 30 over
whelmingly III favor Of reasonable
restriction, and the majorisy in
the House 30 considara BILE that no
difficulty is anticipated 20 far as
the elected legislators arc concern.
ed. It is realized. however, that
the opponents of restriction or ra-
gulation in any practicable form
are 30 active and 80 we'll crganl2ea
that popular Sentiment has heeu
confused and disturbed in tho con,
sideration of matter which calls
peculiarly for a trained capacity
to appreciate the great mass Of
often bswildering statistical and
scientific data
Friends of reasonable restrics-
ion are therefore planning to put
the facts before the public. Somo
of these facts, Mr.. Burnett, Mr.
Gardner and others say, will!
assonish the great bulk of the
voters when they are thorc ughly
realized. Even 50 stanch aud sue.
cessful an opponent Of th7 liter,
acy test as President Wilson con
fessed himself very strongly i'm
pressed by several Of the argu-
ments made during the White
House conference in favor of IN
| portarcs clauses in the W tenn.
porarily killed Burnett bill One
of these clauses was drawn sc
put up the bars agsll.st the influx
of alien insane.
DR. Stewart Patton, one Of the
highest authorities on insanity
problems in this country, declares
that in Massachusetts,, Rhode Is
land, New York. New Jersey,
Pennsylvania and Maryland there
are confined in public institutions
nearly three-fc urths of all the in.
sane or mentally defective imml-
grafton Rppre xmately 2 90 COO
insane persons, number exceed
ing that Of all the students ell
rolled in all the colleges and un:-
versities in this cou' try. He SAYS
that if all the states had provi-
sions comparable to those existing
in the ID osb advanced states, there
would be more than 300 COO it,
sane patients In the hospitals to.
day. And that if there were add.
ed tn -se IN whom serious nerta
disease exists but is untecogtz I'd
the nup.ber under treatm ut
wcuId reach half million.
To th1s vast army Of luratics or
semi-luuatics 60. 600 nAw patients,
almost the full streDgth Of cur
regular army, are added every
year.
The cost of conducting the in
stisntious In which this vast num-
Der Of p9rs ns is cared for, D Ct r
Pattcn Gays, ls 80 great that in
several statee il IS exec aded only by
the amonrt expended for educa-
tion. In New York, expenditures
for the lLsane cover one-fourth Of
the total annual appropriation OF
the state.
It d >es not require Thaw case,
with its melancholy and morbid
features, to assist appreciation Of
this staggering problem. And
this is one of the things that
made President Wilson really Is
luctant to vote the Barnett bill
because the bill would have placed
in operation vitality needed ad-
ministrstive forces to limit onr
insanity problem at its source, the
i'm migration stations.
L. is an open secret that fol
many years Uncle Sam hes heer
saddled with the c.,st of hand ing
a large part of the insanity pro,
blems of o5her nations. Nv nat
is it gong to be-" men llke Mr..
Burnett ask, later this war -?
, According to exports the Euro
pean war is rendering insane o.
idiotic a terrible percentage O.
: cnmhatants and nnnno m hatants