Omaha daily bee., 1919-12-16
Tenderness to Alien Radicals
From the New York Times.

Secretary Of Labor Wilson should recon
slider his refusal to transmit to the house i'm
migration committee, at its request, the report
made by Mr.. A. w. Parker on the administers
ton Of Mr.. Frederic c. Howe, lately immigra-
ton commissioner at this port. Mr.. Wilson re-
fuses on the ground that the confidential nature
of the report makes the submission of it to the
committee incompatible with the pbulic interest
There can be no doubt Of his good intentions
and good faith In taking shelter, or rather in
shetering Mr.. Howe, behind the hallowed for
mula Of incompatibility with the public interest
the suppression of information asked for by
congress, or 4 committee of congress, is COM
patible with the public interest
On account Of his radical associations, ten
denotes, and beliefs Mr.. Howe was curiously
unsuited to the post of commissioner of immi-
grafton when public policy required just Sc
verify, with no Partially or favors, toward the
dangerous aliens seeking by propaganda or by
direct acts of violence the overthrow of the
government Of the United States. A CORE
spondence published a few days ago showed
that Mr.. Howe was addressed in terms of
friendship by most notorious anarchists. His
conduct in presiding over bolshevist meeting
in this city where. without rebuke on his part,
the administration to which he was responsible
was derided and assailed, was in itself sufficient
formal reason for his immediate removal The
commissioner general of immigration, Mr.. Ca
minett ntimates that Mr.. Howe's resignation
was NOT voluntary; but he declined to give any
information as to what caused it.
Mr.. Camnetti's position was not personal
He held that he could not BREAK faith with the
department" Here again Secretary Wilson is
responsible. In view of what is known and
what is suspected in regard to Mr. Howe's ten
derness to undesirables; in view of Mr.. Camin-
etti's ingenious confession that certain aliens
were not deported to their own countries be-
cause harm might come to them in the unset
tied conditions of war; in view of the general
public knowledge that foreign revplutionaries
in the United States have long carried on and
are still carrying on their sinister activities
without much effective opposition from the
government they seek to suppress; in view too,
OF the feeling in congress and out of it that
many dangerous aliens ought to be deported
and that few have been deported, surely the
Department Of Labor owes it to the country to
tell it just what went on at Ellis Island in Mr.
Howes administration. This is no matter per-
sonal to Mr. Howe, although publication, not
suppression, of the report, with the resulting
suspicion, must be the friendliest course to him.
The people have a right to know what the
Department of Labor, through this former i'm
migration commissioner, did or neglected to do
in regard to dangerous aliens Even as mere
matter of policy, aside from any question of
right, Secretary Wilson will be wise to COM
municate the Parker report. Can it have es-
capped his notice that Senator King of Utah,
democrat has brought in bill to withdraw
from the Department of Labor the enforcement
OF the law for the deportation, Of aliens?