Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-11-25
REDS
At ELLIS ISLAND
ARE ON A STRIKE
Radicals Demand That An Iron
Barrier Be Removed When
They Have Visitors; Com
mittee Hearing Delayed.
tsy neawlne sousnA. spse,.. ,sAsso w,asl


New York, Nov. 24.-Fifty- nine rad
icals went on strike against attend
ing their deportation hearings at ElHs
Island today, and forced the hearings
to be suspended despite the presence
of the house immigration committee
which is investigating the deportation
problem. They struck to have an iron
barrier removed when they have Wis
itors.
The committee advised Commission
er Byron Uhl to use force if necessary
to compel the men next scheduled for
hearing to attend holding he had suf-
ficient authority under the law. The
commissioner sent to the detention
cage for Nicolai Kuropata, who was
arrested in a recent raid in Newark,
~ j. There was no response from the
cage and nobody on the island knew
which one of the men in the pen was
Kuropata. The radicals continued to
play handball and mandolins and a
few sang the "Internationale" while
the inspector in charge of the law di-
vision of the immigration service, Au-
gustus p She'll returned empty-hand-
ed to report to Mr.. Uhl and to the
committee.
Lets see who's running this is
land the defendants or the officials y
said Representative Raker of Califor-
mia, member of the committee and
forthwith the sergeant-at-arms
brought in the counsel for the radicals,
isaac Schorr, who emigrated from
Russia in 1904 and was graduated
from the New York university law
school in 1913. He was about to leave
the island for the mainland. At the
committees request he told his clients
the law required them to attend the
hearings. All but seven of the sixty
six radicals then reiterated their re-
fusal to attend the hearing until the
barrier was removed
Mr.. Uhl informed Schorr that the
iron mesh would remain in place and
announced that the deportation hear
jngs would be continued tomorrow.
Just how he would solve the puzzle
of identifying the radicals, he did. not
announce Their counsel professed
not to know all OF his clients by sight.
Word of the strike came to the COM
mittee when Mr.. Uhl, questioned as to
delays in deportations and in appeals
by debarred, immigrants, was testify
ing as to inadequate personnel and ac-
commodations. He read the following
letter he had received just after the
law officer had concluded one depor-
tation hearing:
"Mr. Uhl:
Dear Sir: In view of the fact that
your promise and word which Mr..
Isaak Schorr, our attorney brought
over to us as to the matter of visits,
towit: That no iron mesh or net or
any other barrier would be placed be-
tween us and our friends at the time
Of their visits to the island has been
broken by some one, we believe by
your subordinates;
''We the inmates of 203, declare
that we demand that you give MS a
personal guarantee, undersigned by
you to the effect that at no time
neither during the hearings nor after
wards, until we are deported shall any
barriers be placed between us and our
friends at the time of their visit.
Expecting an immediate answer,
we shall remain from going out to
hearings until said satisfactory and
immediate answer shall reach u.s.
Respectfully,
COMMITTEE OF ROOM NO. 203,
IN I. SCHEMSKY,
PETER P. BIANKEY,
ARTHUR KETZES."
Members of the committee said they
thought Biankey was the brains of
the strike He was arrested in Akron,
O., in 1917, released in $1,000 bail
and rearrested last month in New
York.
Mr.. Uhl testified that seldom if ever
was an immigrant asked whether he
had anarchistic views.