Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-12-03
THE BREAKING DAM

IEoniS maze formally by steamship
1G companies to immigration Commissioner
Wallis at Ellis Island yesterday show that
15.OOO.O0O men, women and children are
clamoring at this moment for passage from
various parts Of Europe to the United
States. All Of them are aliens driven by
hope, by misery and by desire to obtain a
new start In life.
simultaneously with the announcement
from Ellis Island comes the news that the
Canadian authorities have placed new re-
strictions upon immigrants, who present to
the Dominion officials problem quite rs
important as that which Congress will have
to face when 1t settles down to consider ways
for dealing with another of the great after
effects of the war. For the people who
crowd the ports Of entry in this country
nowadays represent only the advance wave
OF an enormous tide of alien life
The estimates of the steamship companies
do not include uncounted multitudes who
desiring to leave Europe, are restrained by
poverty, by the inadequacy of railway trans
portation in areas still disturbed by war, by
compulsory military service or the complica-
tions of military campaigns and blockades
These millions will have to be rcckoned with,
however, in any general survey of the immi-
grafton problem as it now exists, since it Is
a matter Of record that each immigrant who
comes to the United States brings others in
his wake as soon as he can find foothold
and obtain funds to pay for the passage of
his relatives or his friends. We are not
confronted by normal minded people eager
only to work hard for n place in the scheme
of our civilization. Many of the aliens
landed recently at Ellis Island were found
to be broken in health and spirit or fired by
perverted notions of governmental futility,
and desire to strike out at any one or any
agency representative of established au-
thority.
The great work done by the United States
In the war, our systematic and splendid
campaigns of relief and the activities Of
Americans generally, who to many of the
poor of Europe have seemed like emissaries
from a better and brighter world, have ad-
vertised this country to all unfortunates as
a new sort of heaven. In eastern and south
ern Europe especially, where there is little
prospect of enduring peace and where, in
deed, peace brought general hardships al
most as great as those Of war itself, millions
of men and women are eager for fight to the
new world. They hear talk of new battles
and new campaigns and new schemes for
military conscription. The war of the Boil
shevsts dnd the counter wars that are being
planned below the seemingly conventional
surface of Continental politics continue to
be causes Of unrest among all sorts of Euro
peans. There are nations like Armenia, for
example, that probably would desire nothing
better than an opportunity to come to the
United States en- masse.
As time passes millions who cannot now
think of leaving the older countries will
yearn to follow in the wake Of millions who
| at the moment are more fortunate. The
| dam is breaking, as every one knew it would
break, and the incoming food cannot be
| oJ xrit hv ha mi
| at Washington.
| The federal immigration authorities re.
Gently were advised that steamship CORPORA
| tions which have specialized in the trans
port Of immigrants are fitting out a large
| number of new ships for that particular
| business, and even establishing new facilities
| for the mobilization of aliens able to pay
| their passage to the United States.
| This used to be free country, with op'
portunties for every man and woman abl'
| and willing to work. But in the face Of {
situation which well might result in a gen
eral lowering of the moral and living stand
ards and In stagnant and unassimilatet
masses of dispirited and impoverished alien
| in American cities some change from the OLE
| rule seems imperative. Labor men, who con
tend angrily that they may be made to en-
counter unfair competition, suggest only on
ospect of an involved problem. In the pas
no really systematic effort was made by tn
federal authorities to steer newcomers II
ways likely TO benefit them and the countr,
alike. Immigrants were left to shift TO
themselves, to congregate in slums and t
6gbt for living in congested areas wher
ooportunities were few. Meanwhile, vas
unsettled areas needed workers for the soil
When Congress finally approaches the gen
oraI ouestion of new immigration 1t ought :
find some means to put the new citize
where he Ia needed and not where he may b
undesirable and relatively helpless