New-York tribune., 1920-12-03
25,000,0OO
Aliens Ready
To Come Here
tContirusd from page. onc)

years Is recommended 1or passage next
week.
Frederick a. Wallis, Commissioner CT
immigration at Ellis Is and, has in
formed Mr.. Johnson that the snug
Cling Of stowa ways into this country
has become a regular business with
some Of the crews. He said evidence
has been obtained by INN igration off
cials that stowaways had paid as much
as $40 each to be secreted III the
ships holds and regularly supplied
with food or the trip over.
A boy who had jumped overheard and
who was captured at Hoffman's Is and,
in New York Bay, confessed, Mr.. Wallis
said, that he had paid the crew of
passenger ship from Trieste to convey
him to America He declared that if
the immigration officials snspected the
ship they would find twelve other stow
avays in the hold waiting to escape.
Many Stowaways Found
Not ouly were the twelve stowaways
found, Mr. Wallis said, but it was
learned that before leaving Trieste
eighteen stowaways had been put
ashore by the captain. When the ship
arrived at Palermo fourteen more
stowaways were put ashore. At Naples
sixteen others were discovered. One,
besides the captured boy, leaped over
board in New York Bay and presumably
two who had boarded the ship at
Trieste with the intention Of Landing in
TINS country without passports
Every snip arriving at New York
averages from sixteen to twenty stow
aways, Mr.. Wallis SAYS. Recently a
snip from Chile brought twenty three,
one from Mexico brought eighteen and
another from Ecuador brought twenty
"OI course. this traffic is carried on
IN defiance of the rules of the snip
lines," said Mr.. Wallis. "but greater
menace to the country is tfe desertions
OF crews. About onc-quarter Of ali
they reach New York. OF crew Of
less than LOCO on vessel which ar
rived recently on its maiden trip from
Constantinopie 250 deserted. These
were mostly Turks and Armenians
Can't Keep Crew Prisoners
"Undcr the regulations VIC nave no
right to keep the crew prisoners while
the ships are waiting TO start on their
return voNages. But we have the rignt
TO put them through the regular lmmi-
grafton inspection. We give them
cards which show their pnotographs
and finger prints. 1t is significant that
few scamcn with cards ever show up
on second voyage. Formerly, when
the ships were permitted % 90 to their
docks and the seamen we're kept aboard
awaiting inspection, they would boldly
walk off in body in defiance of the
guards. A couple Of guards had no
chance to keep back several hundred
husky scamon.
Now we have instituted a plan Of
inspecting all the crew before the
ship is permitted to dock. This causes
comp ,aint both from the steamship
companies and from the first and
second class passengers. It also is
overtaXing the inspection staff To
continue the practice win mean that
we viii have to inspect 100000 scamen
annually, while the ships are being
held IN the bay
immigration officials declared yester-
day that one reason why Congress
would be asked to suspend Immigration
for the next two years was that seven
ont OF every ten Of the $4,000 mmi-
grants who were arriving from Europe
eve.y month were dependents. They
were mostly women, children and
grandlathcrs. who, becoming rcstivc
under economic conditions in their
native land, uad rushed to America in
response TO assurances from relatives
already here that unbounded prosper
ity awaited them in this country.
Mr.. johnson says that 70 per cent of
the immigrants now pouring in from
southern and central Europe report
on their arrival that they have no oc-
cupation. Their admission is obtained
by the assurances Of relatives that they
are not like y to become Dub.ic charges.
"The worst feature of the situation
is that about 80 per cent of them set
tie in the already congested Cities"
sud Mr.. Johnson. 81 should estimate
that about p 600 a month settle in or
nea~ New York. This means that they
crowd into tenement apartments where
the overcrowding is already so critical
as to be menace to public health.
Before the war immigrants came TO
this country to work Now they come
simply to escape from conditions at
home. Many of them believe that the
new countries of which they found