Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1920-12-03

Ellis island, the great gateway, has
II " been choked Ships have been forced
to tie up for days before c1scharglng
their steerage passengers and on the island 1t Is
not unusual for as many as 5000 immigrants TO
be detained for the night in sleeping quarters de-
signed for the accommodation of half as many.
Floors, benches and chairs are filled with the
overflow from the dormitories, and hundreds
sleep their feet
The melting pot is boiling over, and the con-
gestion will increase with each passing month.
Steamship men say their accommodations are
booked for full year ahead. Poles and Italians
especially coming in swarms and 1t is certain
that as soon as the way is clear for them Ger
mans viii enter America in vast numbers.
That the problem of assimilation may be
little less difficult to solve, despite its magnitude,
is Indicated by the fact that many of the
younger generation are now on the manfests OF
the incoming vessels writes John Walker Harring-
ton in the New York Herald. The death Of so
many fathers in the war has caused hundreds
of thousands of families on the other side to try
a hazard of fortunes in the Land of Promise
Many widows, some of them with two or three
children, are reaching the country by means OF
money sent to them by friends and relatives.
To the children the New World comes with
rush of experiences. To them, until they are
passed upon it seems one Of green sWard and OF
blue sea- of changing skies and of passing ships
Under other regimes the detained immigrants
were kept penned like dumb driven cattle and to-
them the United States meant for many hours
wire cages and dark walls 1t is all different
now, for the present commissioner of immigra-
ton Frederick A. Wallis has set new precedent
by using acres of unused grass plots on Ellis
island as a recreation place for the immigrants
The children in their element there. The
place rings with happy laughter and echoes the
fall of rompng feet. Alert, healthy and strong
are these Americans to be, and some OF them, too
are more than aliens
Young Are in Majority.
"Ie suis American said Petit JEAN the other
day.
He had come with his brother. maker of bead
bags to see what the country had in store
AT six he has the vision of his adopted land. His
father. a cavalryman, was killed in the war and
as his mother had no other ties except those on the
western shore of the Atlantic they had come hith-
err to bring up Jean as citizen of this republic.
1 At an impressonabe age, the children, who are
temporariy detained the island, our largest
entrepot for the new citizenry, are learning
Through concerts and addresses and through
music many valuable lessons Of life. very
large number of them are at school age or a little
less, and they are coming here at time when
they are best fitted to absorb the traditions and
the history of the country to which fate has
brought them.
The disruption of families caused by deaths in
the war abroad has at the time brought to
this country Immigrants VINO are NANNY younger
than the average, as far as may be observed off
hand detailed study of statistics along this
line has not been made, but the general impress
sion is given, after seeing shipload after ship
load of the future Americans that there is pre-
ponderance not only of young women, especially
of young mothers, in the newly arrived of the
gentler SEX but that the men who are landing
here in quest of fortune are youthful and
more alert in appearance than the immigrants of
previous years Rarely one sees the bent and de-
crepit who shave come over with sons and daugh-
ters to begin their lives anew in the changed
world.
More Permanent Class Arrives.
The presence of so many families, although
often bereft of fathers indicates a perma-
nent class than usual There are not so many
unattached male immigrants Italians, Austrians
and the like-who in former years sought the
United States only to avail themselves of high
wages and to return with their savings to their
original environment. Up to the first of July
there had arrived at American ports 247,625 men
and boys and 1926 women and children, which
is somewhat in excess the feminine side. In
January the two genders were about equally
divided and in the succeeding months the males
gradually increased in numbers.
Of this grand total, 430,001, it is noted that
f173133 are set down as having no occupation, this
classification including women and children. The
homes of those who are looking for cooks and
y@flor maids and experts in al. lines of domestic