The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-01-31
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, D. c.
SOME IMMIGRATION FACTS.


missioner of Immigration Wallis OF
| New York.
! MIR. Wallis recently gave the senate
committee on immigration a succinct
and startling account of the immigra-
ton situation, of which only a few
words have heretofore been published.
The gist of his facts are therefore here
set forth.
In Danzig he says that people are
standing in line by thousands to get
on the boats, and that they are
camped all about the port of en-
barkation, waiting their turns. The
steamship companies report that they
are offered ten times as much bust
ness as they can handle. Most of these
immigrants have sold everything they
possessed in order to raise enough
money to pay for a passage to this
country, and to have enough money to
be admitted when they arrive. They
pay from $110 to $3.50 for a steerage
passage to the United States, which is
more than a first class passage cost a
few years ago. The immigrant carry
ing business is said to be very re-
munerative to the steamship COM
panies.
Many of the immigrants tell of be-
ing robbed at the port of embarkation.
They are forced to check all of their
personal belongings while taking a
bath, and afterward they say they are
IL.
being honored. There are also tales
of women and girls being dra eyed out
of line and robbed
The result is that when the immi-
grant arrives in the United States he
does mot have sufficient money to be
admitted to this country, as the law
provides that he cannot be admitted
if he is likely to become a public
charge. On one ship carrying perhaps
a thousand immigrants there were sew
eral hundred that had less than one
dollar each in money. Many of them,
from regions infested with typhus,
wear clothes so flimsy that these
clothes will not stand the disinfecting
process thru which they must be put
Congestion at Ellis Island.
Most of these destitute immigrants
claim that they expect money here
from friends, relatives or societies, and
most of them are, in the course of
time, rescued by some of their COM
patriots in this country. BUT mean
time they must be cared for at Ellis
Island. The island has no accommo-
dations for such a swarm of people.
They are compelled to sleep on the
floors, and until recently many of them
had to sleep without blankets. There
are no adequate toilet facilities or
facilities of any other kind.
Furthermore, these almost destitute
people land in a country the language
of which they cannot speak, and in
city which is already full of unem-
ployed persons, and which has bread
lines. There is practically no machin-
cry for placing these people in jobs
Mr. Wallis reported several letters
that he had had from the west asking
for immigrant labor at good wages.
But he has not authority to establish
or to act as an employment agency
He believes that the labor department
is now taking some steps to distribute
these immigant laborers where they
are needed, but does not know what
funds they have for the purpose. CAS-
a matter of fact, they have practically
none. The United states Employment
service, since the armistice has been
reduced to a skeleton organization)
Mr.. Wallis does not believe that the
situation is to be relieved by the pas
sage of a law like the johnson bill
prohibiting all immigration, with GER
tain exceptions such as the blood rel
atives of those already here, for
year. He believes that the exceptions,
and the frauds which would naturally
grow out of them. would more than
fill the boats-that we would get
about the same amount of immiSra-
ton, but that it would consist mostly
of women. children and other DEEPEN
dents. He seems to believe that
either all immigration should be
stopped, without exceptions, until leg
islation regulating immigration in
scientific way can be passed; or else
immigration should be allowed to run
along as it is until such final legisla-
ton can be passed.
Boats Limit Immigration.
Mr.. Wallis points out the important
fact that the amount of immigration
which we can receive is limited by the
number of persons which the ships
can carry. He estimates that the
ships now in use can carry a million
Steerage passengers year and per-
haps three hundred thousand in the
first and second cabins. 1t is further
brought out in the hearings that %
to 80 per cent of the transatlantic
passenger traffic is onimmigrant-
that is, it consists of people who in
tend to return to their native coun-
tries, or of Americans returning from
Europe. In this way it is seen that
our immigration is self-limited to less
than million year. barring what
comes in over the Mexican and Cana
dian borders. OF course. inasmuch as
the carrying of immigrant passengers
is now a highly remunerative bust
ness. it is probable that more ships
will be built and put into the business,
but the increase in the immigrant
stream which will result from this
will be slow.
Pick the Best.
The situation, therefore, as Mr..
Wallis sees it, is that out of ten mill
lion aliens who want to come to the
United States in given year. only one
million can come by reason of the
limitations of the carriers. He urges
that our manifest duty is to choose
this million with the utmost care-to
see that the 10 per cent of the prof
fered population which we take is the
best 10 per cent and not the worst or
middling. He points out that a con-
siderable part of the immigration now
coming in consists of large, strong
healthy people with enough money to
take care of them for some time
Others are sickly, understood paupers.
He argues that legislation should be
drafted which will insure that this
large, healthy. thrifty type get in and
that the sickly paupers be kept out
Since we cannot take them all any
way, why not take the best? Mr.
Wallis does not suggest the nature of
the regulations by which this selecti1