New-York tribune., 1921-12-25
1,lO0 Joyous
Aliens Desert
Ellis Island
Immigrants, Given Ninety
Day Leave, Make Grand
Rush for u. S. Soil as
Result of Davis's Order
Welfare Bodies Overtaxed
Pathos Mingled With Hap
piness as Foreigners. Held
Up by Quota Law, Enter


"
For eleven hundred immigrants hope
lessly facing deportation because they
had come in excess of the quotas al
lotted their countries no more dramatic
miracle was ever wrought than the or
der of Secretary Davis of the Depart
ment of Labor suddenly giving them
leave to enter the United States for
ninety days. And Ellis Island yester-
day showed the human stuff Of which
it is made by doing its utmost to ef
feet the release of each one in time
for Christmas
From the time when the Secretary's
order was received Mt the island late
Friday afternoon until yesterday at
O'Clock ever. thing went at top speed.
The entire force worked late into Fri
day night and began again before dawn
yesterday morning. To most of the
immigrants their release was as in
explcable as their detention. But they
did not wait to find out. With their
bundles and hampers and paper parcels
they made the quickest and most
spirited evacuation Ellis Island has
ever known.
Welfare Societies OyertaXed
The welfare societies were overtaXed
with the burden of caring for many
whose relatives has, abandoned hope OF
tke.r release. and who were so lett in
the sudden fortunate emergency with
out any one to receive them. But
though to many, old pea ants and
women with young children, long
overland journey in & strange country
lComcd as terri sying experience it
was as nothing to what they had es-
capped.
To most Of these people going back
meant unspeakable distress. They had
sold everything to come, and they had
not even their homes to go hack to.
The majority of those detained came
from famine-stric',en regions of Poland
and Hungary. The Rev. L. Harsanyi,
pastor Of the First Magyar Presby ter:an
Church. who has ben active in behalf
of the Hungarian detention cases, was
on hand to receive them. So were rep
rsentatves of the Hebrew Immigrant
Aid Society.
The pastor said that in the last four
weeks he had been the recipient of
hundreds OF appeals from Hungarians
in Pennsyivar ia in Florida, in Wis
consin and even in California, begging
him to ind out why their relatives were
detained. At the First Magyar Pres
byterian Church, at 223 East 11Gth Street,
the Rev. Harsanyi has ben shelter
ing for weeks persons who came here
to follow up their appeal in person,
tho gh they could not afford the long
expens ve trip and the indeterminate
wait. Last night he sheltered twelve.
They were farmers and miners from
Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
themS mSelves so strange to the country
hct II M lyr1nu of
strictive immigration law.
Waits Four Months to Enter
The failure of the State Department
the Department of labor and the
steamship authorities to coordinate on
immigrant quotas is strikingly in
stanced in the case of Hannah Winet-
zky, who came from Galicia to join
her husband, Herman Winetzky, of
Stamford Her passport was vised
last April, when her steamship ticket
also was purchased.
She has spent practically four
months getting here. She sold her
household effects and started last
August When she got to Bremen the
steamship authorities told her the
Polish quota was closed. She waited
ir the port city for month and then
retul-aa to live with relatives in War
saw. E,cL- days after ner return a
summons came from the steamship
company telling her she could sail on
the Adriatic Size retraced her steps
and arrived frally at Ellis Island, only
to find herself one of those destined
for deportation.
Anton Schultz. baker, of Buffalo
was ore o. those whose disappointment
was dramatically metannorphosed into
Joy by yesterdays dispensation. His
wife, who is a neurastaenic invalid
has been BEGGING t. see her young
sister from Poland. Three days ag
Scnu!tz received word that the g ri had
arrived, but was being detained. He
rushed here to plead her case yester-
day and found her waiting for him
plnk-cheeked and fair haired under her
red shawl, her bundle at her feet, all
ready to start for Buffalo.
Bereaved on Eve of Release
There was only one Of the excited
laughing and crying crowd who did no
want to leave the island. A young an(
handsome woman sat at q bench agains
the wall, her head thrown back. he1
eyes feverish and unseeing, her shaw
dragging down a great heavy coil Of
.disheveled hair to the nape of hel
neck. Friday night her baby died She
came four weeks ago from Wilma. The
sympathetic woman beside her herself
anxiously peering out for the husband
who was to come for her, did not know
whether she was one of the excess
quota cases or not. The woman's hus-
band was sent to the hospital to be
watched fer cardiac weakness, and
while she waited for him her baby was
taken i'll and died of pneumonia. Her
husband is still kept in the infrmary
while she was given her release yester-
day morning The ferry whistle footed
the waiting room cleared quickly and
nolslly, the sympathetic neighbor gave
woman, who remained seated against
tn wall, an immovable figure wholly
apathetic to what America still had to