Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-12-03

NJ days, Jackie Schumacher, a little r.
year-old cripple boy, must go back
alone to Scotland. All of Jackies family,
who are devoted to him, live in White
Plains, N. Y, and he hasn't single rela-
tive or friend left in his native country
Nevertheless, he must go back. American
immigration officials have said SO.
Jackies father, accompanied by an elder
son and daughter, came to this country from
Scotland soon after the war ended. Mrs.
Schumacher and Jackie, with another boy
and girl, did not arrive in New York until
the early part of 1920. immigration agents
Immediately raised an objection to Jackie's
| admittance upon the ground that he was a
defective, and detained him at Ellis island.
Through the aid Of friends and the good
Offices of a congressman, the family was
able to obtain the boys release by filing a
bond guaranteeing that he would not become
public charge. Later this bond was ex-
tended. Still the matter was not permanent
ly settled. The family was constantly haunt
ed by the fear that eventually Jackie would
have to go, that an immigration officer
would come and get him. Several months
ago, Mrs. Schumacher died. The doctor who
attended her said that her death was due
to constant fear and worry over the fate of
her son.
And now that fate has come. A general
roundup of detectives was recently ordered
by the immigration authorities, and Jackie
is only one of a large number of forlorn
human beings who are to be disposed OF in
the usual cold-blooded, arbitrary manner at
| Ellis sland. On the list of undesirables
awaiting deportation are likewise mothers
and infants who will be torn from their
| families here and mentally and physically
| defective children who are to be cast back
| upon lands where they no longer have
| homes.
| The blame for this cruel and inhuman
/ treatment Of aliens does not belong to our
! immigration officials. They have no person
| al Influence or authority and merely act as
automatoms in carrying out the immigration
! laws Neither does the blame lie in the laws,
which are necessary evils for the protection
| of the nation from large masses OF unde-
| sirable citizens. But blame must descend
| upon a government which fails to provide
| the means to set aside the laws when it is
seen that in individual cases they cause in
! tolerable hardship.
| Relentless Law
Even the secretary OF labor is virtually
power1ess to interfere with the immigration
machinery, once it is set in motion. The late
Secretary of Labor Wilson went about as
| far as he could when he issued the follow
| ing instructions to immigration officials:
| "While regulation and exclusion, and
| therefore detention, are necessary in respect
Of immigration" he said, sit should be under
stood by all who participate in administer
| ing these laws that they are not intended
to be penalizing 1t is with no unfriendli-
ness to aliens that immigrants are detain-
ed and some of them excluded, but solely
| for the protection of our own people and
our own institutions. Indifference, then, to
| the physical or mental comfort of these
wards of ours from other lands should not
| be tolerated" ,'.
| That these instructions are not always
carefully observed is evidenced by the
numerous complaints that have arisen on
| that score. Indeed, they have recently be-
| come so vociferous that the British govern
ment, we are informed, has filed protest
| with our state department. The immigration
| officials claim that they do all they can tt
minimize the, necessary hardships inflicted
| upon aliens and to abolish all that are un
necessary but that they are handicapped by
| inadequate facilities.
| In other words, the just and equitable
treatment of aliens is prevented, according
to one immigration official, '"by the slim
ness of congressional appropriations, unwar
rantably limited, in view of the fact thai
the income from arriving aliens in head
money alone, since the beginning of the i'm
migration service, has exceeded the tota
running expenses of the service by more
than 100000"
| If congress were not so stingy, continues
the official Gin words to this effect) the
United States would provide an administra
tive board at Ellis Island which would bt
authorized to act in individual cases, con
sidering the circumstances which alter each
one, and lifting the penalty of deportation