Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-02-21
HASKIN TELLS OF THE
IMMIGRATION QUESTION
Daily Letter by Frederic j. Haskin

titled by a board of surgeons at two
different times. He should, there
fore, have been sent back to Eu-
rope at once when his mother came
here with him a year age to join his
father.
But friends were aroused and
pressure was brought to bear on the
department to admit the boy for a
visit. The department expressed the
lopinion that it would be best for all
concerned for the boy to go back at
once.
"One Bureau of Immigration let
ter in the voluminous correspondence
said in part:
ut is q distressing thing to de-
port a child in the present situation,
but it would be still more distressing
and a prolongation of the agony to
tear him from the parental roof,
once admitted. and return him to
Scotland
"But eventually the department
agreed to admit him for a years
visit. When the veal was up, not
long ago, he had to go back, and as
the department had foreseen, the
separation was worse than 1t would
have been at first.
THE friends of alien families are
naturally eager to have them admit
ted and they do not always under-
stand why an individual is barred
when the quota of his country is not
filled, They say, oh, he could not
read, so he had to go back When
they write to III and we look into
the case we find that the immigrant
had tuberculosis, or he was insane,
or an imbecile, or for some other
serious reason was expressly debar-
red by the present law. Only con-
gress can change such restrictions
which are for the protection of this
country"
Quota Law Seems Satisfactory
In general, Mr.. Husband finds that
the quota law works efficiently
enough. At first, steamship COM
panies caused some quotas to be ex-
ceeded, and made difficulties by
bringing in more aliens than could
be legally admitted. This country
was not responsible, as we have no
control over immigrants leaving Eu-
rope. The consuls, it is true. limit
the number of visas according to
lthe quota law. But when they be-
gan to do this a great many out
standing visas had been issued and
these have upset calculations to
some extent.
The matter of steamships racing
was not of great significance, Mr.
Husband says. 1t occurred in the
case of a few ships carrying Greeks
1.-TWO or three of these ships would
lie outside the harbor until just be-
fore midnight at the beginning of
month. Then they would race. to see
who would get to Quarantine first. II
lone instance, a ship arrived at 12:0s
and another got in two minutes Ia
tier. This has stopped.
Whether the quota law goes ou'
of effect June so, or whether it !:
renewed depends on Congress. Con
, gress has for years wanted such
law by which the steady stream O.
immigration from southern and east
ern Europe might be partly checked
without restricting the immigration
from the northern and western Eu
rope. The immigration from thes'
southern and eastern countries wa
more than four times as heavy a
) that from the rest of Europe and tn
balance tended to become more I'm
equal all the time.
: The quota law settled the proper
t lions definitely, giving northern an
western countries 205,000 immi
I grants in the year, and the rest Q
: Europe 1856 900. With nearly fiv
months of the fiscal year left, tn
7 northern and western countries hav
: not VET sent their quotas, while tn
! other countries almost without eN
q ception have filled theirs for tn