The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-02
More Than 1000 Immi-
 grants Admitted First Day
 Of New Year, While Others
 Look Longing Toward Shore DRAMATIC RACE ACROSS ATLANTIC COMES TO END
Many Disappointed People
 Must Again Turn Faces To Europe After Quotas Of Their Nations Are Filled
By HARLAN $. MILLER heased Wire to The AEc-HerlldD


 NEW YORK, July I,-America'. pantry door swung open an inch or two Sunday at Ellis Island and 1,60) lucky European children of toil squeezed in breathlessly to clutch at her shelves.
 Another I4.OOO, racing shoreward in swift liners, or sweating in the steerage at the piers, or palpitant in the immigrant pens, prayed in alter nate hope and despair that the door would not be slammed in their faces,
 Several thousand prayed in vain. Already, as they still stared with strained smiles at their first Ameri- can sunset adding unneeed glamour to Manhattan's skyline, the dreaded and little understood quota law had operated to make them losers in the 1923 race for the square meal which they sought in the melting pot. TwAe steamers Cross.
 Twelve steamers in all had crossed the finish line during the night and were anchored in the harbor's Sab bath calm, with 5,971 steerage pas sengers aboard, and 5,511 in their second and first cabins. On five of these ships, at dawn, were 2-074 SIeeIdSe WHO hueM lHdL they, due to the superior skill of their vessels captain and speed of her turbines, would be the first to enter on the first day under the new years quota.
 These five winners in the dramatic tdantlc race of the immigrant armada were the President Wilson, carrying 4S9; the Washington, with S1; the Canada, 707; the Polonis, 50S, he A1avauhar 9Ik Dramatic Story Told.
 As the descendants of Erik the Red in Iceland might tell the Saga of the Vikings discovery of America so, no doubt, will hundreds of th-. passengers some day describe the midnight sprint across the three mtle line which made them Ameri- cans ghile their colleagues were forced to sail back to their mother lands.
 Midnight of the first day of the new fiscal year approached, and nine liners were already jockeying for position, just outside of American territorial waters What hung on the skill of their maneuvers may be exemplified by the situation of the Grecian immigrants. On the nine ships, as they raced full speed ahead, were nearly 1000 Greeks. Of these, only 649 could, under the restricted immigration law, enter America. Those crossing the line last would have come across the sea in vain.
 O o O
 Watch Intently.
 So they watched intently. through the murk of midnight, the black bulks racing alongside. Eight of the ships were anchored in Graves End bay. but the keen glance of the President Wilson's captain Ruoerio Stuparich, had detected a strategic position off the Staten Island shore. From this position, he estimated, he could speed into line ahead of the other ships, and maintain his posi- ton In the lead in the narrow chan~ mel until Quarantine and victory
 Captain Stuparich's keen judgment has probably made him the patron saint of many a new American fam lily. The crowded seven at Graves End. hampered by close quarters, were behind the Italian boat as he up the channel so as not to cross the territorial limit before the new immigration year. And strain as they would, they could not pass him.
 First Vessels Cross.
 The first 10 vessels to carry their wide awake cargoes into American waters crossed the line within the first six minutes after midni ght. Graphically. the time. snapped with stopwatches in the hands of govern ment officials. tells the story.
 Several experienced inspectors from other ports were on duty here Sunday, and several others. on their way, were sent to Boston, Providence and Philadelphia on receipt of advice that two ships had been diverted to the first port and one each to the last two, to avoid tanning Ellis Island.
 Commissioner Curran himself spent Sunday night at Ellis Island, an- nouncing that he intends to get an intimate glimpse Of his new job as "a combination of St. Peter and traffic cop"
 Congressman John L. Cable of Lima, Ohio, a member of the House immigration committee, was on the first tug that left the battery st S:so Sunday morning to inspect the Pres ident Wilson and other ships. His mission Is the gathering Of first hand data for further restriction of admissions, down to ? per cent of 1890 alien populations here, he pre- dicted. This step, he said, Is favored by s5 per cent of Congress.
 The new commi ssioner said that Sundays arrivals were of an excel
 Continued On Page TwO)