New-York Tribune from New York, New York • 51

MAGAZINE and BOOK SECTION MAGAZINE and BOOK SECTION PART VII TWELVE PAGES SUNDAY, AUGUST 15, 1920 PART VII TWELVE PAGES Getting the Right Start on the Road to Citizenship; Americanization's First Opportunity Is at Ellis Island By Fred B. Pitney FREDERICK A. WALLIS, the new Immigration Commis? sioner for the Port of Now York, stood in the upper cabin of the General Putnam, sur? rounded by immigrants. The Gen? eral Putnam was taking $00 newly arrived immigrants from Ellis Island for distribution among the rail? ways along the Jersey shore to con? tinue their voyages to the interior of America. "Any one here speak English?" asked Mr.

Wallis. A young Jew, with his features hidden behind a curtain of pimples, came forward. "Yes," he snid, or something that was enough like yes to be under? stood as an affirmative. "Where are you from?" asked the commissioner. "Poland," said the voice behind the veil.

A Thousand a Week "That's interesting," said the com? missioner. "A man from the He? brew Aid Society told me yesterday they had booked up the Jews in Poland to conic at the rate of 1,000 a week for the next fifty-two weeks. We'll ask this fellow." "Many Poles want to come over here?" he asked the Jew. "All Poland would come, if they could get the money," the Jew re? plied. "Is it true that every one in America is rich?" "That will do for you," said the Commissioner.

"You'll find out in a few days." He raised his voice again. "Any one else here speak Eng? lish?" he called. "I am looking for some one who came over on the Leopoldina." Another Jew came forward. "Me on Leopoldina," he said. Now, it happened that the Leo? poldina arrived on Wednesday with immigrants, who had paid ap? proximately $110 each for their third-class passage across the ocean.

A TYPICAL immigrant of the peasant woman class 11 used to be possible, before the to cross first class on a better than the Leopoldina for less ftoney than those immigrants paid come third class. But, on top all that, Commissioner Wallis had told by an immigrant on the lower deck of the-General Putnam the third-class passengers had routed out at 5 o'clock Thurs? day morning and kept standing without any breakfast until whin the barge came to to-Elli? Island, and-that 1 it was not until after they reached I Ellis Island that they had any break fast. I "When did you eat last on the Leo- poldina?" Commissioner Wallis asked the Jew. "Wednesday supper," the immi? grant replied. "Didn't you have any breakfast Thursday morning?" "No.

No breakfast," Even Children Unfed There was a little group around the Jew. "How many in your party?" asked tnc commissioner. "Five. Me, my wife, two children, baby." "What did the baby do?" "They wouldn't give us anything treat these immigrants right. There is one way to make them do it.

I'll refuse to receive immigrants at El -(, YOU can tell at a glance that this sturdy couple has come to America with the idea of working hard and making good for the baby. I had to buy little milk extra for the baby." "Nobody had any breakfast?" "No. Nobody. I had to buy milk for baby." No Breakfast For 600 There was a little Irish girl on the General Putnam. She had been mar? ried four months ago in Dublin to a Spaniard and they were going to Detroit, where her husband had a job as a cook.

She spoke up: "They took off all the unmarried ones from the Leopoldina, 600 of them, Wednesday night," she said. "But we married ones and the chil? dren, 600 more of us, had to stay until Thursday morning, and they didn't give us any breakfast on the ship Thursday morning, not even milk for the babies." "I'll see about this," said Com? missioner Wallis. "I'm going to stop this sort of thing or break a leg. These steamship companies have got to understand that aliens coming to America are human be? ings, whether they come third class or first class, and they've got to be treated like human beings. I don't care If I make an enemy of every steamship company soling into the Port of New York, they are? going jto lis Island from any steamship com? pany that treats its third class pas? sengers in that way.

They pay a good, high price for their passage across the ocean. They pay for their meals before they get on th? boat, and they are going to have them. I'm not going to stand for these poor people being cheated out of their breakfasts and kept stand? ing around for hours without any? thing to eat in order to save a few dollars for the steamship company. Paying extra for milk for the ba? bies, and that's all any of them get to eat. I'll see about this." The Innovation Perhaps you haven't noticed the unusual thing about this story.

It is a Commissioner of Immigration see? ing for himself how the immigrants are. treated. Commissioner Wallis left his house at 5 o'clock that morning to go down the Bay and meet the Olym? pic at Quarantine. A young Eng? lishman to see him a couple of before. "I am an actor," said the Eng? lishman, "and I came over here and got a job.

Now I've got to go out on the road with the company to? morrow, and my wife and baby are on the way over here on the Olym? They are coming rpHE first meal in America. Immigrants around a table and dining room at Ellis Island 'THEIR first glimpse of the fair land of promise. Who knoivs what they see there? The rates are so high I couldn't 1 bring them first class. What am I going to do? I can't have them going to Ellis Island, and I've got to go away myself to-morrow. I've got their hotel picked out and their rooms reserved, but I can't be here to meet them so they won't have to go to Ellis Island and be held up over there." "That's all right," the Commis? sioner replied.

"You go ahead with your company. I'll look after your wife and baby." So the Immigration Commissioner got up at 4:30 and left his house at 5 o'clock, went down the Bay and met the Olympic at Quarantine and had a couple of stewards look up the young English actor's wife and baby in the steerage and bring them up to the second class cabin, where the Immigration Commissioner ex? amined their papers, and at the dock he had the stewards get their baggage out and put them into a taxi and send them to their hotel. But let's get back to the General Putnam. A Greek Comes Back There was a Greek on board who acted as interpreter to help Com? missioner Wallis question some of the Italians. After a while the Commissioner asked the Greek some questions.

"You've been here before?" he said. "Oh, yes," said the Greek. "I was here eleven years." "Like it?" aBked Mr. Wallis. "You bet," the Greek replied.

"When did back?" "Last November, went home to A PATIENT patriarch who had been uprooted in the evening of his days and transplanted to a strange soil visit my folks. Now I come back." "Do pretty well over here? Make money?" The Greek grinned. "When I came here first I had $300. I've been in business in Houston, Tex. Couple of years ago I bought a lot at Camp Logan and built a store there.

But it burned down and I lost $8,000. Camp Lo? gan deserted, and my lot I paid $1,100 for is worth about $200, went to Mobile, and bought a business there. Vm going thei'e now." "Have you got any money?" asked the Commissioner. "I've got about $2,500." "So with your money and your lot altogether you are worth about "What, me?" demanded the Greek. He struck his breast proudly.

"With FREDERICK A. i r-l WALLIS, new Immigra? tion Commissioner for the Port of New York, who be? lieves that the first step in Americanization should be treatment for the I new arrival my heart and my brain I figure I'm worth $100,000 at lowest." Bound for the West, i At this juncture the General Put? nam pulled up alongside the Erie Railroad dock and about two hun? dred immigrants were landed. The Commissioner followed them off the boat. They were herded along a narrow board walk, built over the water, to a long shed piled high with freight, chiefly sugar for export. No wonder sugar is 34 cents a pound In the shed the immigrants were divided into two groups.

One group was going to Cleveland and Youngs town and would leave at 8:45 that evening. The other group was go? ing to Chicago and points west and would leave at 1:25 the next morn? ing. It was 6 o'clock then. There was a Scotch woman with four chil? dren, three girls and a boy, in the long distance group. Commissioner Wallis went over to talk to her.

"We are going to Des Moines," she said. "My husband and I came over first and got ourselves estab? lished and then I went back for the children. I asked for my tickets over the New York Central, but the agent at Ellis gave them to me this way, by the Ryie." The Commissioner figured it up. "If they had gone by the he said, "they would be in Chicago to-morrow afternoon and In Des by to-morrow turned-to att Erie -offi cial. "What time will they get to Chicago on the Erie?" he asked.

"Saturday morning," said the of? ficial. "And they will be in Des Moines about 3 o'clock Saturday afternoon?" "About then," the official replied. "Eighteen hours longer on the train for a mother with four chil? dren because the ticket agent at Ellis Island wouldn't sell them the tickets they asked for," said Com? missioner Wallis. "And they pay the same for the tickets this way as they would on the Central. Thai fellow is going to hear from me." One Agent for All The Commissioner explained.

"There is one ticket agent at Ellis Island," he said. "He sells the tickets for all the roads, and they all club together to pay him. It is part of his business to see that the immigrant traffic is divided up equally among all the roads, but it is not part of his business to refuse to sell a ticket on the road asked for or to keep any immigrant cramped and crowded in a stuffy railroad coach eighteen hours longer than 13 necessary, and that ticket agent going to think of the immigrante first when he sells tickets in the future, or there is going to be an? other man selling tickets over there." The railroad men began to mar? shal the short-haul group down the length of the freight shed. "We have to keep them waiting," it was explained, "because they have to cross the tracks to the passenger station and we wait until there are not so many trains moving, so that it be dangerous for them. Come this way, Commissioner." But Commissioner Wallis hung back.

"What time will the train be ready for these others?" he asked. "The cars will be run in about 10 o'clock," he was told, "and they can go aboard then. This way is the clearest path, Commissioner." Still Commissioner Wallis hung back. "Lot of freight you've got in this shed," he remarked. "Yes," said the railroad man.

"It's pretty crowded in the center. You'd better follow this aisle over here by the wall." "How long do you keep freight in asked the Commissioner. "We move it out as fast as we can," said the railroad official. And then a light broke over him. that other group moving," he said to one of his assistants.

"We canM keep them standing here until 1( o'clock." Commissioner Wallis followed immigrants out of the shed. By time the Commissioner's party crossed the tracks and reached passenger station the two groups immigrants were collected at oppo site ends of the outdoor shed. The: i had put their baggage down on th? concrete floor and were standinj around, the mothers holding th' babies their arms. A man with i that said "Head Usher" came to the Commissioner's party. Just Let Them Wait "Are you going to keep these pet pie here until their train is ready? asked Commissioner Wallis.

"Sure," said the head ushe "They're all right here." "What are the toilet arrangement for the women?" asked Mr. Walli One of the other railroad officia hastened to explain. "There is a toilet inside the st tion," he said. "Yes," said Mr. Wallis, "and have got these people under gua out here so that they can't reach Aren't there any seats inside station?" "Ws can't he usher began.

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