The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 60

STEVENSON'S ARTICLE and REAL ESTATE BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE WOMEN FASHIONS THEATERS AND FILMS NEW YORK CITY, SUNDAY, AUGUST 30. 1925 FIVF FNTS "rmter I SKVEN CEIf 1 New ark I Clsewher Immigration Commissioner. Curran Tells Why Scrapping Ellis Island enace the United States Would Shall We Broadcast the Germs of Disease and Immorality Over America? Once Let Down the Bars of Rigid Examination and This Country Would Be Open to. the Spread of Disease, Insanity and Immorality by Physically, Mentally and Spiritually Unfit Aliens Protection for Immigrants Would Be Also moved. By FREDERICK BOYD STEVENSON Kcrous to our country," said he, "he-(Biise our experimental medical inspection now Inking place In the British Isles cannot possibly be called a thorough, final medical examination.

Neither can the casual Inspection aboard ship at this port. It Is only at Ellis Island that xve csn carry out a complete and competent medical examination of those immigrants xvho are coming to our country for the rest of their lives and for the rest of the lives of their children. Curran Points Out Danger to the Country And to the Immigrant. As xve sat there In his office Commissioner Curran talked this matter over with me very calmly. He was very respectful and deferential toward the authorities in Washington, hut Bt ill he was very firm in his oxvn attitude and In his own belief thnt such proposed changes would be against the safety of America and against the safety of the immigrant.

Continuing he said "It Is little enough to ask of all Immigrants that they come to Ellis Island for two or three hours for proper examinations before they are admitted to this country. We do not know hoxr much disease will walk doxxn the gangplank and go unrestricted to all parts of our country, Just because. It cannot be detected by the necessarily loose Inspection made on board fhlp or abroad. "But one of the most sinister phases of such a poli-y would be to turn Inexperienced Immigrants, unfamiliar with this country ami it ways, unprotected and ungulded Into the various parts of the United Stales xvhere they are going. We all know (hat hundred of sharks are walling There has been a blatant blather of xvords anent scrapping Ellis Island.

There even has been talk of firing the strong man on Ellis Island who has stood on the firing line, boldly fighting to preserve the greatest safeguard for keeping America American. A false issue has been raised by those who would, put Ellis Island out of business and make our present admirable system of examining immigrants to this country a silly farce. What is it all about, anyway? Is not an unclean or an unkempt spot In the width or breadth of It. Everything possible is done for the comfort and the convenience of the Immigrants detained there. Instead of the old beds that were double-deckers In the shape of wire cages and without matrcsses which was made necessary because of the thousands of lnsect-infectcd Immigrants of the old days there are today white enameled bedsteads with comfortable mattresses and clean sheets and blankets arranged In light dormitories with curtnlned windows and carefully scrubbed floors.

The kitchen is a model of neatness and efficiency and the dining looms are large and airy and attractive. The meals arc substantial, well selected, composed of the best of nourishing and appetizing foods and excellently prepared. For those who are ill or diseased the hospital with Its staff of expert physicians, specialists and trained nurses with the later equipment of fers a haven of relief. I could give you other details of the improvements that have bccji made at Ellis Island under the regime of Commissioner Curran, but It enough to say that Ihey are all in a line leading to the health, the comfort and the happiness of the iitwcoiucrs In our midst. Mr.

Hutband, Who Say Elli Itland Will Be Scrapped. Three hundred and twenty-six thousand dollars have been recently expended In Improving Ellis Island. It has cost $10,000,000 to make the land of which It Is composed out of little rteh of weeds growing In the harbor and erecting the buildings. It Is the culmination of our Immigration attainments evolved from a tin-system Institution Into a first-class American Protective Policy-protecting Americans and alien ullke. It Is today the finest Immigration station In the World, barring only the physical examinations and the mental examinations made on the oilier side of the water, aside from being necessarily superficial, allow with the Scandinavian nations following.

About one-half of our Immigrants today come from Canada and Mexico, and for the greater part they are Canadians and Mexicans with whom we have to do only indirectly. They are free from quota limitation. But In connection with the present type of Immigrants we are receiving here I want to call your attention to one particular point. For the past twenty years or more I have been a frequent visitor to Ellis Island. I have been there on the days when five and six thousand immigrants crowded every space In the great buildings, I have been there when the hospitals were filled with diseased aliens, I have seen the unholy jams and smelled the unholy smells.

I have attended private examinations of suspected Immigrants in the office of the Commissioner In the day when the alien Anarchists and plotters were trying to break through and many succeeded In breaking through our borders, the evil re-suits of which are felt In this country today. All through those years I saw America becoming un-American. I snw the alien hordes let loose In America. I saw them installing themselves In New York and In other large cities East and West, forming large alien social groups of their own building foreign cities within the American title speaking nut one word of English and never learning to ss-ak It: printing their own foreign-language newspapers, many of litem anarchistic and traitorous sheets. And I rebelled and fought against that Thing for twenty years.

And others were with me. And then-thank God out of the West came Congressman Albert Johnson of Washington. The new bill was And the Thing was stopped. This Is the point of It The other day at Ellis Island I saw probably or 400 Immigrants contented, happy, at ease, splendidly fared for. The average la 700 a day.

And the most remsrkahte part of It all Is MANY of THEM SPOKE ENGLISH. At first glance you could not tell them from the average American i cltixen and the chances are ninety. I Ine to a hundred that every last one of them will make a good American Cltixen. How EM lland Provide For the Comfort Of It Inmate. That la what the new Law has Worked up to after only one year of Its enforcement.

And there at Ellis Island today Is Cinimlsiloner Curran Aincrh an by I. lull and American by descent back to Colntiliil Days In rfi1 Siionl Itli the new Law. Never before hat I aem Ellis Island la sura Sua cvudlltou. Tiers HAS always seemed to me that the first duty of our Immigration Service Is to "MAKE OUR COUNTRY "SAFE for AMERICANS "RATHER THAN" "EASY for ALIENS." This In what Henry H. Curran, Commissioner of Immigration at Ellis Island, said to mo tho other day.

It Is tho keynote of the splendid work he is doing for this country. It la typical of the man who haa taken the bold aland to oppose the attempt i official in Washington to put in operation the entering wedge for the abolition of a carefully prepared and skillfully executed system of Inspection that hag been protecting the United States from physically, mentally and morally diseased immigrants. The One Great Safeguard of this country from the scum of tho Old World baa been Ellis Island. It stood there like a bulwark even in the darkest hours of our unlimited Immigration policy when the United states was being overrun and overmanned with the worst types, nationally and Individually, that came from the Seven Seas. Ninety percent of our Immigrants 1'asa through Ellis Island.

And even In those darkest hours when there was no dam to that flood i.f scrapped humanity that was over whelming us. Kills Island stood out tirmly and solidly as the only bar checking the worst criminal ami abnormal masses of the world's castoffs Then In July, 1024, came the first lay of hope for tho future population of the United States. America, Almoit Un-American, Now Openf The Way for Real American. It wss. the new Immigration Law In full fori-.

Before that we had been receiving, on an average, 1,000 000 Immigrants year, with the banker year reaching l.too.ooo. For thlrfy years that Thing had Wra getting away with us. For thirty years wit had been lax. For thirty years a few of us had len fighting for a change. But B.isst ships were bringing the Unholy Load to us.

Fifteen millions or mors of cltl tens of alien birth were fighting to let In untold millions of other aliens 10 Increase the polyglot population and make It more and more un-American. Then came the Law. It. was thirty years late, but II saved America! Now, the attempt has been made l.s- SCRAP F.LLI8 ISLAND! SHALL WE DO ITT Under the present law we are re. lelvlng approximately immigrants year, and under the quota arrangement of the few law the liet classes of are coining fcere.

The nations furnishing the hrjrest numbers are Germany, SO.ilOO: KiigionO, 81.000, and Ireland, to fleece the men and lead the women Into lives of infamy. We constsntly prevent such things being done. Even here on Ellis Island we have to keep constant watch to protect these people from villains who seek all sorts of excuse to betray them under the guise of being relatlvis and friends. You can Imagine what would happen If our proleition nf the immigrant men and the Immigrant women were taken away from Ihem. "Now when yo.ing girl come here alone destined to a certain place xve we that she Is placed on the 1 roper train and safeguarded until she reaches her friends.

We have railroad ticket offices right here on the Island. We see that the foreign money I changed for Immigrants In the correct equivalent. If they ar traveling from New York City we see that proper lunches sre put up for th-rn st proer prices. Aud we do thousands of things to promote their comfort end their safely. "So Ihey want to scrap Ellis Island do they? "I'll fight that pronnsltlon and I am not afraid to fight It." There was no attempt on the psrl of the Commissioner to dodge the isaiie.

He stands firmly on his original ground Is'iaiisc he feels and knows that lie Is right. "Ellis Island," snld lie, "was estab-llshcd for Ihe protix-tloii of the Immigrants as well as for Ihe protection of American. it will be maintained, despite the agitation to the contrary." Who and What if Anybody or Anything Will Be Scrapped? There's your tnsn ai Kill Island. Don't we want to keep that sort of man there? There sre i IKS' or "AMIS" uboiit hi Ac.erli anlui. He has a grip on that situation that few Commissioners hate bail.

I has proxitl bv hf work thnr Island Is neceary for the good of America and for the good of LU Immigrant. Who, then, will remove him? John J. Iiavl. Secretary of Labor, arrived In Washington from abroad Jut the other day. He was aked If Our ran would be removed.

Ssld Secretary Paris "Mr. Currsn I a Preldentlst The matter la on for the President to handle." The matter doilhtle will lie up to President Osilldse. PH ESI DENT rOOLIDCE- IS AMERICAN ALL THE WAY THROfGH. WILL HE SANCTION HCUAI'PIN'O ONE or AMERICA'S Hid AFEGI'AHDS? AND WILL HE SCRAP AN AMERICAN WHO STANDS FOR THAT SAFEGCARD) immigration ntllciula here on board the ship III which they conic. This new method of examination applies only to Immigrants from the llrltls'i Isles, but it Is manifestly unfair to exclude all other nations from this privilege.

Therefore, It may be rightly considered as the beginning of a geiteml exemption from Ellis Island examination for all Immigrants who arrive In America. That Is what Mr. llusbnnd iiieim: when he xvas reMrted III the Cann-dliin paper as saying that Kills 1 -1 1 would be scrapped. But there I one man win. hn strenuously objected lo that scrapping.

Coiiiiiilsslnner Curran look a bold ist it in I against It. In lining he bus mil the risk of being "db-d pllncd" from Washington. Will he he disciplined? Will there not enough real American ho will Inn him up in his efforts to keep America Aiin rb nu I. ml lln-l-l Unit Curran Is the sort American we want at Kill Many Thing May Happen To a Would-be Immigrant In tide of Four Month. There are some Impoilant point to consider In these exemption fur from the British 1-b s.

And these exemption are greatly in Ihe dlsadtantage of the United State. In fact Ihey are a positive menace lo this country. Let tl lint overlook the point that was in Montreal attending an Imnii rat Inn conference yesterday, pre-t'lcletl, Mr. Husband was formerly Commissioner General of Immigration. He Is at present In harge of all American But what does Mr.

Husband mean when he says that Ellis will be scrapped? Among the chnuges not'lc' in our old immigration system was the preliminary examination of all proposed immigrant by our coNmiI in various parts of Europe. The bleu of thai part of the law was to sift out. so far possible, the I 1 1 elements mining the applicant for admission to this country iiimI thus relieve a great part of the tiralu upon Kills Island. Naturally It trxik sonic lime for our toiisuls (o get used to tin ir new duties. It could hardly be epccei that they could rank over night on par with Immigration experts who had been trained for that mic work for year.

Bui the ul I I well. They weeded out on the other side miieli of the mn'erisl Hint a t. ii I It to be admitted In tl nit i and Din they rellevtd tl fthiuls mi litis side and saved Hie norld If Immigrant from a juiinn over lo re ntnl another Journey fmek aftr they bad Iwcn rejected. But litis part of (lie new In a- naa misapplied. The Detriment of Labor srrsnge.

that all British nhethi Ihey come first or second cabin or steerage, do not have to go to Kills Island, but must lie examined by our Fraulein Lieser, Dancer, Took Sofia Public by Storm that splendid slntion at Hamburg. Germany. And yet. a gentleman In Washington wants to SCRAP It! Let's look a Utile Into that scrapping business. Who is the gentleman who wants to SCRAP Ellis Island? A recent Issue of Ihe Montreal Gaiette said "Kills Island, the great American Immigration station at which complaints have been hurled by Immigrant from every country In Euroe.

is soon to be Hon. W. W. Husband, Second Assistant Sccre-nirv of Labor, at Washington, who there was no brass band In fact, no cn at the station to meet her; but. In a vigorous young person, iinihtrrcd sufficient courage to pro-ice, I alone to the hold which liad been recommended to her aa Ihe heat in town.

Althnuah this msy nol4und liks an especially couraseou exploit. It surely meant something to Viennese Annie, aiepplna nut for the first time and stepping right "lit Into street i.f adventure. The dirty inilk-laioiha, id still dirtier Turk, selling a illtt ill-Ink called Hwwr, out of even more dirty glass, and such alghts anj smells. Not All Dirt and Odor, tint Bulgaria wasn't all dirt jnd smell. It wasn't even all Intrla-'i and ambuscade and esploalnn.

Th National TheHter a really beautiful tiutlillnar. Tit darling of the public. Mnnl Halanak. sniihrett. I far from being an Impossible person.

Moreover. Ktotlow. the rriitaseur, a mat of part, with an adequate xislon of whnt a Blanlficant theater snouid There was. In fct, every reason why Ihe rlKht person should profit by sin an opportunity, and Fraulein l.leser proved to be the right person. Hut, although the Fraulein reached Sofia without mishap, and found Son a perfectly possible city In which to live, sh did not escape without experiencing a stimulating iicounter with HiilRur eccentricity.

It is very characteristic of Sofia that scenes of Jealousy are enacted on the streets. very lriy dominate the women; and the man who la so unfortunate a to receive even so much a a flcting glance from a woman, an passes her on tho street. I very likely to rcelv uiso a blow on the ear from ber ccort. l-rest Intitule to the persons ex a mined. The certificates of good health and good morals grsnted to the would lie Immigrant give them a leeway of FOUR MONTHS In whlih to sail for this country! In other worda A uian who is tabbed fit and proper PHYSICALLY MENTALLY and- MORALLY on Septemlier 1.

msy wall iin'il January 1, Ifr.tl, before entering the I'nlted State. Now, there mnat be SOME Tl'RN-1NO POINT In a man'a career. In four month many change may lake place. In KOt'R MONTHS a man may be-come PHYSICALLY t'NFIT MENTALLY t'NFIT MORALLY I'NFIT. So this aiiH-rflclal examination on the other side does md and never will protect America a the rigid and Hiorotigh examination at Kill Hand have Is-en protecting II.

Commissioner Curran accentuated these Hlnts lo me. Said he "Any one of the applicant on the other side who haa he: given a clesn lull of pssMirt msr In four month lime contract tulercuIol or syphlll other contagious dl-se snd bring them Into til) rountry, where under this ruling, he will he permit, led to go where be please. "The same objection to such for eign examination arise on the mental st.indard of Immigrant. Their mental disabilities may not be ap- parent at the lime i examination but III four mouth the moat violent mental disorders may develop, "A for the moral iiiallllciitlon ihey. loo.

call shift Inside nf four mouth. A man whose- former record wis good could liccniiie a rabid A.i- i tiiilst or a criminal In that period. There has tn In- a llt I line for all I tilings." I "This new order of affairs is dan- My Nr JI NK It fHprrial CoTTrtponrfrnce of 7 as F.oglll Vienna, Aug. 10- Fraulein Annie Ueaer has come home homo to the Fourth Vienna Itexlrk, horns In triumph. During all of the last season, while Mm: were being ambushc 1.

Cathedral Mown to hits, men's fin-gcr-nall pulled out one at a llin leuch pull twins followed by ths undent question, "Now. will you men and women driven into exits and often pursued Into exile by ssssii.t. little Annie Llener was proudly poise. ron her toes, twirling a slender, graceful body for the edification of appreciative. If sinister, audience, gh was.

In fact, ths prima ballerina of ths National Theater In Sofia. Just aa she had been the "prims ballerina" of the Fourth Vienna slrk that Is to say. of Vienna's own l'ark ave. When ths little frsuleln went down to the Danube to board ths vessel for Ixnu wa the firm time In her life that sh had ever gone farther than the front guts without tlis escort of a governess or a moid keep the world at a respectful distance. Rut once Annie l.leaer passim out of the garden ante there were ro more govern and no more mMs and the World came quits as near to I er a It rho.

Different In Notihta. The arrival In Hnfla not p. dully Impressive or gratifying-, l.om Iht first llulKiirliin town, bad bn ml her to Annie, but er-nvifla In Bntlii Itself waa som h.it llnVrent. For example, although she h'1 hecn engaged as the prima ballerina, May Stop All Immigration The Johnson itlmidy nxlm-px to a minimum tl'e volume of totally immigrant. However, it munt be HtrenKthoin'tl in thin particular: Tho fjuota barrier must be extond'il tu includf.

the natioim and Mantis to the uouth of us A word of warning may well be triven to the opponent of the present relatively liberal law by pointing out that there is in CoiiKress and in the rountry a very larjfc growing element which demands the mispension of AM. immigration. If the present law-is made unworkable by it eix-mio such an alternative Tiny easily happen. irnnt in Thr Funnii. 7.