Speech #500000584

From clergymen and from civil magistrates trustworthy information can readily be obtained. Thiswould undoubtedly. for the most part. prevent at the outsettheir embarkation. The contract law must. however. be amended so that contracting immigrants shall be as clearly subjected to some legal penalty. as well as their aiders and abettors. This is needful in order to justify our sending them back. Our laws were intended to coverall cases where immigrants might be expected to become a charge upon the public for their support. but practically only the slightest hinderances have been presented against the incoming of paupers. convicts. idiots. and lunatics. The primafacie evidence offered here in these cases must always be lame and inconclusive. and that is the only evidence now tendered. The slight and hurried examination of shiploads ofsteerage passengers. as they run the gauntlet at Castle Garden about as fast as their names can be recorded by the officers of the State commissioners. under the delegated authority of the United States. who must bewithout any love for the service. will always be superficial and to thelast degree untrustworthy. The passenger may have been provided by his parish or by neighborsaching to be rid of him. and regardless of any shipgoing migratory cholerawith funds for temporary support. or with other nominal but worthless evidences of independence. butsufficient to pass the ordeal of the commissioners. and the fraud then may go undetected. The foreign stateaided or locallyassisted mendicant may have been elbowed out. or caressed with the gift of a passageticket all the way to Chicago or Omaha. and how is the fact to be discovered? "The voice is Jacobs voice. but the hands are the hands of Esau." The number of immigrants arriving at New York in 1883 was nearly 500.000. and of these only 1.330 were sent back to the places from whence they came. namely. 53 insane. 6 blind. 4 deaf and dumb. 16 idiots. 25 cripples. 649 incapacitated through illness. 55 incapacitated through old age. and 462 unable to maintain themselves. A much larger number. beyond doubt. mighthave been returned for like reasons. but among them all it does not appear that any one was sent back for having been a convict. Convicts are bold. often enterprising. and the actual numbers arriving may have been only less than of chronic paupers. The number of immigrants admitted as paupers to Wards Island in the course of ten years. or from 1877 to 1886. was 35.447. and the number admitted in nine months. or from January 1. 1887. to October 1. was 2.302. The figures given are of course limited to the port of New York. These are oppressive burdens. away from their proper place. which the ethics of modern civilization do not permit one nation to inflict upon any other nation. and it would be rank pusillanimity for us to tamely submit to the imposition. The destination of some immigrants. with whose support we appear to be frequently charged. has often nominally been to other countries. A large number of patients. also. have been admitted into the immigrant hospital at Wards Island. on account of disease when landedin 1886 the number was 1.573. From some localities these patients so far exceed the ordinary proportion to the immigrants from the same country as to excite a suspicion that their relatives. if not willing to bury them alive. after the manner of some savages. were at least willing to trust their aged and diseased kith and kin to the rigors ofan Atlantic voyage and to the constrained charity of a far distant people. The telegraphic report of the proceedings of the British House of Commons. September 1. 1887. contained the following instructive item: Mr. Balfour. replying to Mr. Healys question as to what steps had been taken in view of Americas objection to receive pauper immigrants. said that "the Government would allow no more money for the transportation of such persons during the remainder of the year."1 This isa negative pregnant. showing what has been done. He does not saythat any parish or any neighbors may not furnish money for such transportation. but only that the Government will not. Mr.