Speech #510039710

I do not see the necessity for this appropriation of $75.000 to fit up Ellis Island. There is another consideration I wish to present. Very often immigrants come from abroad. stay here a few years. earn some money. then send for wives and children to cross 3.000 miles of ocean to join them in their new homes in this new land. They wish to been the spot when wives and children arrive. How are they going to be there when these immigrants are placed on a barren island. lying off the mainland. with absolutely nothing in the shape of connection with any civilized center. They are to be landed. helpless women and children. on this little island. and left at the tender mercies of whoever are left in charge there. with no opportunity for husband or father to meet and greet them on their arrival. There are other considerations. Very largely in New York. in my own Congressional district. on Long Island. and Staten Island. people desiring help go to Castle Garden and hire men for farm laborers or women for domestic service. Nothing is paid out by either party to intelligence offices. and these immigrants. as soon as they are landed. are provided with comfortable situations. which could not be done if the site were removed to Ellis Island. as proposed. or to any point not upon or closely connected with some large center. I think this bureau should be continued at Castle Garden or somewhere on the mainland in the city of New York. or on Long Island or Staten Island. some spot where there is a civilized center. Both Long Island and Staten Island are connected with New York by admirably conducted ferries. The immigrants must sooner or later be transferred to New York. as a large proportion of them go by rail thence to their various points of destination. Why should they be made to suffer a purgatorial experience on Ellis Island? I think the immigrants would be benefited by it. I think the spirit and letter of the law would be carried out to more advantage and with better results if the bureau were established at some point where the fullest opportunities would be afforded for observing the methods under which the law is ad ministered. I do not believe. sir. in the policy or in the principle of attempting to carry on any governmental matter in the midst of seclusion and isolation. It occurs to me that governmental work. of any character. will be better done if done openly and publicly. with the fullest opportunities for examination and investigation. On behalf of the immigrants who are seeking or who shall seek a home and an asylum on our shores. I ask that the fullest light be thrown upon the acts and the methods of those who are charged with the administration of the laws governing their immigration. [Here the hammer fell.]