IMMIGRATION: Less Pushing

One year ago, last July 1, eleven vessels brought 11,482 passengers, most of them immigrants, into New York Harbor. Ellis Island was jammed with humanity. A year later, this July 1, nine ships came in, bringing 1,214 passengers, none of them immigrants. Ellis Island was idle.

The difference was a difference in immigration laws. The superseded law placed a premium on pushing in as soon as the clock struck twelve for the beginning of a new immigration year. The present law says : “Get a certificate before you start and come over at your leisure.” The result is less rush, less hardship, less danger.

Incidentally, immigration certificates were not ready in time for this July 1; so absolutely no immigrants came. The Cleveland of the United American Line brought the nearest thing of the kind, “several thousand birds, a tapir, a blue-faced mandrill, other monkeys, some squirrels and three makis . . . funny-looking animals which are neither raccoons nor monkeys and which make sounds like a turkey.”