Alfred Cummings Reed

“ Only those peoples should be admitted whom experience has shown will amalgamate quickly and become genuine citizens. The period of residence necessary for citizenship should be raised from three to five years, during which time the immigrant should be literally on probation, and subject to deportation if found wanting, or if unable to meet the qualifications of citizenship at the end of that time. The government should decide where the immigrant may settle and the immigration current should be directed to the western and farming districts, and not allowed to stagnate in eastern cities. ”

“ No race is desirable which does not tend to lose its distinctive traits in the process of blending with our own social body. It would seem from history that the Jew only blends inadvertently and against his conscious endeavor and desire. Hence the process of true assimilation must be very backward. Moreover, in origin, racial traits, instincts and point of view, the Hebrew race is essentially oriental, and altogether there is at least ground for objection to unrestricted Jewish immigration.
No one can mistake the pressing necessity for a solution of the immigration problem. ”

“ It is true, the United States government bestows on public health and preventive medicine no where near the attention it finds necessary for the prevention of disease in stock and for agricultural improvement, but none the less there are certain well-organized and efficiently operated agencies which have for their function the improvement of public hygiene and sanitation, the eradication of preventable disease, and the study of causation and methods of control of diseases. ”

“ He notes the large number of feeble-minded children in the schools of New York City who have passed Ellis Island, and gives as one reason, lack of time and facilities for thorough examination as to mental condition. The result is that the law in this particular is practically a dead letter. According to the law, the feeble-minded as well as idiots and imbeciles are absolutely excluded. It is of vast import that the feeble-minded be detected, not alone because they are predisposed to become public charges, but because they and their offspring contribute so largely to the criminal element. ”

“ New York City is in reality a foreign city, inasmuch as in 1910 the native-born of native parents numbered only 193 in every 1,000 inhabitants. This preponderating foreign element is due to the concentration of arrested immigration in New York. For the country as a whole, great interest attaches to the influence which the Panama Canal will exert in diverting immigration lines to southern and Pacific coast points. ”

“ Certain diseases are found so frequently among immigrants, and others are so inherently dangerous, as to merit special mention because of their important relation to public health.
First among these might be placed trachoma, a disease of the eyelids characterized by extreme resistance to treatment, very chronic course and most serious results. Most of the immigrant cases occur in Russians, Austrians and Italians, although it is of common occurrence in oriental and Mediterranean countries. It causes a large percentage of the blindness in Syria and Egypt. ”

“ The policy of those advocating free immigration would make this country in effect the dumping ground of the world.
Exclusion of these undesirables works no injustice to the lands from which they come. A large emigration from a land usually is followed by an increased birth-rate, and the net change is slightly affected, if at all. [5] Admitting undesirables to this country will in no wise elevate the world's human standard, because those undesirables will multiply as fast here as in their original home, and their stock will only become extinct when it ceases to perpetuate itself. ”

“ Seldom indeed does the alien suffer from too harsh a medical judgment. He is given the benefit of a doubt always. For example, if a case of defective vision is found to be 3/20 normal, it would be certified as perhaps 5/20 normal.
The immigration law as it stands since the legislation of 1907, divides all defective immigrants into the following classes: Class A, aliens whose exclusion is mandatory because of a definite and specified ”

“ Loathsome contagious diseases include those whose presence excites abhorrence in others, and which are essentially chronic, such as favus, ringworm of the scalp, parasitic fungus diseases, Madura foot, leprosy and venereal disease. Dangerous contagious diseases are such as trachoma, filariasis, hookworm infection, amœbic dysentery, and endemic hematuria. ”

“ In general it may be said that the best class is drawn from northern and western Europe, and the poorest from the Mediterranean countries and western Asia. Among the worst are the Greeks, South Italians and the Syrians, who emigrate in large numbers. The Greeks offer a sad contrast to their ancient progenitors, as poor physical development is the rule among those who reach Ellis Island, and they have above their share of other defects. ”

“ Infection can spread rapidly from a single case. Not many hookworm carriers have been discovered among immigrants, probably because the facilities for their detection are so meager. But the heavy immigration from countries where uncinaria is abundant, as well as the recent suggestive work of Dr. H. M. Manning at the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, indicate that there is a constant stream of fresh infection pouring in. ”

“ Contrary to popular belief, the Jewish race is far from a pure stock, and has been colored by various and repeated admixtures with other bloods. Hence Jews of different nationalities differ considerably in their physical status and aptitude for American institutions, and for amalgamation with our body politic. ”

“ This need not disqualify aliens from travel in the United States.
The immigrant per se has no moral or social right to enter this country against the will of its citizens. An enduring commonwealth must of necessity guard rigidly the health of its citizens and protect itself against undesirable additions from without. There was a time when European immigration was free, and almost entirely of desirable classes. ”

“ The less desirable classes are increasing actually and relatively, and at the expense of the more desirable. It can truthfully be said that the dregs and off-scourings of foreign lands, the undesirables of whom their own nations are only too eager to purge themselves, come in hosts to our shores. ”

“ He sees each person directly from the front as he approaches, and his glance travels rapidly from feet to head. In this rapid glance he notes the gait, attitude, presence of flat feet, lameness, stiffness at ankle, knee, or hip, malformations of the body, observes the neck for goitre, muscular development, scars, enlarged glands, texture of skin, and finally as the immigrant comes up face to face, the examiner notes abnormalities of the features, eruptions, scars, paralysis, expression, etc. ”

“ The saliva of the hookworm has the curious property of preventing coagulation of blood like leech extract, and when it is remembered that the worms may vary in number from several hundred to a thousand or more, and that each worm moves frequently from place to place on the intestinal wall, it is apparent how excessive and continuous is the drain on the blood and lymph juices. ”

“ Class B, aliens not under class A, but who possess some defect or disease which is likely to interfere with the ability to earn a living. Class C, aliens who present a defect or disease of still lesser seriousness, not affecting ability to earn a living, but which none the less must be certified for the information of the immigration inspectors. ”

“ The boarding division of the medical inspection on Ellis Island has for its particular function the inspection of aliens in the first and second cabins on board the incoming vessels. Those who require more detailed examination are sent to Ellis Island.
The routine inspection on the line is that part which the visitor sees, and is the most important feature of the medical sieve spread to sift out the physically and mentally defective. The incoming immigrants pass in single file down two lines. ”

“ After careful examination, the nature of the defect or disease found, is put in the form of a medical certificate which must be signed by at least three of the physicians on duty. It is not within the province of the medical officers to pass judgment on the eligibility of the immigrant for admission. ”

“ The medical inspecting service at Ellis Island is divided into three branches, the hospital, the boarding division and the line. The hospital division presents an excellently equipped and managed institution, and an isolated set of buildings for contagious diseases. The hospital service is limited exclusively to immigrants, and the patients are those acutely ill upon arrival, those taken sick during their stay on the island. ”

“ Under loathsome and dangerous contagious diseases there were 1,361 cases, of which 85 per cent, were trachoma. Over 11,000 aliens had a defect or diseases affecting ability to earn a living and half of these were due to age and the changes incident to senescence. ”

“ Under class A, the excluded, are listed idiots, imbeciles, the feebleminded, the epileptics, the insane, persons afflicted with tuberculosis of the respiratory, intestinal or genito-urinary tracts, and loathsome or dangerous contagious diseases. ”

“ As the immigrant turns, in following the line, the examiner has a side view, noting the ears, scalp, side of neck, examining the hands for deformity or paralysis, and if anything about the individual seems suspicious, he is asked several questions. ”