DOORKEEPER OF THE UNITED STATES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 205, 23 May 1908, Page 10

DOORKEEPER OF THE UNITED STATES.

—$ : HOW AMERICAN CITIZENS ARE MADE. SIFTING THE WHEAT FROM THE CHAFF. .Mr. Robert Watchorn, the United States Commissioner of Immigration, who has charge of the great immigrant receiving station at Ellis Island, in New York Bay, visited London recently on a holiday trip. ■ Mr. Watchorn is the man on whom devolves the immense task of sifting tho immigrant wheat from . the chair—tho desirable material for American citizens from the diseased, tho criminal, the unfit, and the unemployable. He declared to an "Express" representative that the net was so fino that very little of tho chaff could get through it. During the throo years he has been in charge at Ellis Island, Mr. Watchorn said, about 3,000,000 immigrants passed through his hands. Natives of the Austrian Empiro were tho most numerous, and after them in order came Italians, Russians, and natives of Western Europe. Included ill tho last classification aro tho 130,000 persons from the British Isles, of- whom 3.V,000-:came from Ireland. Mr. Watchorn does not think' that thore is much to chooso among the immigrants. "If it wore not for their distinctive dress and language," he said, "wo could not distinguish cue nationality from another, except, of course, a ■ few who have been degraded by centuries of oppression. They all mako good citizdns. It .stands to reason that a man does not cross the Atlantic to loaf, and if. he did ho would not pass pur test. In a few years they are all Americans." A remarkable feature which Mr. • Watchorn mentioned is the fact that since October 1 last tho number of emigrants from the United States compared with tho number of immigrants has been as three to one. Only about 30,000 persons a month have been coining in, while about 00,000 a month have ; been flying from the fmanoial panio to their old. homes in Europe. "Things will soon adjust themselves," he said. . The process is almost automatic. As soon as work becomes more plentiful in the United States - tho stream of immigration will set in again. They will know it in Europo before we know ■ it officially in America. By far the greatest proportion of tho immigrants to America come in re-, spouse to letters from relatives in America, And the number of those letters is governed by tho labour conditions. , " When they como they - scatter all over the country where )vork is, to. be. found. Lately tho builders have been going to San Francisco. Tho people-from the Manchester district go to tho cotton mills of Now England. Tho Italian navvies go where a railway is being built, and so on." "Largo wages aro paid in the United States," ho. said, " but Vfair day's work is expected in return. A contractor who pays twenty-four shillings : a day to bricklayers expects twenty-four, shillings' woi*th of work. All work' is estimated on the piccc system, ovon ' when weekly or. daily wages are paid, and tho man who cannot keep'up to the standard must, drop out."