Roosevelt Friend Of Immigrants

Incidents of President's Tour of Ellis Island.

QUICK ACTION IN DETENTION CASE

Woman With Four Children Held Since July Freed at Once by Chief Executive's Order - A Mother With a Baby Given $5 - Pleased With an Austrian's Use of American Money.

There were 2,407 immigrants on Ellis island when President Roosevelt made his recent tour of inspection, but it is doubtful if more than seven knew they were being inspected and questioned by the chief executive of the nation whose government had attracted them from their homes on the other side of the ocean, says the New York World.

It was 2:40 p.m. when the president reached Ellis island. He had luncheon first, next he announced the appointment of the investigating commission, and then he began his inspection, which has probably no parallel in the official acts of chief executives of the United States.

He went up to the main floor, where the hundreds of immigrants were being registered. He posted himself besides Inspector Gustav Thies. The first immigrant to come along was an Austrian, Mrs. Rosa Klausner. In a direct, emphatic way the president put questions through an interpreter to the bewildered woman, who had no idea who was talking to her. She said she was coming here to join her husband, a baker. She exhibited $15 in United States bills which her husband had sent her.

"That is what I like to see," said the president. "It means something when a man sends American money to his family on the other side." Going to the desk of the next inspector, the president questioned a woman. She had a basket on her arm. The cover began to wiggle, and then came a faint cry. The president peeped into the basket and saw a chubby seven-month-old baby, who yelled mightily when the president peered more closely at him.

Then he put some questions to the woman which revealed one of those cases which are very common on Ellis island. The woman was Adele Walte, twenty-six years old, from Leutenantsdorf, Germany. She had come to the United States to marry the father of her baby, Conrad Winkler of 93 Sumner street, Adams, Mass. The inspector told the president that the man would be notified of the woman's arrival and that if he came to Ellis island and married her she would. be allowed to land; if not, she would be sent back to Germany. 

"That is sad, very sad," remarked Mr. Roosevelt. Then he called Jacob Riis to him. He gave Mr. Riis a five dollar bill and told him to give it to the woman. When Mr. Riis gave her the money and told her who the donor was she sat down on a bench and, lifting the baby out of the basket, wept. 

Another woman who was questioned by the president was told later who he was. She had three one dollar bills bearing the portraits of Presidents Grant and Lincoln in her hand. She examined these portraits, took one look at Mr. Roosevelt and, shaking her head energetically, said, "Na! Na!"

Over in the room where the women and children are detained there was a pathetic scene. One woman divined the importance of the visitor and began to shriek, moan and tear her clothing. Mr. Roosevelt started toward her, then turned away and spoke to Jacob Riis. He went back to the woman.

She was Mrs. Chaje Lewin, a Slav, with four children, the eldest a boy of nineteen and the youngest a girl of seven. They have been detained on Ellis island since July 30. They arrived at New York in the steerage of the Barbarossa. On the same vessel were her husband and a fifth child, a daughter, who traveled in the second cabin. The husband and the child with him were both afflicted with trachoma, an eye disease which bars the sufferer from landing. The steamship officers were ordered to detain the father and child on the ship, but the two escaped, and no trace of them has since been found.

Then the mother and four children were detained on the ground that they had no means of support owing to the disappearance of the man. Later, when Mr. Riis reported these facts to the president in Commissioner Williams' office, Mr. Roosevelt sent for the woman and the four children. All of them except the eldest son were weeping hysterically when brought before him. The president learned that the board of inquiry had ordered the deportation of the family, but that the decision had been appealed to Secretary Cortelyou of the department of commerce, where the matter was still pending. The president put many questions and found that the eldest son was a skillful barber and that since his detention on Ellis island he had earned $25 by shaving fellow immigrants. The young man said he was well able to support his mother and the other children.

"I'll decide this case right now," said the president. "It seems an injustice that these poor people be kept cooped up here. I order that they be permitted to land."

The necessary papers were soon filled out, and the mother and children came to New York on the next trip of the John G. Carlisle. 

The hospital was the last department visited. The president went into all of the wards. It was nearly 7 p.m. when the inspection was finished.