Daily Digest of Public Opinion on Jewish Matters

[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.–Editor.]

Opposition to the alien deportation bill now before Congress is voiced by the New York “Evening World” of Feb. 17.

Referring to the proposal of Secretary Davis and others that ” a million dollars shall be appropriated for the immigration service, and that two years be devoted to the rounding up of all such aliens for the purpose of deportation,” the paper declares:

“That there are aliens who should never have been permitted to enter, and who should be deported under due process of law, no one will deny. In view of the present obsession on the menace of aliens just now care should be taken, however, that no reign of terror is launched and that all the accused shall have the right to a defense with all the safeguards that justice dictates.

“There is now pending, before the Committee on Immigration in the House, a deportation act of much greater severity that is more than sinister in its possibilities and which places no limitation as to time on the right of the Government to deport. In this measure there is no provision for anything remotely resembling a legal defense. No provision for the services of counsel. None for the right of the accused to subpoena witnesses. None for the right of the accused to face his accuser and to cross-examine. No definite designation of the place where the hearing is to be held. And every opportunity for blackmail in the case of men who came in years before and have built up a profitable business and accumulated property.

“That measure should be amended before it is reported out of the committee, for otherwise it may be pushed through under the gag rules of the House after a twenty-minute debate as was done before. It exceeds in severity the provisions of the Alien Law of odorous and infamous memory, and the time to force amendments compelling the application of the ordinary American processes of justice is now.”

The “Day,” treating of the same subject, observes:

“It is indeed a very deplorable state of affairs. At a time when the existing laws for immigration and deportation give new proof daily of their cruelty and clumsiness, the enemies of immigration are trying to make the laws still more severe, more cruel. In the space of less than a year the present immigration law has brought disgrace to America in the eyes of the world.”

TWO JEWISH BOYS AMONG ROOSEVELT RESCUE CREW

There were two Jewish boys among the rescue crew of the S.S. Roosevelt, we are told by Joel Slonim in the “Day” of Feb. 17.

Mr. Slonim who attended the welcome in New York to Captain Fried and his men, spoke personally to the two Jewish boys, about whom he writes:

“These boys are: Morris Jacobowitz, a former member of the Jewish Legion, and Samuel Fisher. Both are praised by Captain Fried of the S.S. Roosevelt, not only because they were among the small group of sailors who volunteered to help rescue at the risk of their own lives the crew of the S.S. Antinoe, but especially because of the heroism they displayed. It is a miracle that they remained alive. Neither Jacobowitz nor Fisher dreamt that they would come out alive from the cold, wild waves….”