American Passage_ The History of Ellis I - Vincent J. Cannato [249]
150 Williams believed that: “United States Immigration Laws with Annotations for Guidance of Immigrant Inspectors at the Ellis Island Station,” November 1902, TVP; Letter from William Williams to Theodore Roosevelt, November 25, 1902, WW-NYPL.
151 Compare Williams’s 1902 edict: Reports of the Industrial Commission on Immigration, 1901 (New York: Arno Press, 1970, reprint), 81.
151 In his first Annual Message: President Theodore Roosevelt, “First Annual Message to Congress,” December 3, 1901.
151 Roosevelt warned Williams: Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William Williams, January 21, 1903, Series 2, TR; Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William Williams, January 23, 1903, in Elting E. Morison, ed., The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, vol. 3 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1951), 411–412.
152 Williams at first responded: Letter from William Williams to Theodore Roosevelt, January 24, 1903, Series 1, TR.
152 Williams then shot back : Letter from William Williams to Theodore Roosevelt, January 29, 1903, WW-NYPL.
152 Williams continued: Letter from William Williams to Theodore Roosevelt, February 8, 1903, Series 1, TR.
152 A man like William Williams: NYT, May 24, 1903.
153 Williams ended his: Edited version of Williams’s Annual Report for 1903 with Roosevelt’s edits is found in the WW-NYPL.
153 Over 857,000 immigrants: Kate Holladay Claghorn, “Immigration in Its Relation to Pauperism,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, July 1904.
154 In a 1906 book sympathetic: Edward A. Steiner, On the Trail of the Immigrant (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1906), 75.
154 Not everyone agreed: Wallace Irwin, “Ellis Island’s Problems,” New York Globe and Commercial Advertiser, June 14, 1904.
154 It was a sentiment: “Annual Report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration,” 1903, 70.
154 It was a cold: “Annual Report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration,” 1904, 106.
155 To his supporters: Letter from Prescott Hall to William Williams, December 24, 1902, WW-NYPL.
156 Even the American Hebrew: Quoted in Williams Memo, “Comments on Certain Articles Which Appeared in the ‘Staats Zeitung’ Between December 1902 and October 1903,” undated, WW-NYPL; AH, January 30, 1903. 156 Despite the support: “Hell on Earth,” New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, September 4, 1903. A translated copy appears in the William Williams Papers at the New York Public Library. Williams, who was fluent in German, either translated the articles himself or had them translated.
156 Williams may have: Letter from Frank Sargent to William Williams, April 14, 1903, WW-NYPL; Letter from Robert Watchorn to Terence V. Powderly, September 5, 1903, Box 128, TVP.
157 Roosevelt’s trip began: The following account of Roosevelt’s visit is taken from NYT, September 17, 1903, and BG, September 17, 1903.
157 After a quick lunch: For a slightly different version of the story, see Henry Pratt Fairchild, Immigration: A World Movement and Its American Significance (New York: Macmillan, 1913), 188.
158 Little escaped: Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Victor Howard Metcalf, February 22, 1906, in Morison, ed., Letters, vol. 5, 162–163; Morgen Journal, July 10, 1912. For more on trachoma, see Howard Markel, “ ‘The Eyes Have It’: Trachoma, the Perception of Disease, the United States Public Health Service, and the American Jewish Immigration Experience, 1897–1924,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 74 (2000). 158 Among those invited: Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Ralph Trautman, November 28, 1903, in Morison, ed., Letters, vol. 3, 659–660. In addition to von Briesen, the commission included former district attorney Eugene Philbin; Thomas Hynes, New York commissioner of corrections; Ralph Trautman, Treasurer, New York Palisades Interstate Park Commission; and Lee Frankel, of the United Hebrew Charities.
159 The Von Briesen Commission: See File 52727-2, INS.
160 Roosevelt was happy: Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Ralph Trautman,