3 6 ° 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



cial inquiry according to the law of 1903 ' consists of three members 

 selected from such of the immigrant officials in the service as the com- 

 missioner general of immigration, with the approval of the secretary 

 of commerce and labor, shall designate as qualified to serve on such 

 boards.' " The decision of any two members of a board shall prevail 

 and be final, but either the alien or any dissenting member of said 

 board may appeal through the commissioner of immigration at the port 

 of arrival, and the commissioner general of immigration to the secre- 

 tary of commerce and labor, whose decision shall then be final, and the 

 taking of such appeal shall operate to stay any action in regard to the 

 final disposal of the alien, whose case is so appealed, until receipt by 

 the commissioner of immigration at the port of arrival, of such deci- 

 sion." To this ' board of special inquiry ' are sent the aliens certified 

 by the medical officers as suffering from loathsome or dangerous con- 

 tagious disease, idiocy, epilepsy and insanity. 



In cases so certified the law is mandatory, and the medical certifi- 

 cate is equivalent to exclusion, the board simply applying the legal 

 process necessary for deportation. Aliens certified by the medical 

 cfficers as suffering from disability, likely to make them public charges, 

 are also held for examination before the board of special inquiry. The 

 board in these cases takes into consideration the medical certificate and 

 such evidence as may be adduced by the alien or his friends which, in 

 the opinion of the board, would offset the physical disability. In 

 these cases the board has full discretionary powers, and in a great 

 majority of instances the alien is admitted. Those certified as de- 

 fective by the doctors group themselves naturally into four classes, and 

 the following table indicates the disposition of such cases by the boards 

 of special inquiry at New York during a fairly representative month: 



Disposition or Immigrants Ceetified at Ellis Island, N. Y., 



Month of October, 1903. 



Cases pending beginning of month 



Cases certified during month 



Total to be accounted for 



Cases deported 



Cases landed — 



Cases pending close of month 



Class I. 

 (Dangerous 

 Contagious.) 



10 

 83 

 93 

 61 



4 



28 



Class II. 



(Insanity and 



Idiocy.) 







1 

 1 

 1 





 



Class III. 

 (Loathsome. ] 



I) 

 1 

 1 

 1 

 

 



Class IV. 

 (Likely to be- 

 come a Public 

 Charge. ) 



30 

 393 

 423 



30 

 349 



44 



Immigrants not detained for the board of special inquiry have their 

 money changed into United States currency, and buy their railroad 

 tickets, under the supervision of government officers. If they are 

 destined to points beyond New York City, government supervision is 

 maintained until they are taken to one of the great railroad terminals 



