414 



IMMIGRATION. 



INABILITY OK DISABILITY. 



All Europe 9,492.812 



Asia (eight tenths Chinese) SW8.876 



British America. 703,708 



West Indies 04,658 



Mexico L'.i.."J4 



Central and South America 19,099 



Africa 1,554 



Pacific islands and not specified 75,Si80 



Grand total 10,016,056 



To these might be added many thousand 

 persons who come to the United States from 

 Canada and Mexico, of whom no record is 

 made ; and these, with those who arrived dur- 

 ing 1881, would swell the whole number to be- 

 tween eleven and twelve millions. 



The Commissioners of Emigration of the 

 Port of New York have established a com- 

 plete system of rules for the care of immi- 

 gnints arriving there. Spacious quarters for 

 their reception and temporary accommodation 

 are provided at Castle Garden. When a pas- 

 senger steamer arrives from a foreign port, a 

 boarding officer visits her, examines into the 

 sanitary condition of the vessel and passengers, 

 hears complaints, ascertains if proper care has 

 been taken of the passengers during the voyage, 

 and makes his report to the Superintendent at 

 Castle Garden. The landing agent, while the 

 passengers are still on board, gives checks for 

 the baggage of immigrants, and it is taken to 

 the Garden, where it is insured against fire and 

 other damage, and remains until it is claimed 

 by its owners. Many of the immigrants of 

 later years have been of the middling and well- 

 to-do classes, and fully three fourths of them 

 have come provided with prepaid tickets to 

 their places of destination in distant States. 

 These need but little attention, except for the 

 examination as to their health, and to see that 

 they are directed aright. Each person on land- 

 ing at Castle Garden undergoes a medical ex- 

 amination, when, if he proves to be perma- 

 nently diseased, blind, crippled, lunatic, or a 

 pauper, the ship-owners are obliged to give 

 bonds to insure the State against expense on 

 his account or take hirn back. If he is ill, he 

 is given medical treatment or sent to a hos- 

 pital. To save the immigrants the trouble and 

 perils of wandering about in a strange city, 

 a restaurant, cooking- stoves, and wash-rooms, 

 are provided for them ; authorized brokers are 

 appointed to make exchanges for them and 

 cash their notes and drafts, at the ruling rates 

 of the day in Wall Street; a telegraph-office 

 and a post-office are furnished, and each per- 

 son is asked if he expects to receive or wishes 

 to forward correspondence ; the principal rail- 

 roads are allowed to have ticket -offices in 

 the Garden; a baggage express delivers city 

 baggage at low rates ; and the Custom-House 

 has a bureau in the Garden to facilitate the 

 clearance of the baggage of immigrants. Food 

 and lodging are temporarily supplied to the 

 destitute, and every kind of physical suffering 

 is provided for at the hospitals, to which the 

 immigrants have access. A Bureau of Infor- 

 mation in 1880 enabled 26,612 persons to com- 

 municate with resident friends without trouble 



or expense. A number of licensed boarJing- 

 house keepers, who are admitted under careful 

 regulations, sheltered 46,612 persons at prices 

 approved by the Commissioners. The Labor 

 Bureau, under the direction of the Irish and 

 German Employment Societies, provided places 

 for 28,806 men and boys and 10,505 women 

 and girls. Several of the religious denomina- 

 tions have agencies at Castle Garden, where 

 assistance is given to persons of their faith, and 

 others who may apply. 



INABILITY OR DISABILITY OF THE PRESI- 

 DENT. The long illness of President Garfield, 

 after the assassin's shot, on the 2d of July, 

 to his death, on the 19th of September, gave 

 rise, for the first time in the history of the 

 American Republic, to a discussion of the 

 scope and meaning of the constitutional pro- 

 vision for the devolution of the powers and 

 duties of the executive office upon the Vice- 

 President, in case of the inability of the Presi- 

 dent to discharge the same. As no official 

 action was taken involving a determination of 

 the question, the discussion was confined chief- 

 ly to the public journals and to informal ex- 

 pressions of opinion by public men. The Con- 

 stitution of the United States provides that, 

 " in case of the removal of the President from 

 office, his death, resignation, or inability to 

 discharge the powers and duties of the said 

 office, the same shall devolve on the Vice- 

 President; and the Congress may, by law, 

 provide for the case of removal, death, resig- 

 nation, or inability, both of the President and 

 Vice-President, declaring what officer shall 

 then act as President ; and such officer shall act 

 accordingly until the disability be removed or 

 a President shall be elected." Among the in- 

 cidental points discussed were the meaning of 

 the phrae'es u devolve upon the Vice-President," 

 and " act as President," and the possible dif- 

 ference between " inability " and " disability." 

 In the latter clause of the section quoted, the 

 term " inability " is obviously intended to cover 

 elliptically the meaning of the preceding phrase, 

 "inability to discharge the powers and duties 

 of the said office," and " disability " appears to 

 have the same meaning, inasmuch as the other 

 causes for providing for the discharge of execu- 

 tive duties are such as would produce an actual 

 vacancy in the office, and could not be " re- 

 moved." The use of the term " disability " is 

 also to be noted in the twelfth amendment of 

 the Constitution, in which it is provided that, 

 in case no President has been elected by t!ie 

 end of the term of an actual incumbent, " the 

 Vice-President shall act as President, as in 

 the case of the death or other constitutional 

 disability of the President." This provision 

 of the amendment, which was adopted in 1804, 

 while many of the original framers of the 

 Constitution were still in public life, seems 

 also to indicate that they made no distinction 

 between the Vice-President acting as President 

 and having the powers and duties of the ex- 

 ecutive office devolve upon him. 



