Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1911 — Justice Hard to Dispense Where Human Woe and Misery Exist [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Justice Hard to Dispense Where Human Woe and Misery Exist

By CHARLES NAGEL.

Sec-

retary of Commerce and Labor

HMAN who daily faces the record of HUMAN WOE, of HEARTACHE, of MISERY and sometimes of brutality to be found at Ellis island, the immigrant station of New York,, rises, if he rises at all, to heights of earnest desire to ameliorate the conditions of HUMAN SUFFER-

ING with an intensity that is unknown to those who make sweet mouthfuls of “social betterment” and kindred phrases in feeble attempts to help without perceiving the cause. * . The sights we see at Ellis island and the aspects of life which that great concourse of all nations presents in the way of PATHOS, MISERY, TRAGEDY and the agony of despair Kipling could not describe. No artist can paint such a picture, and those who are safeguarded in the COMFORT AND PROTECTION OF HOME and friends can but very imperfectly realize it. WE SUFFER CRITICISM FROM TIME TO TIME IN DIRECTIONS AND TO DEGREES THAT ARE WHOLLY UNDESERVED. MY GREAT REGRET IS THAT THE CONDITIONS ARE NOT FULLY UNDERSTOOD. OUR MEN ARE OFTEN DESCRIBED AS BEING COLD HEARTED IN THE DISCHARGE OF THEIR DUTIES, BUT WE KNOW DIFFERENTLY. While no man can safely wear his heart on his sleeve, the innumerable cases where inspectors go FAR OUT OF THEIR WAY to make admission possible, to be blind to unimportant facts, to be deaf to some answers, to make up deficiencies by subscriptions and similar discretionary discharges of kindly offices—all these serve to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that a spirit of tender heartedness pervades the service and that the dispensation of justice is well tern-' pered with mercy.