 Young Hauser sailed to America as a steerage passenger on the SS "George Washington", and underwent immigrant inspection at Ellis Island on 14 August 1911.Not long after settling in the USA, Hauser was stricken with tuberculosis of the hip which, before the development of antibiotics in the 1930s, was almost always fatal.After several operations proved fruitless, his case was declared hopeless and Hauser consulted a naturopath, Dr. Benedict Lust.