LEGISLATION AND EVASION
It is exasperating to any patriotic American to have brought
convincingly before him the proofs of a wholesale evasion of a very
carefully planned code of laws which he fain would think is a sufficient
protection of his civic rights and his country’s best interests. It is
more annoying to realize that the successful evaders are for the most
part foreigners, and those, too, of commonly despised races.
The severity of our laws in the matter of counterfeiting is well known,
but they have no terrors whatsoever for the gangs of Italian
counterfeiters who are giving the Secret Service Department more trouble
than it has ever had with native criminals of this order.
The internal revenue laws are very thorough, and the execution of them
is far-reaching and systematic, in fact the administration of the
federal internal revenue system has long been a boast with this country,
and so well did it do its work that now and then a lone moonshiner
escaped detection, and that was all. Since the influx of foreign masses
into the country, the troubles of the Department have grown. In the
larger cities to-day the Bohemian cigar makers and dealers are building
up intricate systems of cigar making and selling without paying the
government its due. Buying direct from farmers and planters, failing to
account for the stock bought, making without recording the product,
selling it clandestinely to refill boxes,—those are some of the details
of the operations. The extent of the frauds is growing every day, just
as rapidly as the number of aliens who will engage in such practices
increases.
Of the naturalization frauds much has been written and said, and I have
given a number of instances in earlier chapters which show how the
Italians particularly operate with fraudulent naturalization papers, not
only using them to vote with in this country, and so reap the harvest of
political heelers,—meanwhile having any true idea of citizenship they
might get hopelessly abased,—but farming them out to serve as cloaks for
passing in as citizens several of their countrymen each year. The worst
feature of this is that politically unscrupulous men in all of the large
cities of the country do not hesitate to use their influence to obtain
fraudulent naturalization papers for their alien followers, in fact
employ the papers to buy the friendship of the aliens or to reward
services already rendered. There are election districts in the Italian
quarter of New York where not more than one-half of the registered
foreign-born voters are legally entitled to ballot.
The remedy for this feature of alien legislation and evasion is to
change, by Federal act, the system of examining aliens, and, without
making it more difficult for a man to become naturalized rightfully,
make the research into his record and attainments so far-reaching that
even perjury will not save him; for perjury, as a crime, rests lightly
on the average alien’s conscience.
The evasions of the contract-labor law and of the
exclusion-of-diseased-immigrants law have been many times mentioned in
these pages, and constitute a problem which will not be solved by any
legislation making the examination at our ports any more strict.
Smuggling across the border from Canada and Mexico continues to be a
favorite method of evasion of the laws. A general statement of the
situation is made in the following extract from the Report for 1903 of
Commissioner-General of Immigration, F. P. Sargent, which includes
extracts from the last Report of Commissioner for Canada, Robert
Watchorn, on the year’s work done at Canadian ports and on the border.
It should prove a revelation to those who believe our present system of
controlling immigration is a success.
This statement, covering the past seven fiscal years, will serve to show
the steady increase in alien immigration to the United States through
the ports of Canada:
July 1, 1896, to June 30, 1897 10,646
July 1, 1897, to June 30, 1898 10,737
July 1, 1898, to June 30, 1899 13,853
July 1, 1899, to June 30, 1900 23,200
July 1, 1900, to June 30, 1901 25,220
July 1, 1901, to June 30, 1902 29,199
July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903 35,920
The foregoing figures, it should be remembered, refer to those only who
are manifested on the lists furnished by transportation lines whose
North American terminals are at Canadian seaports as destined to the
United States. They do not include those aliens who subsequent to
landing in the Dominion enter this country as residents of Canada. The
number of such is doubtless considerable, but the Bureau has no data at
its command to enable it to make even an approximately accurate
computation thereof. The inspection of those referred to in the
foregoing statement is made at the Canadian port of arrival in the same
manner that aliens arriving at seaports of this country are examined.
As to the operations of administrative officers in respect to those who
seek admission after temporary residence in the Dominion the subjoined
report of the United States commissioner of immigration at Montreal
gives information that cannot fail to impress one with the magnitude and
importance of the duties discharged under his supervision, as well as
with the efficiency with which those duties are performed.
FROM COMMISSIONER WATCHORN’S REPORT.
233 ST. ANTOINE STREET,
_Montreal, Canada_.
SIR: I have the honor to report for the fiscal year concerning
immigration from Europe to the United States through Canada.
Pursuant to the requirements of section 10 of Department Circular 97,
dated November 1, 1901, monthly reports have been made to the Bureau on
the prescribed forms; you are therefore already fully advised as to the
numbers of aliens examined, admitted, or rejected, as the case may be.
This report is intended to amplify the information furnished per regular
forms.
One year ago I had occasion to report that an act of Parliament had been
passed at Ottawa, to wit, Bill 112, passed by House of Commons May,
1902, designed to prevent “the landing at Canadian ports of any
immigrant or other passenger who is suffering from a loathsome,
dangerous, infectious disease or malady, whether such immigrant intends
to settle in Canada, _or only intends to pass through Canada to settle
in some other country_.”
Although this act was passed in May, 1902, it was not made effective
till September 8 of the same year. This delay was due to the absence
from Ottawa of certain government officials whose approval was essential
to its promulgation.
During the interim from the passage to the promulgation of this act a
large number of aliens destined to the United States, and a greater
number destined to Canada, were permitted to land despite the fact that
the act in question, if enforceable, would have precluded the
possibility of their landing.
Indeed, it was not until said act was made enforceable and enforced that
a single legal deportation could have been effected from Canada, so that
its promulgation may be cited as the one paramount important feature of
the year.
The Bureau having been amply apprised of the fact that the
above-mentioned Canadian legislation is due solely to revelations made
by United States immigrant inspectors on the Canadian frontier, it will
not be necessary to dwell further on that point than to emphasize the
fact that this very important matter furnishes both the Canadian and
United States governments genuine cause for gratification, inasmuch as
both are now capable of dealing satisfactorily with a very grave
question.
I felt constrained to remark in the annual report for 1902 that we must
wait for developments in order to be able to ascertain whether the
Canadian exclusion act would afford the satisfaction anticipated, and
experience has demonstrated that it was quite a proper observation to
make, because it has frequently occurred that a disagreement of
diagnoses has been determined on the Canadian medical examiner’s
certificate, which has led to certain aliens being allowed to land
instead of being deported, as would have been the case had the United
States medical examiner’s certificate been accepted as final.
However, it is a source of pleasure to me to be able to report that
while such cases were painfully numerous during the early period of the
enforcement of the Canadian exclusion act, there has been a tendency to
uniformity of diagnoses, and not only that, but also an appreciable
improvement in the conditions existing between the officers of the
immigration services, Canadian and United States, respectively.
The superintendent of immigration of the Dominion of Canada, Mr. W. D.
Scott, has evinced a desire to give a broad interpretation of the act
alluded to. In this connection it may not be out of place to quote
verbatim a few sentences from a communication he addressed to this
office on May 28, 1903:
OTTAWA, _May 28, 1903_.
... But it is very clear to me that if these people are of the class who
are likely to be refused by your commissioners ... they must be of the
class that would be refused by the Canadian medical officers at Atlantic
seaports.
It is quite true, however, that our examination, so far as money
standard is concerned, is not particularly strict, but aside from that,
on all other points I do not know that there is very much difference
between the general reasons for deportation taken into consideration by
the Canadian and United States officials....
Allow me to assure you again that this department will do everything to
co-operate in preventing an undesirable class of people from the
Continent to land in this country.
These sentiments are so plainly indicative of a realization on the part
of the Canadian officials of the necessity for enlightened action, that
comment on them on my part is unnecessary.
Even a tentative co-operation is a vast improvement on the methods
prevalent prior to September, 1901 (all of which was reported June 30,
1902), and a continuance of it may be safely relied on to correct still
further a condition which had become well-nigh intolerable.
During the ten months which were covered by my report of June 30, 1902,
the gateways to the United States via the Canadian frontier east of
Sault Ste Marie became thoroughly well known to many interested persons,
and it became evident to us that the properly protected gateways were
being avoided by certain classes of immigrants, and it was incumbent on
us to ascertain what outlet was being sought in lieu of the well-guarded
routes.
This investigation revealed a state of things requiring prompt and
vigorous action on the part of the Bureau. It devolved upon me to advise
the Bureau that whatever leak there was was beyond the western extremity
of the jurisdiction of the Montreal office, and to recommend that steps
be taken to “check the current which was all too plainly being diverted
to frontier points west of Sault Ste Marie.”
* * * * *
Pursuant to instructions I detailed a corps of well-trained inspectors
and interpreters to duty at Winnipeg, Manitoba, and at the same time,
through the influence of the Bureau, obtained the acquiescence of the
parties of the second part (to wit, certain Canadian transportation
companies) to Department Circular 97, dated November 1, 1901, to the
establishment of a board of special inquiry at Winnipeg.
The Bureau will have some approximate idea of the importance of this
change when viewing it in the light of the following figures:
Since the date of the opening of the Winnipeg office (February 14, 1903)
no less than 2,157 immigrants have been examined by the board of special
inquiry, and certificates of admission have been issued to 1,633, while
the surprising number of 524[2] have been rejected for the following
causes:
Footnote 2:
Including Pembina and Portal.
Trachoma 171
Minors dependent on above 128
Likely to become public charge 171
Contract laborers 51
Measles 3
______
Total 524
The total amount of head tax collected on account of these immigrants is
$3,729, not a dollar of which would have been collected had this
important change not been made; nor would a single person in the list of
objectionables have been denied admission to the United States, but
would have crossed the frontier without let or hindrance, as thousands
of their equally objectionable kind had been doing for an indefinite
period of time.
The work of the board of special inquiry at Winnipeg had scarcely
commenced when we discovered that the objectionable aliens whose access
to the United States the Montreal office was established to prevent were
going still farther westward, and rejections are now not at all uncommon
as far west as the borders of Montana, Idaho, and Washington.
The Bureau saw fit, on March 26, 1903, to promote the Montreal office
from a special inspectorship to a commissionership, and to extend its
jurisdiction to the Atlantic ports, Halifax, N. S.; St. John, N. B.; and
Quebec, Que.
* * * * *
This change added materially to the efficiency of this Office in view of
the fact that it served as a notice to all concerned that the Bureau was
earnestly supporting its force in Canada.
The change also improved conditions at the above-named ports, as it
enabled the officer in charge, Assistant Commissioner John Thomas, to
co-operate with the border force to greater advantage, and thus conserve
to a far greater extent the excellent results attained under his
efficient administration.
It has been absolutely necessary for me to apply to the Bureau quite
frequently for additional medical examiners, inspectors, interpreters,
and clerks, since the close of the last fiscal year, and to the prompt
and satisfactory manner in which the Bureau has responded to those
applications is due the remarkable showing made during the present
fiscal year.
On June 30, 1902, the total force numbered 66; now it numbers 116. On
careful perusal the records of admissions and rejections will be found
to correspond to the force employed to deal with the situation, and the
maintenance of the present grade of efficient officers along the entire
frontier will enable the Bureau to deal as satisfactorily with the
matter as it deals with it at United States ocean ports of entry.
During the twelve months ended to-day many persons have applied for
admission to the United States via Canada whose personal appearance and
general conditions should have precluded the possibility of their having
been allowed to embark on any vessel designed to carry passengers under
conditions of health and comfort.
It is only necessary to relate that in some instances the filthy
conditions have been so abominable as to render it impossible for our
medical examiners to give them the attention required by our laws and
regulations. The Bureau, like myself, will have to leave it to
conjecture how fellow-passengers huddled together in the close quarters
of an Atlantic liner have endured the contaminating presence of such
persons.
Admission to the United States has been invariably denied to such
applicants, and in some instances it has been deemed unwise to return
them to Canada, and deportation to Europe has been effected.
I shall not attempt to draw a picture of the situation as it now
appears, for the accompanying figures are so fraught with food for
reflection that embellishment would be superfluous. However, it may be
well to emphasize a few of the more important features represented by
these figures.
We have always contended that large numbers of aliens destined to the
United States were designedly manifested to Canada, and while there has
been some effort made by the steamship lines to correct this evil by
refusing passage to the more obviously diseased (some 150 such refusals
have been reported by all the “lines”), it is to be regretted that the
improvement has not been on broader lines. I have used the words
“obviously diseased” advisedly, because the decrease is most noticeable
in that class of diseased persons whose ailments cannot be hidden.
For instance, during the ten months ended June 30, 1902, as many as
ninety-six cases of favus were rejected at the Montreal office alone. It
was at that time that the agitation on this question in Canada was kept
up with considerable vigor, in view of which the weeding-out process was
undertaken at ports of embarkation.
Favus, as you know, shockingly disfigures its victims, eating out the
hair, producing disgusting scalp sores until cured, which is often
deferred until the head is totally denuded of hair.
An examination at ports of embarkation almost invariably leads to a
detection of this disease, and they who are afflicted with it are most
likely to be set aside. That such has been the case there is little room
for doubt, as you will observe, against ninety-six cases of favus for
ten months last year only forty-four such cases are reported for the
Montreal local office for the entire year, and only seven of these have
been reported since January 1, 1903, a date coincident with the
commencement of actual enforcement of the Canadian act aforementioned.
Another dangerous and dreaded disease, which is more difficult of
detection, has not been marked by any such decrease; in fact, the very
opposite result is shown. Even at the Montreal office, where the classes
of immigrants applying for certificates of admission to the United
States show such marked improvement over last year, there has been an
increase in the number of trachoma cases.
Increases in trachomatous applicants elsewhere than at the Montreal
office may be safely ascribed to the extended field of our operations
and the increased force of inspectors assigned to duty at border
stations. Practically no rejections were reported west of Port Huron
last year, whereas the present year’s work furnishes a greater number of
border rejections west of Port Huron than east of it.
The accompanying tabulated figures will suffice to inform you as to the
classes rejected, showing the nationalities furnishing the greatest
number of objectionables and the steamship lines carrying them.
Taken as a whole, without special explanatory references, the figures
might easily be understood, hence the necessity for calling attention to
certain features connected with these tables.
The figures given are for the whole year, but the latter half of the
year is quite different from the former half. The former half may be
said to have been quite normal, while the latter half represents a
totally unprecedented condition in Canadian immigration.
The Provincial and Dominion governments have been exerting themselves
most actively to induce immigration of the “fitter kind,” and so well
have they succeeded that all shipping facilities have been utilized to
their utmost capacity to accommodate agricultural settlers, principally
for the Northwest, to the almost total exclusion of passengers from the
continent of Europe.
The annual arrivals at Canadian ports since 1892 are as follows:
Ocean ports only:
1892 27,898
1893 29,632
1894 20,829
1895 18,790
1896 16,835
Total immigration:
1897 21,914
1898 31,900
1899 44,543
1900 (first six months) 23,895
1900 49,149
1901–2 67,379
1902–3 (estimated) 114,000
These figures are furnished by the Dominion superintendent of
immigration, and leave no room for doubt as to the trend of immigration
to Canada, and it is only proper to state that the large numbers having
arrived since January 1, 1903, have been for the most part of an
exceptionally fine class.
A preponderance of agriculturists has characterized every shipload for
the time above specified, and they have gone to the Northwestern
Provinces in search of homes on the rich and inviting prairies of that
vast country.
It is natural to suppose that a certain percentage of them will find
themselves unsuited to the new conditions, and such of them as do so
will probably seek admission to the United States, or return to their
native homes. Arrangements have been fully made to gather actual
statistics concerning such of them as may subsequently enter the United
States, and these figures will be furnished you monthly, as per official
requirements.
Not only has the class of immigrants going to the Canadian Northwest,
during the past three or four months, been of a highly desirable sort,
but the whole immigration to Canada, for Eastern Provinces and for the
United States, has shown some improvement during this time. The two
nationalities which gave us the greatest concern last year have shown
very perceptible decreases, _i. e._, Hebrews and Syrians.
The former were unquestionably sent to the United States from Europe via
Canada to avoid the effects of examination at United States ports, but
on learning that the Bureau had taken definite and permanent steps to
counteract the deflection from United States ports to Canadian ports the
practice was gradually discontinued, and now the border boards of
special inquiry have comparatively few cases of the Hebrew race to
examine.
A precisely similar condition prevails as to the Syrians, though in the
latter case the change has been brought about by the vigorous policy of
prosecution which has been waged against professional Syrian smugglers
of aliens into the United States via the Canadian frontier.
The smugglers’ business has been made so difficult, dangerous, and
expensive that most of them have ceased to advertise in Europe, and in
consequence the arrivals of Syrians and Armenians have appreciably
decreased; but it is said that they will try to continue their business
on the Mexican border.
The most notable increase has been among the Scandinavians, and as this
class generally seeks employment in agricultural pursuits and avoids the
congested areas of population, it is a happy feature of the work of the
year to be able to report so desirable a change.
We anticipate still further improvement from the fact that the principal
steamship company—that is, the company carrying the greatest number of
undesirable immigrants to Canada—has been purchased by the Canadian
Pacific Railway Company, and as the latter company has shown by its
policy that it regards its covenant with the United States (Department
Circular 97) as an active working instrument, to be observed in letter
and spirit, it is presumed that this spirit will be extended to the
operation of its newly acquired property, the immigrant-carrying vessels
of the Elder-Dempster Steamship Company.
There has not yet been sufficient time in which to note the actual
effect of this change, but so far indications quite warrant the
foregoing observation.
Adequate detention quarters have not hitherto been provided at any of
the Canadian ports, and much difficulty has resulted from this lack. No
fewer than 150 rejected aliens, at Halifax, N.S.; St. John, N.B., and
Quebec, Que., have failed of deportation solely on this account, but
arrangements are now perfected for the making of necessary provisions of
this character, and further trouble in this connection is not expected.
It ought to be stated that the 150 escapes alluded to were not allowed
to enter the United States, and that almost the entire number escaped
prior to the promulgation of the Canadian act of Parliament which
legalized deportations.
In the annual report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1902, it was
recommended that none but strong, vigorous, young, and hardy men be
assigned to this jurisdiction, and it is with peculiar pleasure that I
report that that recommendation has been literally accepted and acted
upon. It would be a very difficult matter to find in any given line of
work a more capable, efficient, devoted class of officers than the men
who have made it possible for such a gratifying report as this to be
written.
Covering a direct line of more than 4,000 miles of frontier, including
three ocean ports, and inspecting more than 100 trains daily and a large
number of ferries, “sound steamers,” and the growing fleets that ply the
Great Lakes, these inspectors, in all kinds of inclement weather, and
frequently under most trying circumstances, have boarded every train,
met every ferry and every steamer, whether by river, lake, or sound, and
have prevented the amazing total of 5,158 diseased and otherwise
objectionable aliens from entering the United States, and have done all
this without delaying either train or boat for a moment, and, what is
still more remarkable, without causing a single complaint on the part of
the traveling public.
This manifests a commendable devotion to duty, which the Bureau will, no
doubt, fully appreciate when considering the year’s work thus completed,
from the view-point of the difficulties incident to its accomplishment.
The officers are now fully uniformed, as per department regulation, and
the traveling public no longer responds reluctantly to the inspectors’
interrogatories; on the contrary, the average traveler is always ready
to impart the information required by law, and many have shown a
willingness to aid the inspectors in detecting the cunning devices of
those who live by evading the law.
* * * * *
The showing of thirty successful captures and prosecutions is a very
remarkable one, especially when viewed in the light of the wide area
covered by the prosecutions. Grand juries all along the line, have
viewed the situation with becoming apprehension, and by their verdicts
have given us substantial aid in our endeavors to make effective the
mandates of Congress.
United States attorneys have also given us very able support by
appropriately presenting all the facts we have furnished them to the
grand juries and the courts.
There are exceptions to every rule, however, and I regret to have to
announce one in this respect.
On May 14, 1903, one Lewis Feighner deliberately took twenty aliens over
the border of North Dakota in wagons. Of these, nineteen were afflicted
with trachoma, and all of them had been lawfully excluded from the
United States. Feighner set the law at defiance and furnished wagon
transportation when the railroad companies refused to carry them.
The whole party was taken into custody at Grand Forks, N. Dak., and
returned to Winnipeg by officers of the Bureau, and Feighner placed
under arrest. The grand jury indicted him (Feighner) on June 12, and the
following day rescinded its action, and he is at present free and
unpunished.
On the same date a United States attorney refused to prosecute an
offender of this class for reasons not yet disclosed.
This offender presented himself at our Winnipeg office and demanded to
know why his brother could not go to the United States, and he was told
that it was because he was contagiously diseased.
He took said alien into the United States with him, in utter defiance of
the officers of the law. The alien was arrested on a Treasury Department
warrant and in due time was deported to Europe, and the offender was
arrested also and held under bail for action of the grand jury, but when
the grand jury met the United States attorney refused to prosecute.
It is difficult to understand why a sworn officer of the law could
refuse to prosecute so serious a violation of the law.
In striking contrast with this case is that of an alien who, after being
duly inspected at Quebec, forged an additional name to his certificate,
by virtue of which he attempted to take a diseased alien with him into
the United States, over the Vermont border. The violation was
discovered, and both were prevented from entering, the diseased alien
being deported, and the offender has suffered imprisonment in default of
bail (five months) and paid a fine of $50.
Attempts to defeat the law have been made by providing aliens with
naturalization papers, but on investigation we discovered sufficient
evidence to warrant us in calling the matter to the attention of the
Department of Justice, and on June 25, 1903, we succeeded in convicting
the principal figure in the scheme, and he is now undergoing a two
years’ term of imprisonment in the Detroit house of correction.
The public press somewhat severely criticised us during the month of
September, 1902, owing to a young Syrian girl having committed suicide
while being deported to Europe.
The press did not, however, publish the fact that the same girl had been
twice deported to Europe from New York, and that when taken into custody
at Detroit she was being smuggled into the United States by a lawless
element who not only ignore our laws but who derisively defy the
officers of the law.
At the time the unfortunate girl took her own life she was made aware
for the first time that the man she had expected to marry had married
another girl some few weeks previously, and this was probably the real
cause of her rash act. At any rate she was treated with every humane
consideration by us, and so far as that is concerned, she had no more
cause to complain than any one of the thousands who were similarly
deported, none of whom made any complaint of our treatment of them.
Concerning those who smuggled her into the United States, we caused
their arrest, and the Federal grand jury, on learning all the facts,
indicted the principal, who was subsequently convicted and fined $250,
which is an appropriate answer to the sensational stories circulated by
a misinformed or a malicious class.
The immigrant inspectors on the frontier are fully conscious of the fact
that the average immigrant who is detained for cause is far more a fit
object for pity than one deserving censure, and while called upon to
perform the unpleasant duty of denying them the coveted admission to the
United States, that duty is invariably performed with a maximum of
humane consideration.
It is due to the two principal railroads, who are signatories to the
agreement under which we are operating, to state that their
interpretation of the agreement, clause by clause and line by line, has
been in exact accord with the views held by the Bureau.
Free and full access to all their trains has been accorded your
inspectors, free transportation being furnished them that the
inspections may be completed before the trains reach the border.
They have removed from their trains at the border all objectionable
aliens, and have detained them at their own expense until the
Government’s disposition of them has been made.
Their instructions to all ticket agents and train hands have been in
keeping with our requests, and one result of these instructions has been
the refusal to sell tickets to more than 7,000 aliens until they first
produce evidence to prove their admissibility to the United States, and
in every case they have directed said aliens to the nearest United
States immigration office.
So far as these railway lines are concerned, up to this time there is
nothing left to be desired as to the observation of the terms of the
agreement into which they have entered with the United States Government
in regard to immigration.
A reference to the number of exclusions on account of violation of the
alien contract-labor laws will be of undoubted interest.
Employers have unquestionably made use of Canada as a source through
which to draw employees in many branches of industry. The testimony of
the rejected aliens under this head leaves no room for doubt on this
point, and while we have been unable to deport any of them direct to
Europe from a Canadian port, admission to the United States has been
denied them, and they have been compelled to remain in Canada.
Some of them have subsequently tried to effect surreptitious entry to
the United States, but owing to the system of inspection in vogue all
along the line they have failed, and for their temerity have been
deported to Europe via New York, and the pursuance of this policy has
had a very salutary effect on others, who are quite as anxious to evade
the law, but who are of less defiant demeanor.
During the periods of great industrial strife, to wit, the anthracite
coal strike and cotton workers’ lockout at Lowell, Mass., it required
constant and unflagging attention to duty on the part of the entire
force to prevent violations of the alien contract-labor laws, and the
Bureau will doubtless agree with me that the absence of the serious
complaint on the part of the United States workmen involved amply
attests that the law was remarkably well enforced under the
circumstances.
It is the common opinion of all the inspectors at important border
gateways that the majority of aliens seeking admission to the United
States in violation of the alien contract-labor law are thoroughly
advised before leaving Europe that the Canadian frontier affords the
easiest access to the United States; indeed their testimony compels this
conclusion.
Special cases might be mentioned in wearying detail, but I purpose
mentioning one case only, and will ask you to accept it as a criterion
and to judge whether it justifies the conclusion aforementioned.
On June 6, 1903, fifty-four aliens applied for admission to the United
States at Winnipeg, Manitoba, their destination being Caro, Mich.
The testimony of this party conclusively proved that they were engaged
in Europe, that all their expenses were paid by their prospective
employers, and that they were advised to reach their destination via
Winnipeg, Manitoba. This route involved a journey of 2,000 miles farther
than was necessary and a corresponding unnecessary expense.
There can be but one reason for this, and that is that the Canadian
frontier as far west as Sault Ste Marie was known to be well guarded,
while the frontier west of that point was supposed to be wide open, and
it goes without saying that for the same reason the United States ocean
ports of entry were also avoided.
* * * * *
Special stress must be laid on the recommendation that none but young,
active, strong, and robust men should be assigned to duty on the
frontier, and they should be selected with a view to putting none but
men of good judgment in these places of unusual importance and
responsibility.
A maintenance of the present system of border inspection must inevitably
reflect the wisdom thereof in the returns of the almshouses, hospitals,
asylums, and other places of refuge which aliens have previously been
wont to seek, for of the 5,158 denied admission at border stations it is
not improbable that a very large number of them would already be a
charge on the taxpayers of whatever community in which they might have
settled had they been admitted, and the 1,439 suffering from the
dangerous, loathsome, contagious diseases would certainly have been a
hidden menace to public health, and an element of deterioration to the
general hygienic standard of the States in which they would have
settled.
Every one of the diseased aliens reported herein was examined under most
careful circumstances by a corps of medical examiners of high repute for
proficiency, whose official certificates in writing are on file here in
each and every case, which will, when duly considered, serve to
demonstrate what a very serious omission it was to leave the frontier
subject to the methods in vogue until recently in matters of
immigration.
This report will undoubtedly show that immigration from foreign
contiguous territory is susceptible of adequate control, and the
Government can select its future citizens with as much care through this
channel as through its ocean ports of arrival, and successfully exclude
all who would tend to pollute rather than to promote the general body
politic.
Respectfully,
ROBERT WATCHORN, _Commissioner_.
Hon. F. P. SARGENT,
_Commissioner-General of Immigration_,
_Washington, D. C._
[Illustration: Nicola Curro at Work—Ina Americanized—Saint’s Figure,
Covered with Bags of Money]
Of new legislation there is an abundance in prospect, varying all the
way from the carefully considered bill introduced by Senator Lodge, of
Massachusetts, to impose an educational test and exclude illiterate
immigrants, to the wildly impractical measure introduced by
Representative Adams, of Pennsylvania, a Congressman from a district
that is filling up with immigrants, and who would limit the number of
aliens who may enter the country in any one year to 80,000. I wonder how
he would select them from a million, by competitive examinations in
twenty languages and three hundred dialects, and a series of gymnastic
events to determine physical fitness? What proportion of men, women, or
children would he admit?
Representative Simmons has introduced a bill which would establish a
system of State bureaus which should set forth to arriving immigrants
the advantages of each particular portion of the country. If all or even
a large portion of the immigrants came with unsettled plans or uncertain
destinations, this would be an excellent plan, providing that Italian
farmers, who are accustomed to farming with a spade, were not deflected
to agricultural districts where sulky plows and three-horse teams are
necessary, and Scandinavian agriculturists, learning of the wealth of
the valley of the Red River, did not go there expecting to maintain
their health in a climate entirely different in the mean from that to
which they have been accustomed.
There is a great amount of wisdom in portions of the following extracts
from Commissioner Sargent’s last Report, selected from under the titles
of “Distribution and Naturalization” and “New Legislation,” and each
recommendation would undoubtedly serve to increase the efficiency of our
present system and bring about a betterment of the condition of
immigrants at present in the country as well as to assist those who
might arrive in future; but their great drawback is that they are
patches on a system which is fundamentally wrong in itself.
It is impossible for any but the most reckless or foolishly optimistic
to consider the figures presented in this report without realizing their
serious bearing upon our well-being. It is not alone that virtually
1,000,000 aliens have been added to our population within the brief
space of one year, although that fact is one of large dimensions. The
constituent elements of this great army of invasion are to be
considered, their individual character and capacity for useful work,
their respect for law and order, their ability to stand the
strain—morally, physically, mentally—of the life of their new
surroundings; in other words, the power to assimilate with the people of
this country and thus become a source of strength for the support of
American institutions and civilization instead of a danger in periods of
strain and trial. To doubt that they possess such ability is to
discredit unvarying human experience. Human beings vary not so much
because of any inherent difference of nature as because of difference in
the molding influences of which at every stage of development they are
the product. All instruction of mind and training of body constitute a
practical recognition of this fact. The problem presented, therefore, to
enlightened intelligence for solution, is how may the possibility—nay,
probability—of danger from an enormous and miscellaneous influx of
aliens be converted, by a wise prevision and provision, into a power for
stability and security? If such a solution can be obtained, it seems the
part of foolhardiness to make no effort to that end, to trust fatuously
to the circumstance that, though numerically immigration was years ago
nearly as large in proportion to our population as it now is, no very
serious ill resulted from the failure to take any especial care in
reference to it other than an inspection at the time of arrival.
In my judgment the smallest part of the duty to be discharged in
successfully handling alien immigrants with a view to the protection of
the people and institutions of this country is that part now provided
for by law. Its importance, though undeniable, is relatively of
secondary moment. It cannot, for example, compare in practical value
with, nor can it take the place of, measures to ensure the distribution
of the many thousands who come in ignorance of the industrial needs and
opportunities of this country, and, by a more potent law than that of
supply and demand, which speaks to them here in an unknown tongue,
colonizes alien communities in our great cities. Such colonies are a
menace to the physical, social, moral, and political security of the
country. They are hotbeds for the propagation and growth of those false
ideas of political and personal freedom whose germs have been vitalized
by ages of oppression under unequal and partial laws, which find their
first concrete expression in resistance to constituted authority, even
occasionally in the assassination of the lawful agents of that
authority. They are the breeding-grounds also of moral depravity; the
centres of propagation of physical disease. Above all, they are the
congested places in the industrial body which check the free circulation
of labor to those parts where it is most needed and where it can be most
benefited. Do away with them, and the greatest peril of immigration will
be removed.
Removed from the sweat-shops and slums of the great cities, and given
the opportunity to acquire a home, every alien, however radical his
theories of government and individual right may have been, will become a
conservative—a supporter in theory and practice of those institutions
under whose benign protection he has acquired and can defend his
household goods. Suitable legislation is therefore strongly urged to
establish agencies by means of which, either with or without the
co-operation of the States, aliens shall be made acquainted with the
resources of the country at large, the industrial needs of the various
sections in both skilled and unskilled labor, the cost of living, the
wages paid, the price and capabilities of the lands, the character of
the climates, the duration of the seasons,—in short, all of that
information furnished by some of the great railway lines through whose
efforts the territory tributary thereto has been transformed from a
wilderness within a few years to the abiding-place of a happy and
prosperous population.
Another means of obviating danger from our growing immigration is the
enactment of legislation to prevent the degrading of the electorate
through the unlawful naturalization of aliens. Undoubtedly such
naturalization is now often granted upon very insufficient evidence of
the statutory period of residence, a looseness in the practice of the
courts which is fostered by the heat and zeal of partisanship in
political contests. It rests with Congress to prevent such abuses, and
the consequent distrust in the popular mind of the purity of elections,
by establishing additional requirements to be complied with by aliens
seeking the privilege of citizenship.
Within the past year the Bureau has established at the various ports of
entry a card-index system, by reference to which the date of the arrival
and personal identity can be readily verified. To require every alien
applicant for naturalization to produce a certified copy of such record,
attested by the signature and seal of the custodian thereof, would
substitute for the oral testimony of professional witnesses written
evidence of an entirely reliable character.
In addition to the new legislation recommended, I have to suggest that
Congress be urged to strike out from section 1 of the act approved March
3, 1903, the words which exempt transportation companies from the
payment of the head tax for aliens brought by them, respectively, who
profess to be merely transits to foreign territory. It is believed that
that provision was retained in the act through a clerical error, and its
elimination is recommended because of the embarrassments, both to the
transportation lines and to the Bureau, in its enforcement. The amount
saved to the passenger carriers is too trivial to justify the labor and
delay involved in ascertaining who are actually transits, and under the
law not properly subject to the head tax, and who are merely professing
to be such.
The new law referred to above has not been in operation long enough to
enable the Bureau to point out specific defects other than that one just
cited; but it was so carefully drawn and so aptly embodies the results
of the Bureau’s experience in the ten years of the latter’s existence,
that the best results are anticipated.
Irrespective of the effect in diminishing the number of alien arrivals,
now approximating 1,000,000 annually, I am impressed with the importance
of still further measures to improve the quality of those admitted. Such
measures would be merely additional steps in the same direction already
taken in dealing with the question of immigration to this country. They
would involve no new departure from a policy which has been pursued for
years, and which therefore may now be assumed to be a fixed principle of
the United States in dealing with this subject. From this point of view
it seems not unjust to require of aliens seeking admission to this
country at least so much mental training as is evidenced by the ability
to read and write. This requirement, whatever arguments or illustrations
may be used to establish the contrary position, will furnish alien
residents of a character less likely to become burdens on public or
private charity. Otherwise it must follow that rudimentary education is
a handicap in the struggle for existence, a proposition that few would
attempt to maintain. It would also, in a measure, relieve the American
people of the burden now sustained by them of educating in the free
schools the ignorant of other countries.
There should also be some requirement as to the moral character of such
persons. The present law excludes convicts. This only partially
accomplishes the purpose of establishing a moral standard for admission
to this country. Without attempting in the restricted limits of this
report to indicate the method of devising such legislation, it is
sufficient to point to the criminal record in this country of many
aliens as a justification for this recommendation. Before the close of
the next fiscal year the Bureau will be in possession of interesting and
suggestive data in relation to this subject.
For the purpose of distributing arriving aliens in accordance with the
plan already outlined, it is recommended that suitable legislation be
enacted for the establishment, in connection with the various
immigration stations, more particularly the Ellis Island station, of
commodious quarters, properly officered, where information may be given
to the new arrivals. In such quarters should be displayed maps of the
different States, with descriptive matter as to the resources and
products of each State, the prices of land, the routes of travel thereto
and cost of transportation, the opportunities for employment in the
various skilled and unskilled occupations, the rates of wages paid, the
cost of living, and all other information that would enlighten such
persons as to the inducements to settlement therein offered respectively
by the various sections of the United States. I believe that such a plan
is entirely practicable, and that its adoption offers at once the
easiest and most efficient solution of the serious problems presented by
the enormous additions of alien population to our great cities, and the
resultant evils both to the people of this country and to the
immigrants.
For the purpose of forming an approximately accurate estimate of the
actual annual increase of the population of the United States by the
immigration of aliens, it is recommended that measures be taken to
obtain information of the number of aliens departing annually. These
figures will be valuable to students of the subject as presenting both
sides of the case, and will correct the extravagant estimates that may
be made from reports of arrivals only as to the actual size of our alien
population.
I do not think it is an unwarranted assumption to say that in the
foregoing chapters the frauds which are enacted for and among immigrants
who sail from the southern portions of Europe are well disclosed, and
that sufficient light is thrown on the dark corners of the situation to
enable thinking people to consider understandingly the tremendous
problem before the nation; but for corroboration of statements made and
for new information of a most pointed and direct nature I beg to submit
the major portion of the report of Special Immigrant-Inspector Marcus
Braun,[3] who left the United States two or three months previous to the
departure of my wife and myself. It considers many conditions among
classes of immigrants which, while not so numerous as the Italians, are
nevertheless most important factors in the question. Mr. Braun says:
Footnote 3:
Exhibits mentioned in Mr. Braun’s report are omitted.
NEW YORK, N. Y., _August 24, 1903_.
SIR: I have the honor to make the following report, pursuant to
authority contained in Bureau Letter No. 35,719, dated March 21, 1903,
authorizing me “to proceed to such points in Europe as may be necessary
for the purpose of procuring information concerning certain knowledge
believed to be possessed by the Italian authorities as to emigration of
undesirable aliens to the United States, and also in regard to persons
who are booking diseased and otherwise inadmissible aliens to Vera Cruz
en route to points in the United States.” This report is likewise made
pursuant to directions received from you in personal interviews had on
March 23, 1903, authorizing me to procure general information and
evidence, where practicable, concerning the large influx to the United
States of undesirable and inadmissible aliens, and the methods employed
by steamship companies, agents in their employ, or other persons, to
induce such emigration, as is more specifically enumerated in Bureau
memoranda containing the following specific questions and directions:
“1. What steps do the steamship companies take at European ports to
ascertain if their passengers are eligible for admission under the law?
“2. What secret instructions are given to such passengers at the various
rendezvous where the government officials make their examinations?
Examinations usually made twenty-four hours before sailing. This is
particularly true of London and Liverpool.
“3. How many undesirable aliens are brought from the Continent to the
Jewish shelters in Whitechapel, London, weekly, and are there put
through a purifying process preparatory to being shipped to the United
States via Canada?
“4. What steps are being taken at Marseille, Antwerp, and Chiasso to
deflect diseased aliens from the United States ports to Canada and
Mexico?
“5. Do Canadian lines really reject passengers for cause at Liverpool,
as stated by them; and if so, what percentage, and for what causes?
“6. Are immigrants induced to ship to Canada, who would otherwise have
shipped to the United States, by reason of a cheaper fare, to wit, the
$2 head tax?
“7. Do all Canadian lines make the two rates indicated? If not, which
ones do?
“8. Does Anton Fares, a ‘runner’ at Marseille, act direct for certain
lines? If so, which ones?
“9. It is very important to ascertain if Frederic Ludwig still
represents the Beaver Line at Chiasso.
“10. Ascertain how Hamburg-American Packet Company secures the miserable
people they put off at Halifax, while carrying to New York on same line
or ship acceptable aliens.
“11. Note particularly report of Mr. Watchorn, a copy of which will be
supplied. Would also recommend getting copy of January, 1903,
_Blackwood’s Magazine_ and noting article therein on Immigration.”
I desire, in addition thereto, to refer to directions contained in
Bureau letter No. 36,663, dated April 6, 1903, directing me to observe
whether the requirements of section 8 of the act of March 3, 1893, are
being complied with, to the effect “that all steamship or transportation
companies engaged in the transportation of aliens shall keep exposed to
view in their offices abroad, where tickets are sold to emigrants, a
copy of the United States immigration laws, printed in large letters in
the language of the country where such offices are located, and to
instruct their agents, moreover, to call the attention thereto of
persons contemplating emigration, etc.”
Subsequent to my return from Washington, after receiving above
instructions and directions, and until my departure on April 9, 1903, I
was in daily attendance at the Immigration Bureau at Ellis Island for
the purpose of familiarizing myself with the work of the Department as
conducted at that station.
On April 9, 1903, I sailed on the steamship _Deutschland_, bound for
Hamburg, Germany, and arrived at the latter place April 17, 1903. Having
received no specific instructions concerning any particular route which
I was to travel to procure the information desired, and owing to the
fact that I frequently received information which did not permit of a
systematic or straight line of travel, and prompted also by the desire
to procure authentic information at the very home of the emigrant, I
followed occasional instances and cases as they presented themselves to
me.
In all I traveled about 25,000 miles by railroad and about 600 miles by
special conveyances, visiting substantially all the provinces and crown
lands of the following countries: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia,
Roumania, Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland, and Great
Britain, making special studies of the subjects involved at the
following European ports: Hamburg, Bremen, Stettin, Fiume, Trieste,
Odessa, Naples, Genoa, Marseille, St. Nazaire, Havre, Antwerp,
Rotterdam, Southampton, London, and Liverpool.
I find upon investigation that the steamship companies carrying
emigrants from Naples, Hamburg, and Rotterdam are subjecting such
emigrants to a strict medical examination for the purpose of
ascertaining whether or not they are afflicted with any dangerous
contagious disease which might prevent their landing in the United
States; this can be said of almost all European ports, but is more
strictly enforced at the three ports enumerated; at the other ports
there is a disposition to be more lax in this respect, particularly at
Havre, France, where, in the search for persons afflicted with trachoma,
the eyeball is merely examined, and no eyelid is turned up as at the
other three ports mentioned above; the additional method of the physical
examination employed is to require the emigrant to hold up his hands,
which, of course, does not permit the discovery of any other ailments
except those visible to the naked eye. Questions are also asked the
emigrants concerning other grounds of inadmissibility, such as whether
the emigrant is a criminal or an ex-convict, but no further
investigation is made in this respect and the answers given by the
emigrant are deemed sufficient.
I did not discover any secret instruction given to passengers at the
points of embarkation; the usual questions are asked of the emigrants,
and if correctly answered they are permitted to proceed, otherwise they
are refused; the latter, however, is a rare occurrence, for the reason
that almost all of these emigrants arrive at the ports thoroughly
instructed, such instructions being given them before they start upon
their journey by subagents in the employ of the steamship companies or
their general agencies. While I have no direct proof that the steamship
companies are directly concerned or even tolerate the giving of these
secret instructions, yet I learned in the course of my travels,
particularly in the countries of Austria-Hungary and Russia, that a
large number of reputable persons, such as priests, school-teachers,
postmasters, and county notaries, are directly connected with certain
agents representing these steamship companies, and that they advise and
instruct the emigrants how to procure steamship tickets, passports, and
all other things necessary for their travel, for all of which they
receive a commission from the agent employing them. It is obvious that
since the amount of the earnings depends entirely upon the amount of
business procured, hence, in their anxiety, the subagents above
enumerated, by promises and in order to earn a commission, induce a
large number of persons to leave their homes and come to the United
States. The governments of each of these countries, in good faith, are
endeavoring to stop this sort of traffic and provide for the punishment
of any person inducing another to leave the country; but I found that in
many of the towns visited the local authorities are in league with the
subagents, and their business thrives practically with the consent of
the officials whose duty it is to prevent it; this is particularly true
of Austria-Hungary, as I was able to ascertain from personal interviews
with a large number of emigrants at the Austro-Prussian border. I also
ascertained that a majority of these people act for and are in the
employ of F. Missler at Bremen, and The Anglo Continentales Reise-Bureau
at Rotterdam. Upon obtaining this information, together with specific
data, names and addresses of these so-called subagents, I laid the
matter before Dr. Koerber, prime minister of Austria, and Coloman de
Szell, prime minister of Hungary. They at first appeared incredulous,
and the latter called my attention to the newly enacted prohibitive
emigration laws of Hungary, a copy of which, together with translations
thereof, is hereto annexed and marked “Exhibit A, No. I” and “Exhibit A,
No. II.” However, upon my submitting to them the information which I had
in my possession, including the names and addresses of people who were
acting as such agents, an investigation was caused at their instance, a
number of arrests made, and convictions had for the illegal solicitation
of emigration. The names of these persons, together with their addresses
and vocations, and the periods for which they were sentenced, are
annexed hereto and marked “Exhibit A, No. III.”
The police officials in the course of the investigation made, which led
to the arrest of these men, confiscated a large number of letters and
literature containing offers and inducements to emigrate. The agencies
whence this literature emanated also flood the respective countries,
particularly Hungary and Croatia, with similar literature through the
mails, but great vigilance is exercised by the authorities, and most of
these letters, bearing the postmark of Hamburg, Bremen, or Rotterdam,
are confiscated and are never delivered to the addresses, if, in the
judgment of the postal officials, they contain enticing literature
respecting emigration. I have seen at the offices of the ministry at
Budapest at least one-half million of these letters and documents from
time to time confiscated, and through the courtesy of the Hungarian
Government I was enabled to procure a few of the letters which I annex
hereto and mark respectively “Exhibit B, No. I, II, III, IV, V, and VI.”
Some of this literature has features quite amusing, and I respectfully
beg to submit to you a copy, together with a liberal translation of two
poems, marked “Exhibit C I, and C II,” intended to work upon the
susceptibility of the plain peasant in order to induce him to emigrate.
I also invite particular attention to a slip which is invariably
contained in such letters sent through the mails by F. Missler, of
Bremen, a copy of which, together with the translation thereof, is
hereto annexed and marked “Exhibit D.” The idea of sending out this slip
appears to be to create the person to whom it is sent a sort of a
subagent, by offering him a compensation of eight crowns for every
steamship ticket that he succeeds in selling to an emigrant, and through
this offer any number of persons are engaged as subagents for F.
Missler, at Bremen. The Anglo-Continentales Reise-Bureau at Rotterdam is
also engaged in sending out personal letters to peasants, containing
offers of commission, provided they will procure for them the sale of
steamship tickets. I herewith annex one of such letters, with a
translation, marked “Exhibit E.”
With reference to written question No. 3, I visited the Poor Jews
Temporary Shelter, at 84 Leman Street, Whitechapel, London, and there
interviewed the superintendent, Mr. J. Sonper, from whom I learned that
on the average 500 Russian, Polish, and Roumanian Jews are brought there
weekly by steamer from either Antwerp or Rotterdam, and are detained at
the Home until they are enabled to raise sufficient money with which to
prepay their passage to America, or until they are in a sufficiently
good condition to be acceptable to the steamship companies at the port
at which they intend to embark. Mr. Sonper himself acts as an agent for
various steamship companies, and informed me that since the Canadian
Government is equally strict as the United States Government in the
medical examination of emigrants he tries to induce persons to go to
South Africa, but so far he has met with poor success, for the reason
that persons under his care all have a desire to go to the United
States. He cited instances to me where people were detained by him at
the Jewish Home for as long a period as six months in order that they
may be properly prepared for their proposed trip.
A more adequate and definite idea of the scope and activity of the Poor
Jews Temporary Shelter may be had by examining the last three annual
reports of the organization, a copy of each of which is hereto annexed
and marked “Exhibit X I, II, and III.”
Concerning the steps taken at Marseille, Antwerp, and Chiasso to deflect
the diseased emigrants from the United States ports to Canada and
Mexico, I beg to state the following: At Chiasso this practice has been
largely discontinued since the strict enforcement of the immigration
laws of the United States and the strict observance of the medical
examinations at Canadian ports. At Antwerp the practice is still
prevailing, though in a lesser degree, the information given to such
emigrant being that he sail to England, preferably to London, whence his
departure and opportunity of landing in the United States will be much
easier than from any other port. The “hotbed” for the deflection of such
diseased emigrants, a majority of whom come from Syria, Armenia, and
Greece, is Marseille. There are in Marseille about a half-dozen duly
licensed and properly appointed steamship agencies, each of whom employs
its “runners,” the most unscrupulous of whom is one Anton Fares, the
publisher of the Syrian weekly _Al Mircad_. These runners are at a
landing whenever a steamer having such emigrants aboard arrives from
Syria, Turkey, or Greece. These emigrants are then taken charge of by
the runners and escorted to the various emigrants’ headquarters to be
there examined and classified. Such of these emigrants who are not
afflicted with some disease receive the ordinary instructions and are
shipped via regular ports of embarkation, mostly Havre and Boulogne.
Those found suffering from trachoma or favus are then thoroughly
instructed and are told that the only way for them to effect an entrance
to the United States is to embark at St. Nazaire, France, and sail on
the ships of the French line (Compagnie Générale Transatlantique) for
Vera Cruz, Mexico, and, according to the personal statement made to me
by Fares, those emigrants are then escorted across the Mexican border to
the United States by friends or people with whom he is connected in a
business way. Heretofore entry into the United States from Mexico was
effected by way of Laredo, El Paso, or Eagle Pass, but since the
detention and deportation of some of these emigrants who thus effected
an entry to the United States this method was abandoned and the above
method resorted to. I verified this statement by personal investigation
at St. Nazaire and from interviews had with the Mexican and Cuban
consuls and the manager of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, each
of whom informed me that no fewer than 250 emigrants leave that port on
the 21st day of each and every month for Mexico. I briefly referred to
this condition of things in my report to the Department, dated,
respectively, Marseille, June 28, 1903, and Paris, July 10, 1903. So
alarming did I find these conditions at St. Nazaire that I was prompted
thereby to address my cablegram to the Department on July 13, 1903,
suggesting a close watch on the Mexican border outside of regular
railroad passes, and I also briefly referred to these matters in
subsequent communications to the Department. I also ascertained that all
of the steamers plying between St. Nazaire, France, and Vera Cruz,
Mexico, are controlled and operated by the Compagnie Générale
Transatlantique, and that emigrants are booked directly from Beirut,
Syria, via Marseille and St. Nazaire, to Vera Cruz, as more fully stated
in my previous communications to the Department on this subject.
Regarding the question as to whether Canadian lines really reject
passengers for cause at Liverpool, and what percentage and for what
causes, I beg to state that I have visited the various emigrant
lodging-houses at Liverpool controlled by the White Star, Cunard,
Dominion, American, Allan, and Canadian Pacific Railroad (Beaver Line)
lines, and found that the emigrants are subjected to a strict medical
examination, and those found suffering from trachoma or favus are
promptly rejected, the proportion of such rejections not exceeding two
per cent.
As to whether or not emigrants are induced to ship to Canada, who would
otherwise have shipped to the United States, by reason of a cheaper fare
or because of the $2 head tax, I respectfully submit that such emigrants
are frequently, and in a large number of cases, induced to ship to
Canada. The reason for this, however, is not the desire to avoid the $2
head tax, but because of the cheaper railroad fares charged to emigrants
in the Dominion of Canada by the Canadian Pacific Railroad. In every
such case the emigrant is invariably told that upon landing he must
state his destination to be some place or town in Canada, where he
intends to settle. Having thus availed themselves of the advantage of a
cheaper fare, they then await the coming of an agent or some person
connected with the agency where they purchased their tickets, and are
escorted across the border into the United States.
In regard to the inquiry as to whether all the Canadian lines make the
two rates indicated, I desire to report that heretofore the Beaver Line
charged a cheaper rate of fare than the other Canadian lines; this,
however, has been abandoned, and at present a uniform rate is charged
over all Canadian lines. I had an interesting and lengthy interview with
Mr. I. I. Gilbertson, the Liverpool traffic agent of the Canadian
Pacific Railway, which now operates the former Beaver Line under the
name of the Pacific Railway line, and learned from him that, while the
line he represented was not in the steamship pool, he was upholding the
regular rates of the pool, and had no intention of deviating therefrom.
He added that he regretted very much the bad repute into which the
Beaver Line had gotten, and, while he admitted that it was partly
justified, he thought that it was worse than deserved. Mr. Gilbertson
also told me that all of the Continental agents of his line have been
fully and thoroughly instructed to comply strictly with the immigration
laws of both the United States and Canada in booking passengers, and
that under no circumstances would tickets be sold to passengers for
Quebec or Montreal whose original destination is some part of the United
States.
In reply to the inquiry as to whether Anton Fares, a runner at
Marseille, acts direct for certain lines, I beg to refer to my previous
reports to the Department made in this connection, wherein I stated,
among other things, that Fares does not represent any line directly, but
that his services are very much sought after by all of the agencies
established at Marseille, and I reiterate that he is one of the most
dangerous and unscrupulous men in the business.
Replying to the inquiry as to whether Frederic Ludwig still represents
the Beaver Line at Chiasso, I likewise beg to refer to my report on this
subject, dated Chiasso, June 25, 1903, and I reiterate that Ludwig still
represents the Beaver Line at Chiasso, but apparently does not book any
diseased emigrants and invariably causes a physician to examine his
passengers. In all other respects, however, I found Ludwig as active,
energetic, and reckless in the pursuit of his business as ever before,
as a result of which he was arrested in Italy for soliciting emigration,
released on bail of 20,000 lire pending his trial, and subsequently
“jumped” his bail, forfeiting the amount.
[Illustration: Nicola Curro Studying English in the Author’s Home in New
York]
In regard to the question as to how the “Hamburg-American Packet Company
secures the miserable people they put off at Halifax, while carrying to
New York on same line or ship acceptable aliens,” I respectfully refer
to my report dated Jassy, June 17, 1903. I endeavored to ascertain the
method by which these persons referred to were procured, and for this
purpose had an interview at the steamship office of George Stoeckel, at
Odessa, by whose representative, Johann Bischof, I was informed that the
main reasons for sending emigrants into the United States via Halifax
were the cheaper rate and the possibility of evading the immigration
laws at the Canadian border with greater success than at the United
States ports. Realizing that diseased and afflicted emigrants have to
undergo a close inspection at a United States port, this agency of
Stoeckel’s makes it a practice to solicit the business of such people
with the thorough understanding that they are to travel via Halifax. The
said agency has a number of subagents traveling all over the southern
part of Russia, ostensibly engaged as agents for agricultural
implements, representing some American firm, but in reality only to
dispose of steamship tickets and seek out such persons who have fears
about traveling owing to some affliction which would prevent their
admittance at a United States port. These people are given every
assurance that if traveling via Halifax they will have to undergo very
little inspection, if any, and can obtain admittance into the United
States without difficulty. It seems immaterial to these agents whether
the emigrant would be permitted to land or not, even at Halifax, for in
the latter case he would be deported, with no probability of his ever
returning to Russia, and hence the agent would escape all liability.
Subsequent to this interview I called on Mr. A. Storm, manager of the
passenger department of the Hamburg-American Line at Hamburg, and called
his attention to this practice, whereupon he showed me copies of
personal letters written to all of the agents warning them not to book
any emigrants via Halifax intended for the United States, with
instruction that such emigrants would be refused, and, moreover, the
agents would forfeit all commissions, the agency being withdrawn from
them in addition. My personal investigation seemed to confirm this
statement of Mr. Storm, for the reason that prior to my going to Odessa
I frequently found circulars inviting emigration to the United States
via Hamburg to Halifax, one of which circulars I annex to this report,
marked “Exhibit F I.” Later on, however, I failed to find any of these
circulars except in rare instances, but instead found a large number of
circulars sent out by Falck & Co., general agents of the
Hamburg-American Line, specially calling the attention of the proposed
emigrants to the advisability of having themselves examined by a
physician prior to their departure, to ascertain whether they are
suffering from trachoma or favus, and informing them of the fact that if
suffering from any of these diseases they will be barred from landing in
America, regardless as to what route they took. I inclose two copies of
such circulars, one in Slovak and the other in Hungarian, together with
a translation, marked “Exhibit F II.”
Following your instructions to investigate the fact as to whether
steamship companies or transportation companies engaged in the
transportation of aliens observe the requirements of section 8 of the
act of March 3, 1893, I called your attention in some of my previous
reports to instances where the law was not observed. However, the law is
observed by the majority of the steamship companies, but, I am
satisfied, not in an effective manner. It is true that a copy of the law
is displayed in the language of the country where such steamship offices
are located, but it is equally true that very few of the emigrants have
the time or the inclination to read it, and as a large percentage of
them are unable to read at all it tends to make the law of very little
if any value. At the border of Russia and Germany this law referred to
is displayed in the German language, and I found that the great majority
of emigrants are Russians, Poles, and Hebrews, none of whom can read or
understand the German language.
I desire to invite your particular attention to instructions contained
in Bureau letter No. 35,719, dated March 21, 1903, authorizing me “to
procure information concerning certain knowledge believed to be
possessed by the Italian authorities as to emigration of undesirable
aliens to the United States,” and to personal directions upon this point
given me in our interview on March 23, 1903. I have made thorough
investigations to ascertain, if possible, first, whether or not such
knowledge is really possessed by the Italian authorities, and, second,
in what measure this circumstance was instrumental in encouraging
undesirable emigration to the United States. I find a general
disposition on the part of the Italian Government and authorities to
restrict emigration of persons visibly afflicted by some disease, this
restriction being by no means made for the benefit of the United States,
but because of the opinion that the influx from Italy of this class of
people might cause the United States Government to enact more
prohibitive immigration laws, a thing very much feared in Italy, for the
reason that Italy considers the United States the best safety valve for
the discharge of its over-population. More prohibitive immigration
legislation on the part of the United States, if it would materially
affect the influx of Italian emigrants to the United States, might, in
the opinion of the Italian people, have the effect of reducing a great
many of their revenues. I have ascertained that the prosperity of entire
villages in the southern part of Italy depends upon remittances
regularly made from the United States.
The Italian authorities, as such, profess to have no such knowledge of
undesirable emigration as indicated in your personal interview with me.
Pauperism in Italy is differently construed than in the United States.
Over there no person, no matter how poor he may be, is considered a
pauper so long as he appears to be able-bodied and is in a condition to
walk about, and no person is committed to the poorhouse unless
physically disabled to such an extent as to be unable to be about
without the assistance of another, and if placed in the poorhouse under
those circumstances there is no possibility of their ever attempting to
come to the United States. These are the only paupers of whom a record
is kept by the authorities, and who are recorded as public charges upon
the respective communities. Of the other class of poor people, who are
not only in the prevailing majority, but who constitute a material part
of the Italian population, and who, according to American conceptions,
would be considered paupers, no public record is kept, except by the
priests of the respective villages and towns in which they reside. These
people are considered poor and are dependent upon the charities of the
Church. They can obtain at any time a certificate of poverty, but still
are not recorded as paupers. Mr. Angelo Boragino, deputy consul of the
United States at Genoa, gave me valuable assistance in my attempt to
discover the existence of such records.
Unlike Italy, all other countries do keep a public record of their
paupers, copies of which are obtainable at any time. I beg to annex
hereto two such authenticated copies of pauper records of the township
of Klenocz, Hungary, and Nyustya, Croatia, marked, respectively “Exhibit
G. I” and “Exhibit G. II.”
As already reported to you in a previous communication in reply to
Bureau letter No. 36,810, dated Washington, April 14, 1903, I located
Joseph Ellsner at Littai, Austria, and endeavored to get from him some
information with reference to importation of laborers under contract
into the United States. I succeeded in obtaining from Mr. Ellsner a copy
of a letter addressed to him by some person from Chicago, asking for 200
able-bodied men to work on the railroad, which letter I mailed to you,
together with my said report to the Department. I sent you the
information that about 1,800 Croatians are being shipped monthly from
Fiume to the United States. I endeavored to ascertain the purpose of
this large number of emigrants, and found that quite a number of them,
especially in the month of August of each year, were hired by several
Austrian firms to be sent to Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Mississippi, to
cut staves, and that some of these firms, owing to difficulties which
they had in the United States with these men, who made trouble and
threats against the contractors, abandoned this practice, and it is now
largely controlled by the firm of Julius Kern & Co., at Vienna, through
whose agency some 300 or 400 men are sent to the United States at
certain intervals. I paid particular attention to this firm and employed
the friendly services of Mr. A. Knoepfelmacher, a journalist, who called
at the place of business of Mr. Kern under the pretext of writing an
article upon the enterprising ability of an Austrian firm, such as
Julius Kern & Co., in dealing so extensively with the United States. The
interview was obtained, and incidentally Mr. Knoepfelmacher asked
questions with reference to the sending of the contract laborers to the
United States, and some information was given him, with the strict
injunction, however, that no part of it should be made public. I
received a letter from Mr. Knoepfelmacher which I annex hereto, together
with a translation thereof, marked “Exhibit H,” which letter fairly
expresses the contempt of these Europeans at our contract-labor laws and
the ease with which they evade them. It was admitted by the firm of
Julius Kern & Co. that as many as 1,500 laborers are sent to the United
States under contract, each of whom is thoroughly instructed as to the
manner in which questions should be answered when arriving in the United
States. Subsequent to the receipt of the letter from Mr. Knoepfelmacher
he accompanied me to the United States embassy at Vienna, and there, in
the presence of Secretary Rives, repeated the statements contained in
his letter. The information I thus received, together with the positive
knowledge which I possessed that a great many contract laborers enter
the United States annually, prompted me to pay particular attention to
this subject, and I made various and frequent attempts, particularly at
places and railroad stations where emigrants concentrate, to question
and interview individuals or groups of emigrants, with a view of
learning their destination or of affirming my belief that they were
laborers under contract, destined for the United States. Not only did
these interrogations confirm my suspicions, but I have become convinced
that the importation of contract labor to the United States has assumed
alarming proportions of which the Department cannot form an adequate
idea. I base this conviction not only upon my experience at the various
places where emigrants concentrate, but upon observations made and
collected in numerous villages which I reached by special conveyance,
and in a large number of which I found that almost the entire male
population, able to work, was absent, and upon close inquiry I learned
that the men were all in the United States, having gone there under some
contract of labor or other. This evil is largely contributed to by
residents of the United States engaged in the steamship ticket and
foreign exchange business, and not infrequently either connected with or
publishing some newspaper in a foreign language. I took occasion to
refer to this phase in one of my previous reports to the Department,
containing information in point procured by me at the city of Laibach
and from the Government at Vienna. I am convinced that Fares, at
Marseille, also avails himself of many sources of this character in the
pursuit of his nefarious business, as I was able to judge from the
hundreds of letters I saw delivered to him, coming from the United
States and bearing the heading of numerous steamship ticket agents and
publishers of Syrian newspapers in this country. Another method which in
my opinion is frequently resorted to to promote the importation of
contract labor is as follows: A native of a certain village or town
abroad, who had spent some time in the United States, will suddenly
appear at said village, ostensibly on a visit, and within a short time
thereafter he may be met on his return trip to the United States
accompanied by groups of men whose number vary from ten to twenty-five,
according to circumstances. I have observed such men purchasing a number
of railroad tickets at Oderberg, on the Austro-Prussian border, for
Bremen, and distribute them among the group of men that so accompanied
him. I met the same man, who thus purchased the tickets at Oderberg, a
few days later at Bremen, and upon my questioning him for the
whereabouts of his friends I saw in his company at Oderberg he denied
all knowledge of them; but I saw all of them in the immediate vicinity,
and found that they had steamship tickets in their possession which were
procured in the office of F. Missler. They were no longer in groups, and
acted in a manner as though they had never seen the man who had led
them, this being evidently part of their instructions and a matter of
precaution. I could refer to hundreds of similar cases which I have
encountered in my travels abroad. Most of these people so interrogated
by me were in possession of addresses of persons residing in the United
States, alleged to be friends or relatives, but which, to my best
impression and belief, were frequently fictitious addresses, and the
addressees absolutely unacquainted with the emigrants in question. Most
of these addresses referred to persons residing inland, particularly in
the States of Ohio and Pennsylvania, and rarely to people residing in
New York city or other Atlantic seaports. Unfortunately, these emigrants
are so thoroughly instructed and prepared, that it is exceedingly
difficult and almost impossible to gain an admission from them after
they depart from their respective homes.
Supplementing a previous report which I made to the Department
concerning the prevalence of trachoma in various European countries,
particularly Austria-Hungary, Russia, the Balkan States, and Italy, I
respectfully state that so alarming and so widespread is this most
dangerous and contagious disease that the governments of the various
countries enumerated have adopted most heroic measures for its
suppression. In Hungary this disease has assumed such proportions that
the Government encounters great difficulties in some counties to muster
the required quota of men for military service, trachomatic people
belonging to the class which are rejected for the army. To combat and,
if possible, to stamp out the disease, the Hungarian Government
maintains a special medical corps, consisting of fifty physicians who
constantly travel to and fro in certain respective districts to which
they are assigned, it being the duty of every person to submit to an
examination for such disease, and if found afflicted therewith to
present himself or herself for gratuitous treatment twice a week until
cured. Records of such trachomatic persons are kept, and they are
subjected to constant surveillance in the manner that no person can
leave his respective district for another before first submitting to a
medical examination as above outlined; such person is provided with a
book in which the physician of the district makes an entry that the
bearer is either free from trachoma or afflicted thereby, and if he has
undergone any treatment, the period of such treatment is entered; upon
the arrival of such person in another district he or she must present
himself or herself immediately to the physician of that district, and if
afflicted with trachoma the treatment is systematically continued.
Although this rule is strictly enforced, people intending to emigrate
rarely observe it, and in order to be enabled to give the Department
more definite information on this subject I accompanied Dr. Simon
Buchwald, one of the physicians appointed by the Government of Hungary
for the district of Lipto-Szt. Miklos, on one of his tours through the
villages of his district, and was present at the examinations and
treatment conducted by him. I succeeded in obtaining from Dr. Buchwald
an extract of the official record of thirty-five persons of the age
ranging from seventeen to forty-two years, who had left the district for
the United States, and were afflicted with trachoma, had been treated by
him, and at the time of their departure were not cured. Only four of
these emigrants returned to their respective homes, having been refused
at the medical examination, regularly held at the control stations of
the North German-Lloyd and Hamburg-American lines, at the
Austro-Prussian border, upon the ground of this very affliction. I annex
the said extract hereto, marked “Exhibit I,” containing the names of
these thirty-five persons, and having underlined thereon, with red
pencil, the names of the four persons thus returned.
Of the countries enumerated, Hungary seems to have the disease under
best control, although I can state, on reliable information, that there
are at least 60,000 persons in the kingdom of Hungary suffering from
trachoma. The worst conditions in this respect prevail in Russia, where
at least thirty per cent of the army are afflicted with this dread
disease, who, after their discharge from the army, spread the affliction
in all parts of the empire.
Supplemental to my report heretofore submitted to the Department upon
the subject of emigration to the United States of Roumanian Jews, I beg
to reiterate that the forwarding of these people is conducted
systematically and is invariably in charge of the Jewish Colonization
Association. The method pursued in this instance is that representatives
of the Jewish congregations in the various places through which these
emigrants pass generally await them at the railroad stations and care
for their safe transportation to the next station, where the same thing
is repeated, until they reach Rotterdam, from which port they are sent
to England for embarkation to the United States. I attach herewith copy
of the usual letter sent by Doctor Lowenstein, the representative at
Bucharest, Roumania, of the Jewish Colonization Association, addressed
to the Jewish congregation at Budapest, together with a translation
thereof, advising said congregation of the near approach of a group of
such Jewish emigrants, attaching also hereto a copy of a list of names
of such group of emigrants, marked “Exhibit J.”
With reference to prostitutes and women imported for the purpose of
prostitution, I have made several reports to the Department, and,
reiterating the same, I beg to report in addition as follows: In the
cities of Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, Lemberg, Krakow, and more
particularly in Warsaw and Wilna, I learned that annually a number of
women and men engaged in this nefarious business here in the United
States pay visits to the places above enumerated and invariably a number
of such immoral women follow them to the United States. In many
instances these women are provided with American passports or citizen
papers of their alleged husbands residing in the United States, and so
widespread did I find this traffic in, and issuance of, American
passports in Austria-Hungary, that I deemed it my duty to call the
attention of the Hon. Bellamy Storer, United States ambassador and envoy
plenipotentiary at Vienna, to the disgraceful practice, who again, on
his part, instructed the United States consulates under his jurisdiction
to be very careful hereafter before transmitting requests for passports
for women intending to go to the United States to join their alleged
husbands, and whose citizen papers are generally annexed to these
requests.
I have the honor also to report that the Hon. Frank D. Chester, United
States consul at Budapest, Hungary, informed me that there was quite a
traffic in United States passports and citizen papers carried on at the
city of Fiume, and that one of his attachés had some time ago made a
special investigation and reported about it, I believe, to the State
Department at Washington. In this latter instance, it is my opinion that
the passports and citizen papers are used mostly for contract laborers,
for the reason that, as I convinced myself during my travel through
Switzerland, a similar traffic is carried on there for the use of
contract laborers, who mostly come to Switzerland from the southern part
of Austria, Croatia, and Dalmatia, the business of these countries, in
the way of emigration, being done mostly by steamship agents located in
Switzerland. There is no doubt that hundreds and hundreds of citizen
papers are being sent from the United States to Europe annually for just
these purposes.
Another practice which I observed during my trip is that most emigrants
are in possession of cards of all kinds of boarding houses, emigrant
agencies, and “Homes” of all nationalities and in all cities of the
United States. I attach hereto one of said cards, of which thousands can
be obtained daily, and mark it “Exhibit K.”
I have pointed out very frequently the fact that steamship companies are
unable to ascertain the admissibility to the United States of emigrants
who present themselves prior to their embarkation, except through the
medical examination and the questions put to each of them, before the
final ticket is issued. If the emigrant is not well enough instructed by
those who originally sent him on his road, it happens that his
inadmissibility is occasionally detected, as I have noticed at the
offices of the Hamburg-American, Red Star, and Holland-American lines,
at the ports of Hamburg, Antwerp, and Rotterdam respectively, but this
is rarely the case. The emigrant is most thoroughly instructed when he
reaches the offices of the steamship companies, having undergone perhaps
two or more special courses of instruction at the hands of the so-called
subagents; but should the answers of such emigrant, in spite of this
instruction, be found faulty in certain respects, it would be idle to
assume that the agencies would refuse to forward him; a striking
example, illustrating this circumstance, may be found in an article of
the Italian newspaper _Il Dovere_, published in the city of Bellinzona,
Switzerland, bearing date June 23, 1903, a copy of which I annex hereto,
marked “Exhibit L.” The article in question will be found on the second
page of said exhibit, marked with blue pencil, which was sent from
Chiasso under like date, relating the story of an Italian emigrant by
the name of Marcaccio Vincenzo, who on May 2, 1903, sailed for New York
on board the North-German Lloyd steamer _Friedrich der Grosse_,
accompanied by a woman who had deserted her husband, in the same manner
that said Vincenzo deserted his wife, and both of whom, upon their
arrival at Ellis Island, were duly deported.
The article further states that Vincenzo returned to Chiasso and went to
the agency of Jauch & Pellegrini, where he had purchased the tickets for
himself and the woman, and demanded the return of his money, which of
course was refused. Vincenzo thereupon went to the authorities and made
a sworn statement to the effect that at the time of purchasing the
tickets mentioned he told the firm of Jauch & Pellegrini that the woman
accompanying him was not his wife, and that he was then and there
instructed by said firm that upon his arrival at New York he must state
that the woman accompanying him was his wife. The case of this emigrant
was disposed of in a very simple manner; he was sent across the border
to Italy and sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment for deserting his
wife and committing adultery. The woman in question was likewise sent to
jail for eight months.
I was informed at Chiasso by the other steamship agents that they had
reported this case to their respective companies, requesting that the
agency be withdrawn from Jauch & Pellegrini, as occurrences of this kind
had a tendency to harm them in their business, but that nothing was done
by the steamship companies in this direction. I was also informed that
the real owners of the firm of Jauch & Pellegrini are the notorious firm
of Corecco & Brivio, at Bodio, Switzerland, who are the general agents
of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, and to whom reference was
made by Special Immigrant-Inspector Robert Watchorn, in his report of
August, 1902—Corecco & Brivio are likewise the owners of La Svizzera
Societa Anonima per l’Emigrazione, at Chiasso, representing the Beaver
Line.
The material collected and the observations made during my travels
abroad would permit of the citation of hundreds, even thousands, of
other instances of a similar character, and those above enumerated are
but individual cases selected from an abundance of equally flagrant
examples. We cannot escape the conclusion that a large number of
undesirable emigrants succeed in reaching our shores in spite of the
vigorous enforcement of our immigration laws at the Atlantic seaports as
well as the Canadian border, and in spite of the apparent good faith on
the part of the steamship companies to comply with such laws. Although
this undesirable emigration still continues, yet it is my observation
that it has materially decreased in the past year or so, because of the
fact that it is generally known throughout the Continent that our laws,
as at present administered, are being strictly enforced and every effort
made to detect undesirable immigrants and to return them upon such
detection. If it were not for the precautions taken and the excellent
work at our various immigrant stations, as well as the apparent desire
of the various steamship companies to comply with the law, undesirable
immigration would have increased to alarming proportions. I do not mean
to be understood that the law in its present state is in a perfect
condition, for it still leaves open loopholes for unscrupulous steamship
agents and their dupes, who succeed in one form or other in evading the
law, in spite of the vigilance of the officials under your jurisdiction.
I am confirmed in this statement by my observance of many instances in
point, particularly the fact that a large number of deported and refused
emigrants never return to their homes, despite the fact that steamship
companies provide them with railroad tickets and necessary
transportation to convey them to their homes.
A significant feature in this connection is the exhibition to me by Mr.
A. Storm, manager of the passenger department of the Hamburg-American
Line, of a letter addressed to him by the director of the Royal Prussian
Railroad at Altona, substantially to the effect that the railroad
authorities would hereafter decline to redeem, at their full value,
unused portions of railroad tickets for points at the Austrian and
Russian frontier presented by passengers at Berlin, but would deduct
twenty per cent therefrom for the trouble and inconvenience caused by
the redemption of so large a number of these tickets. It is evident,
therefore, that some secret agency is at work deflecting from their
homes to parts unknown such deported passengers who arrive at Berlin.
One reason for such deported and refused emigrants not returning to
their homes was given me by Mr. Max Hirschfeld, manager of the
Anglo-Continentales Reise-Bureau, at Rotterdam, which, in its zeal and
activity, is second only to F. Missler, at Bremen, in an interview which
I had with him. He frankly admitted to me that it had been and is his
purpose, when passengers booked by him are refused or deported, to
prevent them from reaching their homes, for the reason that it would
injure his business to have it spread in the community that passengers
booked by him were not admitted into the United States, and in order to
accomplish this he cited cases to me where he spent as much as $100 on
individuals for such purpose.
Taking all of the above, together with the experience gained and the
observations made as a basis, the situation can be summed up as follows:
The deplorable political and financial conditions of the eastern and
southern countries of Europe, coupled with the prosperous condition of
the United States, creates a large natural emigration to our shores. The
most convincing proof in the eyes of the people of these countries of
the exceptional prosperity of our country is the large sums of money,
almost unprecedented to them, which annually arrive from friends and
relatives residing in the United States. Besides this natural
emigration, however, we are burdened with a dangerous and most injurious
unnatural immigration which from year to year assumes larger
proportions. This unnatural emigration consists of paupers and assisted
emigrants, and is induced and brought about by the unscrupulous and
greedy activity displayed by a large number of agencies and subagencies
having well-established connections in the United States and abroad,
apparently unknown to the steamship companies, which activity manifests
itself in the peddling of steamship tickets and prepaids on the
instalment plan, both here and abroad, the constant agitation and offers
of inducements by subagents in Europe, occupying semi-public positions,
who, in order to earn commissions, play upon the ignorance and
susceptibility of the plain peasant, frequently inducing him to sell or
mortgage all his belongings for the purpose of raising the necessary
traveling expenses, which latter transaction is also turned to profit by
such agent.
The steamship companies of course do not concede the existence of such
unnatural emigration, as I learned in the course of an interview which I
had with a high official of one of the steamship companies abroad. I
called his attention to this unnatural emigration, but the prevalence of
the same was denied by him. “If all this emigration is brought about by
natural causes,” said I, “and the business would come to you any way,
why do you have so many agencies broadcast instead of opening offices
under your direct supervision and control, thus saving the commissions
you have to pay your agents?” He replied, that would necessitate the
employment of a large corps of clerks and assistants, and that the
maintenance of such offices would, in the end, result in the expenditure
of a much larger sum of money than is paid out in commissions. This
argument, of course, does not in the least refute the well-established
fact that there is a very considerable unnatural emigration caused and
augmented through the agencies and methods above enumerated.
I am not prepared to say that there are remedies to combat this evil,
but I respectfully submit and state most emphatically that the influx of
this undesirable element into the United States could be reduced very
materially if means were adopted to procure the names, addresses, and,
if necessary, the pedigrees of persons constituting this class of
undesirable emigrants. All of the countries visited by me keep public
records of paupers, criminals, ex-convicts, prostitutes, and diseased;
and such records are obtainable, and if placed at the disposal of proper
United States officials the information thus at hand would obviate the
necessity of relying upon the statement of the emigrant himself, and
would tend to keep out of the United States an element which annually
invades our shores in so large a number.
The contract-labor question is somewhat more complex. It is undeniably
true that great numbers of contract laborers are annually imported into
the United States, which fact is well-known to Government officials
abroad. If the statement made to me by Herr Franz von Kaltenbrunn,
Councilor to the Ministry of the Interior of Austria, can be taken as an
argument in point, it establishes this importation of contract labor
beyond a doubt. Herr von Kaltenbrunn, in the interview which I had with
him, exhibited to me a rough sketch of an emigration bill, in the
drafting of which he was then engaged and which he said is to be
submitted to the next session of the Reichsrath (Lower House of Austrian
Parliament), such bill being designed for the protection of Austrian
subjects who are being engaged to work abroad, by requiring the
contractor or his representative to furnish a guarantee or some form of
security to the effect that the promises and agreements contained in the
contract made with such laborer, such as safe passage, payment of wages
promised, etc., will be closely adhered to. Irrespective of this
proposed legislation, it would be very difficult, as stated in the body
of my report, to detect the fact that any such person actually travels
to the United States under contract of labor, and in my opinion there
are but two ways to discover this fact, one being that some means be
found to watch the emigrants prior to their reaching the ports of
embarkation, and the other by close scrutiny and questioning at the
various landing ports of the United States. If the various boards of
special inquiry were aided by attorneys at law assigned to them, a
twofold object would be accomplished; first, it would lead to the
discovery of the importer of contract labor himself, and, secondly, it
would dispel the prevailing opinion abroad that a large number of
persons are constantly deported from the United States as contract
laborers who, in truth and in fact, are alleged to be going to the
United States in good faith and not under contract, which I believe is
frequently the case and is due to the fact that the unfortunate emigrant
becomes so confused by the manifold advices and instructions he receives
prior to his arrival that he is made to believe things he has never
intended to say. The assignment of counsel to the various boards of
special inquiry would also aid them in every other respect.
Respectfully submitted.
MARCUS BRAUN,
_Special Immigrant Inspector_.