IMMIGRATION, PAUPER. 



425 



but there were manifest omissions at some 

 ports in the earlier years, and they could give 

 no account of foreigners who entered this 

 country through other channels than the sea 

 and lake ports. And yet the official returns 

 rendered by the collectors of customs do not 

 indicate what portion of the whole may be 

 considered pauper immigrants. The act of 

 Congress regulating immigration, passed Aug. 

 3, 1882, authorizes the Secretary of the Treas- 

 ury to enter into contract with such board, 

 commission, or officer, as may be designated by 

 the Governor of any State, to take charge of 

 the local affairs of immigration in the ports of 

 such State, and to provide for the support and 

 relief of such immigrants landing therein as 

 may fall into distress or need public aid. to be 

 reimbursed by the collector of the port out of 

 the fund derived from such tax. It is made 

 the duty of such board, commission, or officer, 

 to examine and inquire into the condition of 

 all passengers arriving at such ports; and if, 

 on such examination and inquiry, there shall 

 be found any convict, lunatic, idiot, or any per- 

 son unable to care for himself, who is likely to 

 become a public charge, this shall be reported 

 in writing to the collector of such port, and 

 such person shall not be permitted to land; 

 and the expense of his return shall he borne 

 by the vessel in which he came. Under this 

 act the Secretary of the Treasury, soon after 

 its passage, entered into contract with the 

 Commissioners of Emigration of Xew York, 

 with the Boards of Charities of Massachusetts 

 and Pennsylvania, and with .various local 

 boards, commissions, and officers of other 

 States : and the examinations, inquiries, land- 

 ing, relief, and care of all immigrants arriving 

 in the United States since then have devolved 

 upon these local officers, commissions, and 

 boards. A ruling of the United States Treas- 

 ury Department, in September, 1885, author- 

 ized the commissioners of emigration of the 

 State of Xe\v York, their agents or servants, 

 to go on board of all vessels arriving from for- 

 eign ports at the port of Xew York; and all 

 immigrants found thereon may be taken to 

 Castle Garden and there examined ; and if, on 

 such examination, there shall be found any 

 persons not entitled to land, the Collector of 

 the Port of Xew York, and the owners, agents, 

 or masters of the vessel on which such persons 

 arrived, shall be forthwith notified in writing; 

 and the commissioners of emigration shall de- 

 tain under their custody or care, either on 

 shipboard or elsewhere, all such persons for- 

 bidden to land by the second section of the act 

 of 1882, except convicts, who. as provided in 

 the fifth section of An act supplementary to 

 the acts in relation to immigration." approved 

 March :J. 1875, shall be subject to the charge 

 and direction of the collector of customs of 

 said port; and such detention shall continue 

 until the sailing of the vessel upon which such 

 persons arrived, or until proper provision can 

 be made for their return to the countries 



whence they came. It was the evident inten- 

 tion of Congress, by these enactments, to se- 

 cure ample and proper protection to immi- 

 grants arriving at our shores, mid. at the same 

 time, guard against the influx of c<.;. 

 lunatic, and otherwise infirm and chronic alien 

 paupers. The law, as at present executed, 

 however, is little or no barrier against the 

 shipment of these classes ai.d there is no 

 remedy after they have pa.-sed the port at 

 which they have landed. The expenditure of 

 a small sum for passage to any interior point 

 generally insures the delivery of the person to 

 the place of destination ; and, though he be 

 insane, or otherwise incapable of self support, 

 no provision is made for his return, and he 

 falls upon the locality where he may be as a 

 public charge through life. The statistics of 

 the prisons, penitentiaries, poor-h 

 lurns, and other institutions of the United 

 States, show that there are proportionately 

 many more of the criminal, insane, pauper, 

 and helpless alien classes in them than in 

 former years ; and the evils from these sources, 

 apparently, are constantly and heavily increas- 

 ing. These evils, it is claimed, are due largely 

 to defects in the Federal law, in that its exe- 

 cution depends upon local officers, likely to be 

 influenced by local considerations, in the gen- 

 erally hurried and superficial examination of 

 immigrants at the time of their landing, in the 

 absence of any reciprocal action between the 

 officers of the various ports, and in the failure 

 of the statute to prescribe any penalty for its 

 violation. -The clearest exposition of the sub- 

 ject ever made from the standpoint of Ameri- 

 cans abroad was through one hundred consuls 

 of the United States to the General Govern- 

 ment at Washington in 1888. The consul at 

 Palermo said: ''Emigration is here considered 

 as a mere matter of business, so tar as steam- 

 ship companies are concerned, and it is stimu- 

 lated by them in the same sense that trade in 

 merchandise is when they desire a cargo, or 

 to complete one, for their vessels. Law never 

 enters the subject, so far as emigrants are con- 

 cerned. The company desire that all space in 

 their vessels shall be occupied, and, in order to 

 accomplish this, they employ t-niigrant brokers 

 or agents, to whom they pay from three to five 

 dollars for each emigrant obtained ; some- 

 times even more than the latter sum is paid, 

 the amount depending on the competition or 

 the urgency of the case. The brokers, as may 

 be imagined, are a low. lying, dishonorable 

 set. who will swear to anything to induce the 

 poor, ignorant people to emigrate, and thus 

 earn their fees. They tell them that work is 

 plentiful and wages very high, and that after 

 they shall have labored for a year or two they 

 wiil have saved enough to return to their 

 homes and live without doing anything. Thus 

 the poor, ignorant people are wheedled into sell- 

 ing or mortgaging what little they may have, 

 and after the broker has received his fee from 

 the transportation company he never thinks or 



