426 



IMMIGRATION, PAUPER. 



cares more for the poor people whom he has 

 swindled. Until the United States shall have 

 arrived at some agreement with Italy in the 

 premises, this will continue. It would be a 

 great blessing if the class of Italians who are 

 practically forced by the brokers to emigrate 

 could be kept from landing on American 

 shores." The consul at Venice wrote: 

 ''Emigrants are recruited from those people 

 whom, as a rule, their native country does not 

 Avish to retain. They are often fugitives from 

 justice, and, in many cases, those leaving their 

 native countries to evade legitimate duties im- 

 posed by law men whose stupendous igno- 

 rance is unequal ed by any other class of people 

 found in the civilized world. They are no 

 more fitted to perform the duties of citizen- 

 ship than slaves newly released from bond- 

 age. They have no intention of becoming citi- 

 zens of the United States. They desire simply 

 to get more money for their work, and to de- 

 crease as much as possible the amount of work 

 to be done for the money received." This 

 word came from Vienna : " I am quite positive 

 that the intelligent Classes among the emi- 

 grants are in the minority. The bulk of emi- 

 gration comes from Bohemia, and it is com- 

 posed of the lower classes. The educated, in- 

 telligent Bohemian remains at home. Many 

 of the emigrants have most perverted ideas of 

 liberty. They believe that in the United 

 States no policeman interferes with entire 

 freedom of action. Many of them think they 

 have been governed too much at home, and 

 hope to find a country where they will not be 

 governed at all. During the last summer no 

 fewer than eighty runners of the Hamburg- 

 American Packet Company and of the North 

 Germau Lloyd, were arrested at Oswiecine 

 and Kraken, in the province of Galicia, on the 

 charge of fraud and encouraging emigration. 

 There can be no doubt that they were on the 

 hunt for contract-laborers." The consul at 

 Annaberg, Saxony, said : " Any one who has 

 observed the masses of humanity crowding on 

 board the great ocean steamers bound for the 

 promised land, can not but be convinced of this 

 fact. A few days ago I saw at a railway junc- 

 tion two common freight-cars filled with emi- 

 grants for the United States, forlorn-looking 

 creatures, half-starved and not decently clad. 

 In these cars were men, women, and children, 

 with all the worldly goods they possessed, 

 packed like sardines, to the number of sixty. 

 There was not a seat in the car, not so much 

 as a board on which the poor mothers with 

 infants might rest. I have seen whole trains 

 of just such emigrants. I have observed these 

 people on all occasions, and I do not hesitate 

 to say that one third of all the emigration to 

 the United States from the Continent of Eu- 

 rope is not only undesirable, but positively 

 injurious and dangerous. So much of the 

 scum of the population of these old countries 

 has been transferred to us, that among well- 

 ordered people who remain it has become a 



settled idea and a common expression, that 

 America is the asylum for all the disreputable 

 persons of Europe. The other day I had a 

 small job for a printer. I found his door 

 locked, and turned away, when a woman stuck 

 her head out from a window opposite and 

 shouted : ' He's gone to America, where all 

 the rascals go.' I have come across direct in- 

 formation confirming the evidence now before 

 the committee, to the effect that much unde- 

 sirable emigration is going on to our country 

 by way of Canada. These emigrants are dupes 

 of rascally agents (located, as a rule, in the 

 German shipping-ports) who, knowing that 

 the emigrants are so poor that they might be 

 refused a landing in New York, sell them tick- 

 ets to Montreal or Quebec, representing to 

 these ignorant creatures that passage to those 

 points is cheaper than to New York, and that, 

 once in Canada, they have but to step over the 

 border and be in the United States. The 

 transportation companies advertise extensively 

 all over Europe, and they have innumerable 

 agents who picture the United States and the 

 opportunities it offers to emigrants in glowing 

 colors; and it is common belief that they mis- 

 represent nearly everything in connection with 

 the United States. The character of all the 

 emigration has lately changed for the worse, 

 and now more than ever is decidedly injurious 

 to our working people and our general peace 

 and prosperity." 



It has been said that to remedy these evils 

 the execution of the law should be placed in 

 the hands of Federal officers un trammeled by 

 local influences and free to act in the interest 

 of the entire country ; that the examinations 

 should be thorough and vigilant and the capa- 

 city of each immigrant for self-support be con- 

 clusively established before he is permitted to 

 land; that the procedure at the various ports, 

 so far as practicable, should be uniform and 

 reciprocal ; and that violations of the statute 

 in bringing criminals, insane, and other help- 

 less persons to the country, should subject the 

 owners of the vessels implicated to a fine in 

 each case, in the nature of a libel on the vessel, 

 to be enforced in the courts. The Secretary 

 of the Treasury, in 1886, sent to the House of 

 Representatives a bill providing a penalty of 

 $500 for the permanent landing of alien pau- 

 pers, idiots, insane, and convicts. By it the 

 Secretary was given power to appoint commis- 

 sioners of immigration, not to exceed three in 

 number, at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, 

 Baltimore, Key West, New Orleans, Galveston, 

 and San Francisco, to take exclusive charge 

 and provide for the support and relief of such 

 alien immigrants as may fall into distress ; but 

 this bill did not pass. Another unsuccessful 

 bill was introduced in the Senate of the United 

 States in December, 1887, which provided that 

 the Secretary of State shall establish such rules 

 and regulations, and issue from time to time 

 such instructions to consuls of the United 

 States, not inconsistent with law or with treaty 



