Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-07-02
HE PApRoNE SYSTEM.
Slave Labor in New York and How It Is
 MonopolIEed by sharks.

MonopollEed by sharks.
 Your correspondent to-day had a talk with Mir. V. l.. Ricketts, the clerk of the House Committee on Immigration, who acted as clerk and sergeant-at-arms for the joint investigating committee, and who probably gathered more general in- formation upon the subject under inves- tigation than most of the members of the comm ittee. In the course of his talk he said:
 Probably the worst evil connected with our modern immigration s the Italian padrone system. Twenty-seven thousand Italian immigrants were landed at New York last year, and probably two-thirds of them are subject to bondage almost as pernicious as the African slave system that prevailed in the Southern States thirty years ago. They are brought here by the Italian banker, who is also a speculator on the labor market. They are induced to come by promise of higher wages than they can earn in Italy. A laborer ac- customed to twenty cents day is easily persuaded by an offer of dollar, and so the ticket is sent He reaches America prepared to answer all questions put to him by the authorities. He goes direct to Elizabeth street, if not met sooner by the padrone or his agent. He is put to work on the streets, on railroad, or elsewhere, with an army of his fellow uc c ntrymen. The padrone furnishes to the contractor, we will say, 100 men at SIPS per day, and the contractor pays the men $1 per day, and the padrohe gets 25 cents. In addition he retains the store or 'shanty' privilege, and has 8 monopoly of their trade, and his bills are paid before the wages are paid. These privileges he usually sub-lets. Then he gets their savings and pays no interest. Thus his profits are manifold
 -S2 or $S on the steamship ticket sold
 to the Italian peasant the rent of the apartment he occupies, sales of all he consumes, per cent of his wages, and finally, if he is naturalized, the price of his vote. And all this time the padrone
 never betrays his slaves, keeps in good faith every promise he makes, and
 warns them against the wiles of the American. Naturally suspicious, they are trained to be doubly so; and, as they seldom learn English, they never open communication with an American, ex- cept through an interpreter. and then it l is never sought.
 There are 100, ,OO0 Italians in the city
 of New York; 7O,0O0 are herded in one little district comprising only few squares in the vicinity of Mott and | Elizabeth streets. Jay Gould might go | there tomorrow and be unable directly l to employ a hundred, but he could go | to a padrone and employ as many hun | dreds as he could use. An inspector of public works in New York testified be- l fore tho committee that there were 5000 Italians engaged on public works in that city, all under the padrone system; and | this comprised 90 per cent. of all the workmen so employed at that time. l Ten years ago 90 per cent. of the cigars manufactured in New York were made | by American workmen, but to-day 90 per cent. are made by foreigners, chiefly
 Italians, and the wages have fallen from | SIP per week to S4. But a small propor- | tion of these immigrants ever become naturalized, while a very large propor- tion after a few years return to Italy with few hundred dollars and live in | luxury the rest of their days. Some | wise and thoughtful Italians here, like Sig. Celso Moreno, of Washington, have
 seen the tendency of this system and have made a vigorous war on the | padrones, but so far with little result. ! They charge that the Italian Govern ment or its representatives here and at
 home wink at this system and silently l give it encouragement" "-Indianapolis Journal