The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1891-11-26
DISGUISED AS A PAUPER.

Mr. Schulteis, immigration Comnts
sioner, Comes Over IN the Steei
age Dressed in Tattered Clothe
and Hobsnails- Frightful Of1cis
Negligence Charged.
One OF the most extraordinary at
! tempts ever made by the United State
Government to fathom the mysterious
worldwide system under which TIL
Governments of Europe are pouring Il
hordes of paupers, imbeciles, criminal
and other elements that are alread
| weakening and blighting the socia
structure 81 lie North American cont
| nent, the New York Herald says, cam
to an unsuccessful end last week, whei
Mr.. Herman J. Scliulteis, one OF tn
special commissioners sent abroad b,
the Treasury Department to scour Eu
rope in search of facts, arrived amoni
the steerage passengers of the Cunart
steamship Servia disguised as pauper
only to find that the immigration off
Gals of New York, headed by Colone
Weber, the superintendent, had sci
taeir faces against such serious at.
tempt to expose the utter mockery Of
the present system of inspection.
The most vital facts will, of course, be
incorporated in the report which Mr.
Schulteis aud his associates must pri
vately make to the Secretary of the
Treasury, after which there is no doubt
the matter will be taken up by Congress
for some definite and stringent legisla-
ton. The most marvel GUS thing about
the deliberate overthrowing Of Mr..
Schuiteis' efforts is that Colonel Weber.
the Superintendent of immigration, is
Chairman of the five Commissioners
who have just completed their work in
Europe.
Commissioner SchIlteis will lay the
whole matter before the Secretary of
the Treasury, and the labor organiza-
lions of the country, together with sll
other bodies who have been studying
the situation with increasing alarm, will
then make their sentiments known.
The Commissioners went to Europe in
the early part of July, Mr.. Schulteis
reaching England in company with
Commissioners Gross, Powderly, and
Kempster Later on Colonel Weber
joined them. Before his arrival the four
gentlemen made particularly thorough
search into the system of gathering pau
pers, criminals, and helpless children in
Great Britain for shipment to America.
They found that while the British Cow
eminent did not. as Government, take
any part in this work of loading down
America with the dregs Of European
slums, the scores of organizations en-
gagged in the work have such Masonic
connection with the authorities as to put
it beyond doubt that the system was
countenanced and encouraged officially.
Commissioners Kempster and Weber
went to Russia principally to stndy the
Jewish question, taking in portions of
Germany on the way. The other Com
missioners divided up France, Italy,
Holland, Germany, and Belgium be-
tween them, meeting at Milan and go
ing to Naples. They visited Leghorn,
Livorno, Naples, Messina, Catania, Syr-
acuse, Palermo, and all other important
places on the coast. Each commissioner
did hard work. Commissioner Powderly
in the south of France a sys-
tematic collection of abandoned women
for shipment to the United States, and
through one of the American Consuls
obtained list of names which will be
submitted to the Secretary of the Treas
ury, Captain Cross made other equally
discoveries.
Commissioner Schulteis disguised him
self in Holland as a Dutch laborer
combed his hair down over his forehead,
let his beard grow, and wore wooden
shoes, sleeping in emigrant houses where
gathered destitute candi>
dates for American warehouses, and
worming himself into the secrets of the
system. Wherever he made any open
inquiries he found himself baff1ed at
every turn.
When he went in disguise and actually
underwent the experience of the emf
grants he found the facts to be exactly
opposite to those given to the public.
He was driven to the most desperate ex-
pedients to avoid detection, and had &C
tually in one country to change his dis
guise behind cart in the street.
In Italy he donned a different costume,
4 I, -,
on the country roads until his hand was
blistered carrying his dingy gripsack,
but he found everywhere traces of the
vast army of agents who are wheedling,
deluding, dazzling, and seducing the
populations of the most igno>
rant sections of Italy, to the misery of
the overcrowded Italian colonies of
and for what?-simply to col
lect commission on the steamship tick
cts Sold
Everywhere he found evidences that,
Committees, bust n e 8
houses, powerful steamship lines, rail
ways in Europe and in America were all
joined together in one vast secret com
bination, driving over the ocean whole
regardless of law and de-
cency or of the result to the American
Republic. The huge conspiracy was
masked under thousand DISCUSSES
philanthropy, colonization sch m es,
business ventures, political agitations,
religious feuds.
AT Naples, while one Commissioner
stood watching the embarkation of enl-
igrants for America, two other Commits
sioners unknown to the Steamship Com
pany secretly regarded the process from
q secure spot. They saw that utterly
disqualified persons were set aside and
rejected in the presence of the single
Commissioner and as soon as his back
was turned were hurried on board and
sent across to swell the great army in
America. The Commissioners found
that the Steamship Companies were
scattering lying tracts and circulars, de-
scribing in the most alluring language
the American paradise, where land
grants and high wages yearned for for
eign multitudes. At last they returned
to England, and Commissioner Schulteis