The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-02-09
TO CHECK VILE TRAFFIC
WOMEN TO BOARD INCOMING TRANS
ATLANTIC STEAMERS.
Treasury Department Trying to Stop
Importation of Girls for Inn
moral Purposes.

NEW YORK. Feb. s.-Commissioner of
immigration Williams has not yet selected
the six women boarding officers whom the
Treasury Department has authorized him
to appoint. but he has $50 applications on
file, the majority of the women having ap-
piled to him personally yesterday. The
appointment of women special boarding
officers is an experiment which the Treas
ury Department is going to try with a
view of checking the traffic in girls by
which, the department has evidence to
show, the young victims are induced under
one pretense another to come to this
country, and are here compelled to lead
immoral lives.
Revelations recently made in series of
raids on disorderly resorts in Philadelphia
brought to light the fact that most of the
girls are brought over in the first and Sec
ond cabins, where they escape the rigorous
examination to which steerage passengers
are subjected. The women boarding Off
GERS will therefore confine their examna-
tions to girls who arrive as first or second
cabin passengers. and whom the women in
spectors may think to have been enticed
here by the so-called "Vice Syndicate"
1t was first proposed to make the appoint
ments from the civil-service list but none
of the women eligible was inclined to accept
the position.
Notwithstanding the fact that those ap-
pointed will have to climb ships ladders as
a part of their duty, a large number have
declared their willingness to do that and
TO wear any sort of uniform that may be
decided upon for the stipulated salary of
81, 900 year. The most difficult part of the
duty will be to board the incoming liners
from the revenue cutter. Sometimes when
big steamships like the Celtic or the Kron-
prinz Wilhelm come in high out of water
on account of small cargo it is necessary
to lash two ffteen-foot ladders to reach
the liners deck from the cutter In rough
weather Ii is ticklish undertaking. even
for the regular boarding officers and they
are looking forward with interest to the
first day that the women go down the bay
on the revenue cutter to board a liner
One woman who applied for the job yes
terday urged as special qualification that
she formerly had been a trapeze performer
i'm a circus. Another applicant had been a
stewardess on tramp steamships for fifteen
wears and had travelled all around the
ing to me-" she said. Il can skin up to
the masthead in jiffy. I've done it lots
OF times.
The question of clothes is another matter
which bothers the applicants. and they in
variably ask what sort of a uniform they
will be obliged to wear. Most of them
favor bloomers. as the problem of handling
two or three petticoats in a ten-knot breeze
on a perpendicular ladder. and before an
interested audience. is one which nearly all
of them hesitate 10 confront Some OF
them indulge in the hope that the steam
ship ca plains will lower a boatswain's chair
for them.
The opinion among most of the immigra-
tion officials seems to be that the womss,
who can go down in the revenue cutter at
all hours OF the day or night. and can
Chamber up the ships ladder without en-
barrassment will not have the proper men
tai and moral qualifications rightly TO per-
form their otherwise delicate duties.