The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-11
Toys! Toys! Toys! Toys! w. w. Haygood & Co.,,
I7 Dexter Ave.

r Ave.
 , to one case of an Italian--a strong. vigorous man--who was to be sent back | because he had shown d letter in which | his cousin in St Louis informed him i that if he would come to this country he would find employment at sl.S0 per day. It would seem to me that this was interpreting the law very strictly indeed" | But the commissioner of !mmiera- ton declares that it Is necessary to l do so. because so many men are brought over to do work in this coun- | try for less than similar laborers here would charge for the same work. and many more come under the padrone system" which is practically peonage or slavery. Under the. system the pa- drones. or immigration agents. go about among the peasants of Italy. and contract with them for their la bor for certain period at wages slightly in advance of those paid in 1tally. but very much less than those paid in the United States. Tho padrones pay their passage both ways, and send them to the United States In gangs, which are leased to contrac- tors. who are building railroads. sew CTS and other large work. The pu- drones receive their wages and pocket | the difference.
 This system prevails very extensivo- ly. particularly in Italy About a Carpentino. Village in the mountains, where the late Pope Leo XIII. was born, and Count Peci, his nephew, told me that between twelve and fifteen hundred men from his estates and that neighborhood had gone to the United States under contract to work on tho Pennsylvania Railroad. ThSy were getting good wages, he said, and were | sending their money home to him to | keep until their return. He said that I every mail brought him $200 to $500, and some of the men who had gono over in that way were so we'll plea sed with their experience in the United | States that they had come back ior their families
 l The commissioner general of imrai- grafton tells of uncovering tho padrons system of slavery in blockading es- | Establishments scatter through our larog cities. operated usually by Greek lads | ranging from 10 to IS years of agn. These boys are brought here with tho consent of their parents by older com | business and who work as long as tn. agreements with the parents last, paying them barely sufficient to main. | tain life. During the last four months | of the current year S9S of these boy. l have arrived at the port of Bostor alone. of whom 12T were returned ia l Greece under tho contract labor law. They usually como in small Rroups protesting purpose to secure an edn- | cation under the care of relatives ln this country.
 The coal mines furnish a field for the employment of contract labor. as Is we'll understood by those who have had occasion to study the labor dis l turbances of recent years
 
 The inducements held out by agents of steamship companies and railways ! are said to be the cause of the enor- nous increase in the arrivals Most Of the steamship companies have agen- cies In nearly all the great centers of population in Europe. and their repre- sentatives employ canvassers. who go about among the people distributinG printed matter, talking about. the, high wages. the comforts of living and the other advantages to be found in the United States, and receiving cash com missions for every steamship ticket they sell. There is a great deal of colonization also, which is considered objectionable. on political grounds. and for social and sanitary reasons. For eigners learn and adopt American ways much more readily, and are much more rapidly assimilated into the population 1T they are scattered, than If they are herded together in colonies. In this connection, Commissioner General Sar- gent makes some very pertinent sug- gestions in regard to the advantages of having government agents take charge Of the distribution of immigrants in stead of permitting them to go their own ways and settle where they please. There is no one, at present. at Ellis Is- land or elsewhere. to give information or advice on that subject, except the agents Of railway companies, who, in almost every case. limit their interest to the sale of tickets, without regard to the welfare of the buyer.
 Mir. Sargent thinks that if govern ment agents were authorized to send newly arrived aliens to those parts of the country where they would be most likely to find employment, it would ore. vent large numbers of them from herd ing in the cities, where most of then, drift at present. The duty of direct Ing public attention to this subject Is imperative, he says, because of the
 
 become criminals. luaatics, and inmates of charitable and reformatory institu- tions; whereas if they were sent cut into the country to fill the unsatisfieJ demand for agricultural and other manual labor they would not only be benefited, but would become valuable citizens. He gives a startling state nent of the number of aliens now de- talned in penal, reformiGory and char itable institutions in the United States He finds 11.9S0 Irish, 9,050 Germans, A. 2iS English. 3,2G6 Italians 3l25 Scandl- naVians 2.O64 Poles, 1,94S French, 2765 Hebrews 903 Scots and representatives of other races in proportion who were born abroad at present in the prisons. insane asylums and the almshouses of the United States. There are I5396 re-. cent immigrants in our charitable insti- tutlons l9,764 in our insane asylums and 9.S25 in our prisons, many of whom might have been made useful citizens if they had been sent into the azricul- tural districts instead of being allowed to remain in the cities
 William E. Curtis.