The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1904-09-14


sage he sells means fat commission
to him. Aiding and supporting him,
for division of the commission, are,
in several countries, notably AustrS-
Hungary and Russia. priests. school
teachers, postmasters. county nots-
ries and other public dignitaries. The
business of the allies is to hold ont
the common alluring stories of Amer
lean freedom and a land where loaues
of bread grow on trees and the city
streets are paved with gold. The
steamship agent does the rest ;
And the business thrIves
After the deluded and unfortunate
victim of the conspirators has turned
over his money to the agents he is
told of certain simple requirements
of the immigration laws of Ameri-
ca. Here, according to Marcus Braun
special immigration inspector de-
tailed by the United States govern
ment to investigate the conditions in
Europe, begins a system of training
the prospective emigrant in endless
subterfuges calculated to defeat the
United States government inquiry.
And this, he said, was carried on by
the connivance of officials whose duty
it is to suppress it.
Braun complained to higher au-
thorities to get convictions for I'M
lawfully and fraudulently inducing
people to emigrate, and after great
difficulty obtained a few arrests.
Since the present rate war began
the mails in many countries have
been flooded with literature sent out
by steamship agents, of whom there
are thousands. One Slavonian poem
was found in circulation which de-
picted New York as a terrestrial par
adise, where bread not only grew on
trees, but was buttered, and where
gold was found by workmen in the
subway ditch. 1t is said that tens
of thousands Of copies Of this poem
were circulated among peasants.
Behold a peasant family of Cali
cha, where whole villages are being
tage Of the rate war with steerage
passage to America now reduced to
$3.50. These are the people with
the broad, fiat, expressionless faces.
Monaghan noses and with a sodden
detection of dumb cattle. The man.
spring are Of the same dull cast, and
all with hope equally dead. They
live In the bleak south, enduring the
long, cold winters like the cattle thsy
breed and pant at their hard labor
in the fields through the short, hot
summer months.
Is 1t possible that any f1eetins
thought had ever come to them in
their bondage Of free institutions, of
Justice or Of universal suffra ge?
Their heritage has been slavery.
Preceding generations have been
stunted and made affects through
powerful wrongs. Taxed and dra-
gooned now by the house of Haps-
burg, bastinadoed by the ruffians of
Turkish pasta, robbed of women
destined to glut the harems of Con-
stantinople, and then scoureed by
the Muscovie. Dumb hatred remains
for the Cossack who tore the thatch
from the wretched novels and carried
off the life sustaining COW as a trib-
ute to the ear
Today this son of sorrow and blank
ignorance with some reason sees in
all public institutions only something
to hate. AS farm laborer he makes
IS cents per day in summer. In win
ter he makes practically nothing and
it is always struggle to fill the
mouths of the family. His brother
in Russia makes from Is to 35 cents
on farm, in Hungary on farm or
in factory from 80 to 40 cents per
day is paid, while in Prussia farm
laborers receive 10 cents in cash
and from 40 to 80 cents worth Of
farm products per day.
The average Gilician peasant has
no literature, and what, then, Is his
wonderment when the agent or sub
agent of the steamship company
comes to tell him of the fairyland
across the sea. Perhaps the story
HAS TSdCucu MIN ocloiS, anu ioi yeai .
he has been shaving and boarding his
pittance, upon pain OF hunger to reach
the promised land. He may have a
friend in America who has been send
| ing him financial aid, for Inspector
Braun is authority for the state
| ment that whole villages have beer
supported by remittances from Amer
| lea while Consul Hossfield at Nieste
declared in report that half a mil
| ion of the Slavic race had emigrated
to America in ten years, and that