The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1906-04-24
EM|CRANTS
MAKING THEM READY TO PASS
AMERICAN INSPECTORS.
ouack Doctors and Foreign Steam
ship, Companies Said to
Work Together.


Work Together.
The frauds and deceptions prac-
ticed by the foreign steamship COM
panies in "doctoring" diseased emil
grants to get them in shape to PASS
the medical inspection of the United
States immigration authorities at
ports in this country are exposed in
Especial report received by Commits
sioner General of immigration Sar-
gent. Some astonishing revelations
are made In the report, which indi-
Gates that the business of patching
| up disease affected aliens bound for
| our shores amounts to a science in
many European seaport cities.
The report was made by Maurice
| Fishberg, a special agent IN the i'm
| migration service.
Mr. Fishberg found that it is the
| custom of nearly all the foreign
! steamship companies to herd emf
| grants in large boarding houses at
! the ports of embarkation, where they
are "doctored" and put into condi-
| ton to pass the medical inspectors in
| Julb Country. uS SISdhBHlp COlD-
panies have learned that 1t is not
safe to ship to this country an alien
bearing plain evidences of contagious
| disease. The emigrants are rounded
up at boarding houses which are con-
| Quoted by agents of the various
! steamship lines. The day before the
| steamer sails the ships surgeon will
| utcit tho NJ q on6 nYaDninp q
| them. One such place visited by Mr..
Fishberg contained fifty emigrants,
mostly Armenians, Italians and
Greeks, who had been refused trans
portation to continental ports. The
steamship agents boasted that they
could get the men into the United
| States, despite the fact that they had
been rejected in Europe. The ships
surgeon, In his particular case, made
only pretense Of an examination.
Right under the eyes Of the special
| agent he passed two cases of de-
formity of the hands, a case Of small
pox, q case of locomotor ataXia and
one of paralysis.
| Special Agent Fishberg reports
that in Marseilles the treatment of
trachoma by fraudulent practitioners
has assumed remarkable proportions.
Most of the emigrants from the
Orient, from Syria and Armenia, es-
pecially, on their way to the United
States, stop at Marseilles where they
fall into the hands of a notorious
quack. He bleeds them as long as
their money lasts, under the pretence
of curing them of diseases, actual
and imaginary. The Oriental races
are especially prone to trachoma, and
the doctor" plies profitable bust
ness coaching" them for the exami-
nation in the United States. The
French government has tried to run
this fake doctor out of the country,
but the steamship companies have
always been powerful enough to save
him from Punishment.
1t appears that the examination
which the ships physician makes Is
of the most cursory sort. No effort
is made to detect the presence of
favus, loathsome disease of the
head. Most of the emigrants are in
spected with their heads covered.
But the most dangerous disease
which our immigration authorities
have to guard against is trachoma,
an eye affliction. By skilful treat
ment the signs of the disease may be
removed for a few hours, but they
will return as soon as the treatment
is stopped. In London and Liver
pool the clinics of the eye inf1rm-
aries, Mr.. Fishberg reports, are daily
crowded with aliens who are being
treated for trachoma, expecting to
90 to the United States as soon as
cured"
One of the worst features of this
whole business, Mr.. Fishberg says,
is the brazen way which the steam
ship companies agents boast they
can get any kind of diseased person
into the United States. One agent
informed Mr.. Fishberg that he
would undertake to land in the Uni
ted States any alien no matter if the
emigrant had been refused admis-
sion at continental ports and had
been rejected on arrival in the
United States. He openly boasted
that he had done this for aliens who
had been previously turned bacl
from the shores of the United States
Mr. Fishberg has come to the con
clusion that Naples is the only porj
where inspection is done conscien
tiously and honestly with the pur-
pose of preventing diseased emf.
grants from reaching the United
States.
Mr. Fishberg recommends that
medical inspectors from our govern
ment be stationed at all foreign
ports to pass. on the eligibility oi
emigrants sailing for the United
States. He thinks this is the only
thing that can effectively break uT
the present method of 'doctoring
emigrants so as to get them safely
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