The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-08-24
Immigrants DO
NOT LIKE AGENTS
Ellis Island Foreigners Look on
Labor Seekers as Bunko
Steerers.

What awaits ]. D. Trenor, special
agent of the Territorial Board of I'm
migration, when he arrives at Ellis
Island to recruit labor for Hawaii re-
mains to be seen. What the experience
of other special agents has been is
shown in the following from the New
Times of Sunday, August g. The Times
says:
Land agents who have tried TO turn
the tide of immigration through the
port of New York from its accustomed
channel to the South, where land is
cheap, have come to be looked upon as
bunko steerers by thousands of immi.
grants landed here in the last few
months. The Immigration officials say
that foreigners coming here look upon
every one with suspicion and that many
amusing mistakes have been made by
them at Ellis Island.
During the last few, months several
dozen land agents from the Southern
States have appeared at Ellis Island,
trying to get the newly-landed foreign
ers to accompany them to the South,
either to buy land or to work for the
agriculturists there. Some few hun
dred immigrants have listened to their
stories of wealth to be made in the
South, but comparatively few have gone
there.
Most of the immigrants entering this
port have come after already choosing
the place where they will cast their for
tunes, the immigration officials say.
They have friends or relatives living
in some part of the United States and
come either to join them or go to some
locality advised by persons whom they
know and can trust. Hence the false
light of bunko steerer under which some
of the Southern land agents have
fallen.
Dr. Leander Trowbridge Chamber
lain, Vice Chairman of the Immigra-
tion Department of the National Civic
Federation, discussing the subject of
distribution of the immigration to the
United States few days ago, said:
s.Only one man in 400 arrives at
Ellis Island who does not know exactly
where he is going. And if you under
take to tell the Italian of the adyan-
tages of the South, of its climate, or
it's fruits and flowers, and he is bound
to Montreal, for instance, it is useless
task to try to dissuade him. Not long
ago an Interpreter asked one immigrant
If he would not like to go South to To-
cate The immigrant said he was go
ing to Montreal
e'~'B But Sid the interpreter, Mon
treal is frozen half the year, and you
are from Italy, And then he describ-
ed the South and compared the South
and Montreal, and what do you sup
pose was the impression he made2 Why,
the Italians took him for bunko
steerer.
eff the South or any other place
wants immigration, it would be wise
% take a few families and convince
hem that they can get employment
throughout the year at good wages.
They do not come here for climatic
reasons. They come here to better
"These people know the general sit
ration. About 76 per cent. of them
20 to six States, the large majority go
ne to Massachusetts, New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. But
Why do they go> therea Because 76
,er cent of the demand for labor is in |
hose States, and 76 per cent. of the
xcellence of the relations of labor and |
apital is in those six States.
"In the decade from 1890 to 1900, |
he population of the United States in
reased 100000, 9,400,000 in the
tiles and suburbs virtually urban.
''In a single month of 1907 the i'm
Migrants that came to Ellis Island
rent to every State and Territory of
he United States, Hawaii and the
'hiIippine Islands. The government
as no occasion to interfere with the
of immigrants. They are
istributed according to natural laws.
o-~-s-