The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-08-23
COMFORT IN The STEERAGE
CONTRAST BETWEEN SHIPS or
OLD AND NEW TYPE.
Shower Baths. Dancing and Music for It-
migrants Nowadays Cleanliness and
Good Food Even on the Older Vessels
Mr.. Behar's Personal Investigation.

immigration restrictive leglslation. Iss
operations are chiefly conducted by N.
Behar. a highly educated and well to do
Italian Jew. now a citizen Of this country.
Although the physical conditions Of immi-
grants on board ship are not the principal
concern Of h league, Mr.. Behar made .
personal investigation Of these conditions
recently. prompted to do so by an article
In the Bdpfsf Mission Monthly describing
the alleged horrible steerAge conditions
and by a speech In Congress by Repre-
sentative SABBATH. who in q debate upon o
proposed immigration act spoke Of the
shameful, inhuman and almost brutal"
conditions In the steerage OF ships bring
ing immigrants.
Mr.. Behar knew in a general way what
the conditions really were and knew also
that they differed greatly In what he de-
scribes 10 the old type ship. which ID
rapidly being displaced. and In the new
type ship. To learn from personal en-
p~erience precisely what conditions are on,
both types he took passage as an emigrant
on an old type ship with bis daughter and
son-in-law and their two children and re-
turned from q European port with the same
party In q new typo ship.
hiuB aFO OUhaihOhto WnACn n9
found to approve In the old type ship Mr..
Behar said to q Sun reporter upon his re-
turn that the air in all sleeping compart-
ments, carefully regulated by steerage at
tendants, was better than that In the typical
tenement In New York or Chicago.
sThe atmosphere In the tenements.' he
eaid. SIS conducive to consumption and inns
morality. On ~shipboard, even IN the
crowded sleeping arrangement, the good
ventilation was conducive to good health
and morality"
On the old type ship he found the food
excellent in quality and ample In quantity
and brought promptly three times q day to
the 600 emigrants by q sufficient number Of
attentive stewards. He travelled under
every condition Of the ordinary steefage
passenger except that. as the state Of hin
health demanded, he had sone food deli-
cacies from the first cabin servedl 70 him;
But he visited the steerage Passengers during
meal times daily and found nothing In the
food or the service to complain Of. Indeed
he saw that most Of the steerage passengers
enjoy their meals as something much better
than they were used to.
What he found to condemn In the old tyre
ships was that the passengers slept In ham,
mocks In large compartments, as many az
is2 being in one. This deprived the passen-
gers Of privacy, although the assignment Of
passengers divided the married people and
children from the unmarried, and the latter
by EEK.
The second and greatest fault was that
In the old type there in no dining room for
passengers. but the food is served TO them
In their sleeping compartments. Also they
had no lounging or smoking room. and the
deck room to which they were confined
was Ill arranged and insufficient. None Of
the old type ships has any bathing facili-
ties in the steerage.
On his return IN new type chip he found
every defect he had observed In the old
type remedied. Storage passengers are
now assigned to cabins OF only two and
four berths. Their meals are served In Q
dining room and the photograph Of one
Of these which he showed the reporter
looked a. airy, clean and well appointed
a. the second cabin dining room Of an old
type ship.
He found also that both tub and shower
baths had been provided and that stewards
kept these thoroughly clean. Also In the
new type steerage passengers are allowed
10 use greater and better. arranged deck
space, where the ships band plays for half
hour or 90 every day and where the
immigrants danced.
In the steerage coming over Mr.. Behar
noticed that q fellow passenger who he
learned was o German college professor
had q Bible and one work on America, and
that this latter he read aloud to az many
passen gers a. could get within the sound
81 his voice. Mr.. Behar himself had an
atlas OF this country and when he offered
10 explain something Of the great. West
and illustrate with his atlas he was always
III rounded by many eager storage pas
ssngers.
This, he said, prompted him to 81 ggest
10 the management Of the line on which he
to place in the steerage fifteen or
books relating either TO this country
Or to the industries which the steerage
passcp GER expected to follow, and the
officials thanked him for the su digestion
promised to adopt 1t.
The absence Of baths Of any kind on the
old type ship Mr.. Behsr thought to be a
them in the new type. In speatine Of this
10 the reporter he smilei RrimlvIwhe he
said that the majority Of his fellow pasa-
did not share his DELIGHT IN the
facilities offered. In fact few ~
Dn0th hu0W VIA VIC D6dIb Wot0 duu Wuo1 =
III cir purpose was explained few cared 10
ben eft by the opportunities they Offered.
This prompted Mr.. Behar to suggest tn
he ship officials that bathing be made COM
When facilities were offered and
hat stewards and stewardesses should re
to instruct the passengers how 10
Use the baths and compel them TO do 40.
Mr.. Behar 10 writing q report Of his In
yestigations which will be submitted tn
he committees In Congress having immi-
bills In charge n he homes IN
hat manner to col cot what he finds IL a
'erv common error regarding the physical
tate Of Storage passengers.
When II was suggested to Mr.. Pehar
hat these improved conditions In the steer
Lge would tend to induce greater immi-
his reply was that that would ia
n the league, as it would aid
t. object. He Is active In campaigning
0 secure important %opponsnts to restrictive
egislation and showed great satisfaction
n referring the reporter tn a CODY he hal
4 a letter written by the late Bishop Potter
February I, 1908. to Edward Lauterbach.
In part reads as follow:
'The drastic immigration bills r~eoantlv
Introduced into Congress are equally gr.-
esque and vicious. II would seem to 10
impossible for the gentlemen who intro
uOed them to realize That the Ofnce OF a