The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-02
IMMIGRANTS ARE
 IMPROVED UPON Many Abuses Are Found in
 Government Bureau THE SECRET INSPECTORS Make Personal Investigation and Find That WouId-Be American Citizens
 Are Put Through Many Un-
 comfortable Experiences.
HE SECRET INSPECTORS
BY SYDNEY EsPEY


 of New York, Philadelphia and Balti-
 more, has recently been the subject of
 a silent" inspection by immigrant off,
 cers connected with the department of
 commerce and labor. Immigrant Com
 missioner Danied J. Keefe, in his next
 annual report to Congress will have a
 number of interesting things to say, urg-
 ing reforms in the service. At present | the commissioner refues to make any
 of his recommendations public, but un-
 officially has allowed few of the abuses
 which have been investigated to become
 known.
 A few years ago the immigration com-
 mission, body appointed by Congress to thoroughly investigate conditions among
 the immigrants especially with regard to steerage passengers, disclosed a number | of alleged abuses. Women agents were employed as well as men inspectors, who
 made trips from Europe in the steerage | for the purpose of studying conditions | at close range. From the reports sub mitted of these conditions, MT. Keefe has been able to establish an inspection which has been conducted under his de- partment. While not as far reaching as OtHeI lHSpcCtiOHS, II ndS gwen MT. heeIe | ample opportunity of corroborating state | ments made by other investigators. | In part the report, which Is regarded | as confidential, will contain convincing | proof that the conditions of the steerage | quarters of the great transatlantic ves- sels Is as severe an arraignment of con | ditions as was the first chapter In the | history of immigration affecting the white slave traffic. Attempted attacks | on immigrant women and girls have not | been remedied; unclean and unsanitary | conditions in the steerage are as preva- lent today as formerly; scaNt and un- palatable food are still served. and wan | ton and repeated Insults, mentioned in former inspections by women agents of | the immigration commission, continue l without abatement. These few evils mentioned in the report of the commits | sion have in no measure been remedied | seemingly in view of the fact that there is at present no law, actively enforced, which makes the steamship companies responsible for the conditions
 | For the purpose of grouping the vari- 1 ous classes of vessels engaged in pas senger service between the old world and the new they are divided into three types the old, the new and vessels which are a mixture of the two. It Is on old type vessels that the conditions In the steer age are chiefly complained of It Is there that the immigrant. of which type more than 10,000, GOO persons come to the United States during the last ten years. obtains his first conceptions of American institutions" An inspector of the conn mission, who made an investigation on a number of transatlantic steamers, mas this to say: "The universal human needs of space, air, food, sleep and privacy are rec ognized to the degree now made com pulsory by law. Beyond that the per sons carried are looked upon as so much freight by the companies with mere transportation as their only due"
 Another inspector, whose personal investigation was made during a 12- day voyage in the steerage on one of the old-type vessels. charges that eye inspection as conducted at the port of embarkation. in a sham If the steer age passengers act like cattle at meals" says the inspector, fit is undoubtedly because they are treated as such by the steamship officials. The stewards complain that they crowd like swine, but unless each passenger seizes his pail when the bell announcing the meal rings and .hurries for his share, he is likely to be left without food. No time is wasted by the stewards. At FL lis Island the inspection by the doctors and the officers of the Immigration ser vice Is quickly completed. The work there has been reduced to a system and the officers are kind, considerate and humane, until the immigrant has passed the boundary of their Jurisdiction.
 Usually after that the immigrant is approached by an alleged agent of some telegraph company; from his clothing he can hardly be distinguish ed from federal immigration inspector.
 Show your address," he commands.
 What's your name?" he next asks
 Before I knew what 1t was all about, sain an ispector, 90 cents for the telegram was demanded and obtained.
 Further on, in the room where the i'm migrants are sorted according to the rail- roads by which they are to continue their journey, they are considered prey. A rough guard pushed me into the pen where I belonged. A commssary clerk met me and led me to a spot where my baggage could be deposited. then to a counter, saying. "show your money" was about to obey as steerage passen- ger obeys these commands given at so many points in the journey, when I con- cluded that this was an attempt to com pei one to buy a box of provisions for his further journey. Many of the passen- gers had told me of 1t and warned me. 
 'T refused to show my money. saying I was going to Baltimore, and did not need provisions for so short journey. The man continued shouting. thinking thus
 to force me into buying until he spied | someone else entering. Then he dropped | me and ran for the new victim. The im- migrants are practically forced to buy these boxes of privisions, regardless of the length of their joruney or their de- sires." s
 While conditions have to a great extent
 been ameliorated during the last few months. stringent laws governing the con- dition under which immigrants are
 brought into the United States are to be urged. Particularly the conditions on
 ships arriving at the harbor of New | York and at San Francisco. where 1t Is
 said vile practices are fndulged in.
 The whole question:" an official of | the graft that permeates the entire inn
 migration service It is not exactly graft
 either. 1t is system of petty tipping.
 The capper' employed by various privi- lege men is at the most at the bottom | of the trouble. He is one that should
 be denied the right of earning his live
 lihood around the immigration station.
 The mere business the 'capper gets for
 his boss, the more money he puts into his own pocket"
 Referring to the ships themselves. the
 official continued: tasl'
 Tn the case of service where thou
 sands of men are employed and many
 of these, perhaps. looking for the 'easy
 money" that is constantly laying around,
 is 1t any wonder that abuses exist?