El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-12-30


in the United States, compelled labor
ers from Italy to depend upon their
employers almost as children depeno
upon their fathers. These employers
usually were small contractors VINO
had acquired a working knowledge OF
English and a fair acquaintance win
American labor conditions, through
several years of apprenticeship as ia
borers. They would hire their fellow
countrymen to work for them, usually
board them, and be their advisers IN
all things This peculiar situation led
the new immigrants to call their en-
ployers, ''padrones," Just as IN Italy
the wife usually called her lord ana
master her padrOne-
Italians OutgrOW System
The padrOne system in this country
is at present confined to those races
which have little aptitude for acqulr-
ing a working knowledge OF English
The Italians, with whom the padrone
system began in the United States
have outgrown it and manage their
own affairs. There is an exception IN
the case of organ grinders and rev
women and children Contact Win
Americans always ends the system.
The Syrian peddlers who peddle dry
goods and notions in the city and
country, were for number OF years
under a padrone system The peddlers
were furnished their outfits by the
padrone, who also boarded them, and
they were given either a salary or
commission on their sales But ped
ding became Improbable, and the
Syrians who continued to engage IN
the work soon learned to manage their
own affairs, until now the padrole
system as applied to Syrians is seldom
encountered.
FIOurfshes Among Mexienns.
At present it flOurishes mainly
among the BuIgarians, Turks. Macs
domains, Greeks and Mexicans- Among
the Bulgarians and Turks 1t IS on the
decline, but it still affects laborers OF
these races in factories, mills, fOun-
dries, and on the railroads. Among
the MacedOnianS, the system for the
most part affects the peddlerS Of fruits
and candies. Among the Greeks the
system still affects some railroad Ia
borers, and prevails to some extent
among the flower, fruit and vegetable
vendors of New York and Chicago, but
it principally exists among the shoe
shining parlOTS, where boys from Il
to II years Of age are in demand.
The boys who sell vegetables, fruits
and candies usually live in Easements
or other filthy surroundings, some
times over horse stables. Their bed
rooms are small, poorly ventilated and
usually filled to their capacity with
beds.
The only coverings are cheap blan-
kets from Greece, which become foul
smelling under prolonged absence
from the Washtub. Three or four nights
out of each week they have been stews
and beans or potatoes for their one
square meal for the day. The other
nights they get nothing but bread,
cheese, and black olives. They start
to work by sun up and work until
shutdown.
Forced to Walk Long Distance.
In the shoe shining business, the
boys live in insanitary quarters, sleep
with all the windows down and either
have to share their beds with two or
three other boys, or roll up in blankets
on the floor. The midday meal usually
consists Of black olives, bread and
cheese. The boy who stays at home
brings the meal down 20 the shop, the
padrOne appOrtiOns it, and one boy 1t
a time retires behind the partition to
eat. The boys get up about about ia
the morning and seldom reach home
until after 10 o'clock at night.
Frequently the padrones, in order TO
save rent for the boys lodgings get
them an hours walk from the shop,
and the boys must walk the distance
twice q day, for no carfares are al
lowed. They never get holiday, for
the shop is open 365 days in the year.
Padrones forbid the boys to have any
thing to say to Greeks except in their
presence, and they do everything they
can to keep them in ignorance Of
English. They usually insist upon
reading all letters the boys receive,
and force them to lie about their age
and the conditions of their work, II
at all. They scrutinize all letters the
boys send home, so their relatives viii
not know of the straits they are in
The only chance they have to go to
church is during the Holy week and
on Easter morning, when they are per-
mitted to go between 10 o'clock at night
and 4 in the morning.
RavaEes Are Appalling.
The rava ges which such a life i'm
poses upon the constitutions of boys
are appalling. The prevalence Of tu-
berculOsis is extensive, Super1nduced
| by their manner of life, their inhalation
| of millions of microbes in the dust Of
customers shoes and OF the injurious
| doors Of the polishing chemicals. The
| Greek consul general at Chicago says
| the majority of the boys contract tu-
berculosis, and that in his opinion, and
that of a large number of Greek doc
/ tors, it would be more humane for
/ them to be refused admission into the
| United States than to allow them to
| come here if they intend to enter sucn
! employment.
The rise Of the shoe shining parIor
! and the Greek padrOne system began
| about Is years ago. One OF the plO-
| neer padrones, is credited with having
| opened more than 100 parlOrs. Most
| of the boys at first came from Ar
| cadia- As the business grew all Greece
| was called on for boys, and some Of
| the early bootblacks themselves be-
came psdrones. as rigorous in their
/
masters had been.
| Many Methods to Evade Law.
In 1903 a number of other padrones
! decided to form a shoe shining trust,
! but the bureau of immigration OBJ
| jected so strongly. because Of their
| violations of the contract labor laws,
! that they apparently gave up the pro-
| ject. All sorts of methods of evadinS
| the immigration laws are used, and it
| is conceded to be almost impossible to
| stop the incoming tide of boys des-
| tined to these shops
The wages paid by the padrones
range from $50 to $3.50 a year. The
| average wage of the boys is from 500
to $3.50 a year, and his tips usually
! amount to the latter sum. The til
goes into the padrone's little tip box
and the poor boy sees it no more. il
| has been shown by the Investigations
/ of the bureau of immigration that the
tips the padrOne takes away from his
boys more than suffice to pay then
salaries and their board bill, so thai
their work costs him nothing.
Law Does Not Prohibit Slavery.
| When the immigration commission
| took up its work it decided to loOl
into peOnage conditions in the United
! States, as well as to get information
concerning peOnage- The most inter
| esting discovery made was the fac
that there is no law upon the statut
books prohibiting simple slavery