Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-09-17
"-'TF PROBING
pAuKONE SYSTEM
At PORT READING
Department of Labor Attaches
Find Horrible Domestic Con-
ditions Among Foreigners.
FIFTEEN MEN COMPELLED
TO LIVE IN FREIGHT CAR
Others Forced TO Crowd in
Squalld Quarters or Else
Give Up Their Positions.

PERTH AMBOY. Sept. 17.-Aroused
by persistent reports that frightful
conditions prevail in a colony of for
eign workmen employed on the Port
Reading coal docks, near here, off,
cials of the State of New Jersey
Department of Labor have been for
several days investigating alleged
inhuman treatment of the coalmen
and their families. Drastic action
will likely be ordered to immediately
stop the alleged abuses.
The padrone system. with all it's
attendant evils. it has been charged,
is IN full swing. and with the ar
rival of new groups of aliens daily, a
number of local prominent men, in
Guiding Rev. Columbus Galassi, an
Italian priest. are aiding in the in
vestigations.
The housing of the single men, and
the quarters provided for the women
and children. have been examined
by the State officials, who were
shocked beyond expression. The col
ony lives in shacks. Not bit of
plaster in any of the structures was
to be seen. and even freight cars,
which had outlived their usefulness,
were improvised as shacks for habi-
tations. In these dilapidated
'homes' more than dozen unfor-
tunate men had to sleep and eat
For the rent of these structures S4
month. it is said. was deducted
from their slender wages. The money,
1t is also asserted. eventually reached
the hand of the alleged padrone,
who. with relative. Is associated in
corraling the men and providing
board and lodging" for them.
The cost of the provisions fur.
nished the laborers also is charged
against their pay. and the individual
beer and grocery and provisions often
total $40 monthly.
Critics of the alleged system. which
virtually keeps the men in slavery,
say that still further outrage is
perpetrated against men employed on
the Philadelphia and Reading docks
They say that if any of the aliens
move to better kept places no him
drance is offered, but the men are
compelled to stand for being "docked''
and virtually pay out of their small
wages for two homes.
AS the padrones pack as many as
fifteen and twenty men in a freight
car or one of the other shacks, the
alleged rental graft mounts up to q
pretty snug sum each month.
women DO HOuseWCrk.
The women or the colony cook and
do "houseworl" for the single men,
Seven or eight of the families have
two-story shacks with but two rooms
on each floor. Even in these slightly
improved quarters squalid and miser-
able conditions prevail Not even the
houses have plastered walls or
sheathing
The complaints, it is said, also re-
cited that the "padrone" or his rep
resentative made frequent trips to
Ellis Island to catch the unwary inn
migrants from Southern Europe and
lure them to the coal docks. During
the summer only seventy-five to 100
men are stationed at the Port Read
ing docks to assist In unloading coal
from mines to the vessels which take
the fuel to tidewater. but in winter
as many as 400 men at time are
crowded in the bare quarters.
The alleged practise of tampering
with pay envelopes of the workers is
being investigated, and il any VIOLA
tions of the State laws protecting the
pay envelope are discovered. drastic
action will be taken.
Complaints of the investigators, in
cluding one by Father Galassi were
filed in order to prevent another win
ter of hardship and horror to the
unfortunates who have become iden-
titled with the colony
That the men actually had to pay
money to the padrones for the ques-
tionable privilege of working on the
docks is another allegation. That a
scandal is to be officially aired soon
is generally believed.
Port Reading is not far from this
city, and is on the New Jersey side
of Staten Island sound, near the
town of Chrome. The section is re-
mote and occupied almost solely by
foreign worlkmen only.