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commenced to pick up a little dite, ter'ble gradual like, at fust, you know, but still makin' out to stem the tide with jest a grain or so to spare, till finally all them three old doctors had to give in he was on the mendin' hand, and no gitting 'round it, but every soul here to this Cove that was anyways knowin' to the matter allowed that Susy Mary May was all the one that saved Bobby Henderson's life that time. Anyways soon's ever he got so's to be up and 'round the least little mite, she jest claimed him for hern, huffs, horns, and hide, and nothin' would n't do but that the pair of 'em should turn to and git married right away off. I rec'lect the Sunday that Susy Mary appeared bride down to the Corner meetin'-house here happened to fall on the very day she was twenty year old, too.

"Bobby he always hung to it like a good one that he had n't no business to ever once think of such a thing as gittin' married, being as he was all crippled-up so awful bad; but Lord love ye! Susy Mary was sot as the hills in regards to that 'ere. She give it out there to home right up and down, that unlessn she could marry Bob Henderson right away, so's to do for him all the rest-part of his life, same's she has, she'd take and heave herself chock offn the w'arft the fust thing ever she done, and she'd kep' her word too, sure's ever the sun riz.

"Finally our folks come to see plain enough they'd full better jest hands-off, and give the gal all the slack line she wanted in the whole business. Doin' for Bobby, and tendin' out on him same's if he was a baby like, was all the comfort the creatur' could take them days, and that's all ever she has got out of it since, doctor. Of course Bob he's been so's to earn a dollar by spells, you know, and always was ter'ble anxious to do what little he could, but same time it always looked a good deal to me as though Susy Mary May never wanted he should lift a hand. Seems's though the more she done herself all soul alone, the better off she

felt, and as fur as takin' help from outside was concerned, why she never would hearken to it for a secont's time.

""T wa'n't only yesterday she up and says to me she 'most knowed God A'mighty would hold it ag'in her for what come of heavin' the project after Bobby Henderson that time; but I told her I could n't noways see as there was the least mite of call to look at it like that. I done my very dingdest to soothe her down like, for the pore creatur' was commencing to take on consid'ble bad,

that is, for her, you know.

"Finally, I jest up and says to her like this: 'Susy Mary May,' 's I, 'you wa'n't nothin' only a little young gal the time you took and hove that plague-gone project, and for the life of me I can't see as you was so ter'ble weeked for never once realizin' the resk there was in them kind of things, bein' as nobody never took the trouble to post ye up in regards to 'em. But there!' 's I, 'even s'posin' you done wrong that time, why Godfrey mighty! jest only look at what you done since, — that's what always makes out to git me,

only once take and look at what you done since! Why, quick's ever you seen jest how bad Bobby was disenabled that time, you turned to right away and give him your best tow-line astern, and fair or foul, blow high and blow low, you 've stood by him ever since in proper good shape, - there's no two ways about that part of it. The pair of ye,' 's I, ‘have made a master long, hard drag of it in comp'ny for goin' on fifty years' time now, and seems's though you won't never let go of him till you see him all safe to anchor where nary wind that blows can't do him no hurt. Now,' 's I, 'come to take it atop of all that, it don't look to me anyways likely that the Old Scholar up there ever once cal'lates to take and blame that project onto you any great, not at this day o' the world. That 'ere,' 's I, 'right on the face of it, don't look to me noways raytionable like.' · What do you cal'late yourself, doctor; be I so very fur out the way?"

THE PROTECTION OF IMMIGRANT WOMEN

BY FRANCES A. KELLOR

IN a preceding article I attempted to show the growing economic and social value of immigrant women, and that they are not always to be found in domestic service. There are two great risks incurred by the immigrant who starts from her native shore. First, can she reach her home and place of labor in this country in safety? Second, has she a prospect of fair living and working conditions after arrival? I shall attempt here to answer the first question by showing some of the risks incident to the journey to, and settlement in this country, and by indicating especial protection that is needed.

The dangers for which America is responsible begin on the other side. What seems a simple journey may be filled with hardships. Considering the many disadvantages and dangers, it is remarkable how many come through safely and become honest hard-working women, and law-abiding citizens. The loyalty and self-sacrifice among those already here who help them to come are almost incredible unless really witnessed. Especially in view of the little help that is given by Americans, it is a remarkable tribute to human character that so many win out in the hard struggle. While Americans are willing to provide labor, and to support philanthropies which help the immigrant in time of distress, there are many times when no friendly hand is held out except that of the ignorant or inexperienced immigrant who has just arrived or who is trying to make his own way among strangers and new conditions.

Let us follow the journey from Antwerp to New York and see what these

typical dangers are, and how they may be avoided. First come enthusiastic letters

from friends or relatives in their first days of wonder in the new city, when they are fired with the enthusiasm and vitality of the new life. The sweat shop, the tenement, the low wages, and hundreds of ways of exploitation have not yet been learned. To what extent does our government undertake to see that this enthusiastic immigrant who writes others to come has correct views and information to send them? Once released from Ellis Island, its chief interest is to deport her if she subsequently violates the immigration law. Both state and nation permit her to get information and experience as best she can. Are the laws she needs to know, opportunities for labor, wages, directions in case of need, rights, educational opportunities and requirements for citizenship printed in concise form and placed in her hands in a language she can understand? By no means. What is to counteract the information given by employment agents, 'notary publics," steamship ticket agents, and some of the political leaders among "her own people," who see in increased numbers an increased profit to themselves? When resident immigrants are left so utterly in such hands for their ideas of American life and laws, they are frequently made the unsuspecting tools of employment agents and unauthorized peddlers of steamship tickets, and others who urge that friends and relatives be brought over, and who advance or help them borrow the money to send, but assume no responsibility after arrival. Sometimes the employment agent offers honest work, sometimes not. The young procurer for dens of immorality lives in the crowded tenements, and he too urges that she come, and offers to marry her or to find her work. These are but illustrations of the way in which well-mean

ing persons here play into the hands of are infested with small unauthorized

those who wish to exploit the immigrant girl. Thus her future is sold or heavily mortgaged even before she starts.

But she does not always wait for such letters from her friends and relatives. Some enterprising broker gets her name and address and sends her one of the thousands of copies of papers printed in this country in her language, which contains a romantic tale of the wages, liberty, and good times in America, and how the young people find prosperous husbands and live in plenty. It is not dry reading; to her it is a live thrilling tale, and it tells only what she can get, not what she must give, or what the requirements are.

Once here, one of the great difficulties is that she has started on misleading information. She has false ideas of freedom, wages, prosperity, and good times, and discontent begins. Is the newspaper romance a true picture? Can she get all that is promised? It is evident that the first step in protection must begin in America and must give honest information about America.

Our immigration law is explicit in prohibiting steamship agents from advertising or stimulating emigration abroad, but says nothing as to the many publications printed here in foreign languages and sent abroad. It is said that some of the steamship companies back these papers by expending huge sums in circulating them abroad. Their influence is wide, for in every community where one is sent it goes from family to family. Does the government know the number of such publications, what they contain, and in whose interest they are published? Is it in no wise interested in the kind of information with which its future citizens start?

The immigrant girl is now stirred by the letters and stories to the point of leaving. But she has not enough money. So that is borrowed in America and entrusted to a "banker." But the promised sum may fail to arrive. What has happened? Just this. In America, the cities

banker-steamship-ticket brokers, who are allowed to take the deposits of immigrants without giving a bond or having any financial responsibility. Her little sum has fallen into the hands of such a banker, and he has not sent the money, though he has repeatedly told the sender that he has done so. After several such transactions, he moves to another part of the city, assumes a new name, and proceeds to rob others. Why does not the immigrant select one of the hundreds of reliable bankers? Why does not some one inform her who they are? Why does not the state protect her from robbery? Why does not the immigrant who sends the money prosecute the banker for so simple a fraud? With his witness in Russia or Hungary, how can he prove that the money was not sent and lost? Can he afford the loss of several days' work, to say nothing of lawyer's fees and carfares, in order to recover thirty dollars or forty dollars, often representing his entire savings, which he has sent to the waiting girl?

But suppose he is cautious and thinks it safer to see the ticket and send it himself. The same banker is quite willing to accommodate him, and if he has not enough money, offers him a ticket on the installment plan. Sometimes, when the immigrant here has no intention of sending for friends, these peddlers pursue him in his home and place of business with offers of tickets on such easy payments that he buys them. The installment ticket is sold for from five to fifteen dollars above the market rate to cover the risk, although most immigrants are required to give a guarantee and are sometimes charged interest on the unpaid balance! On a ticket costing thirtythree dollars, he pays ten dollars down and one to two dollars per week, with the express understanding that the girl on the other side is to have the ticket at once. Fully one-third of the prepaid third-class tickets are sold to immigrants in American cities on the installment plan. But

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this "ticket" is only an order tions no steamship line and in many cases is not even signed by the broker who sells it. It is a bogus piece of paper until the broker sends its price to his coöperating foreign office. In the mean time, the girl has received this bogus order, sold out everything, leaves her home and arrives in Antwerp ready to sail. She goes to the ticket office and is told that her "ticket is no good" as no money has been received. The foreign police know these tickets so well that they often tell the immigrants before they reach the office that they have been duped. Of course the order is no good! Some of these unauthorized, irresponsible agents sell as many as one hundred tickets a week. They have no capital. How can they send over $3300 for tickets when they have received only $1000 on installment ?

Imagine the girl's plight with all ties cut behind her, with not enough money to sail or to return. Stranded, she must endure the long delay of writing to her friends here, and of awaiting a reply from this side. The purchaser is put off from time to time until the agent disappears. Here is one story of what happens in the mean time and is a typical hardship:

"I bought a ticket for passage from Antwerp to New York for the sum of forty-five dollars, by paying ten dollars down and two dollars each week thereafter until the full sum of forty-five dollars was paid. At the time I paid the ten dollars down, I received an advice or order which I sent to my sister in Russia, who, immediately upon the receipt of same, started for Antwerp, and when she presented the Isaid advice or order she was told the same was no good, and that it would not be honored. My sister was stranded in Antwerp and was obliged to beg. As soon as I learned about the above-mentioned facts, I went to the company, and they told me that I must pay an additional ten dollars to have the original advice or order given to me stopped, and for them to give another order or advice. I did receive the second order or advice and sent

the same to my sister, but while waiting in Antwerp for the ticket to come to New York, she was arrested for begging, and when the second advice or order arrived, the police told her that it was not good. The said sister was compelled to stay in prison for several days, and after she was released she again begged and nearly starved for eight months until I sent her another ticket to come to New York. She is in New York at the present time. As soon as I learned that the second order or advice was no good, I went to the office of the company, but found the office closed, and I have never been able to find them, nor have I been able to have refunded the money which I paid to them for the first order or advice, nor the additional ten dollars which I gave for the second order, nor have I ever been able to receive the steamship ticket for passage from Antwerp to New York."

The evils of such frauds are two-fold. They imperil the girl's morality and entire future. There are many cases where local charities have had to send the girls back to Russia or Hungary from Antwerp, because there was no more money; or where families have been separated, there being enough money to bring only part of them over. Second, they lower the standard of living of the immigrants here, who save and sacrifice only to be robbed. One man slaved for three years and nearly starved himself to save $160 to bring over his children, and lost it through such an agent. The family is still separated. In the past three years, it is estimated that over $500,000 has been wasted through dishonest agents in New York city alone, and many thousands of dollars of losses are never reported. And these sums vary from the servant girl's savings of two dollars a week sent to a friend to come over on, to $500-the savings of years. The protection offered is meagre. Massachusetts has a law requiring a fifteen thousand dollar bond of bankers who sell steamship tickets, but no steamship ticket regulations. New York, as the result of investigations made by the

Research Department of the Woman's Municipal League and Welfare Committee of the National Civic Federation, has two laws which went into effect September 1, 1907. One provides for a fifteen thousand dollar bond for bankers, and the other prohibits the sale of unauthorized tickets not binding on the steamship companies. Up to this time no adequate protection whatever had been afforded the immigrant. The other ports and the great industrial cities like Pittsburg and Chicago, where large numbers of tickets are sold, have no regulations and there is no federal protection.

The immigrant, if she can meet these hardships or escape them, is now safely aboard ship. Has our government any matrons or inspectors who make it impossible for the procurer, who wishes to travel steerage or second cabin for the purpose of meeting her, to accomplish his purpose? Is she safeguarded so carefully that members of the ship's crew cannot mislead her? There is so little supervision that evilly disposed persons find it profitable to make her acquaintance in the steerage. Their knowledge of her home and language, combined with their wonderful stories of America, cement the friendship, and when she lands, her new-found friend is her adviser. The conditions on shipboard are inexcusably negligent, and the government has long been urged to provide matrons and inspectors. It is unfair and unreasonable to expect the immigrant girl traveling under such conditions to resist the evil of a great city, so long as the main idea of the government is not to protect but to deport. It is hard to find a reason for such criminal negligence when so simple a method can be tried, and when the government has so ample a fund, made up of the head-tax paid by the immigrants for the privilege of coming here.

Once at Ellis Island, the greatest care is taken to protect her. She can be released only when the government is satisfied that the persons who claim her are really the ones to whom she is coming.

If it is a male relative, even a brother, he must be accompanied by his wife if married, or give satisfactory assurance that she is to live with a woman, before she is released. If it is her intended husband who claims her, the commissioner may require that they be married there. Where the girl has no relatives or friends, the missionaries representing the various churches and immigrant societies take her in charge, house her, find her work, and take a friendly interest in her. If they did not she would frequently have to make the long journey back. This is a splendid, necessary work, efficiently organized at Ellis Island, and having the sympathetic interest of Commissioner Watchorn. But it is by no means so effective and systematic at all of the other ports, where there are fewer immigrants, but where the individual dangers are also great. It is not a system of protection equally applicable to all ports, and fostered by the government, but depends entirely on the amount of interest and support that each nationality can obtain from its own, or from religious organizations. Therefore some immigrants are better protected than others. When no precautions are taken on board ships, these well-meaning immigrant homes may find their work useless. I have in mind four girls who were instructed to go to an immigrant home, accept positions, and then send their address to the young procurer who induced them to come here. This they did.

But many do not stop in New York and so do not come under this good influence. Suppose the girl has a through ticket to Chicago. The responsibility of the government ends when she is safely on the train, and the railway is not held responsible for her safe arrival. Suppose she loses her address, or the street number is wrong, or her friends fail to meet her, or have moved, or any one of fifty things that may break the connection has happened? Suppose a procurer meets her on the train (as they do) and she is induced to go with him? Her friends

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