accomplish this he cited cases to me where he spent as much as $100 on
individuals for such purpose.

Taking all of the above, together with the experience gained and the
observations made as a basis, the situation can be summed up as follows:

The deplorable political and financial conditions of the eastern and
southern countries of Europe, coupled with the prosperous condition of
the United States, creates a large natural emigration to our shores. The
most convincing proof in the eyes of the people of these countries of
the exceptional prosperity of our country is the large sums of money,
almost unprecedented to them, which annually arrive from friends and
relatives residing in the United States. Besides this natural
emigration, however, we are burdened with a dangerous and most injurious
unnatural immigration which from year to year assumes larger
proportions. This unnatural emigration consists of paupers and assisted
emigrants, and is induced and brought about by the unscrupulous and
greedy activity displayed by a large number of agencies and subagencies
having well-established connections in the United States and abroad,
apparently unknown to the steamship companies, which activity manifests
itself in the peddling of steamship tickets and prepaids on the
instalment plan, both here and abroad, the constant agitation and offers
of inducements by subagents in Europe, occupying semi-public positions,
who, in order to earn commissions, play upon the ignorance and
susceptibility of the plain peasant, frequently inducing him to sell or
mortgage all his belongings for the purpose of raising the necessary
traveling expenses, which latter transaction is also turned to profit by
such agent.

The steamship companies of course do not concede the existence of such
unnatural emigration, as I learned in the course of an interview which I
had with a high official of one of the steamship companies abroad. I
called his attention to this unnatural emigration, but the prevalence of
the same was denied by him. “If all this emigration is brought about by
natural causes,” said I, “and the business would come to you any way,
why do you have so many agencies broadcast instead of opening offices
under your direct supervision and control, thus saving the commissions
you have to pay your agents?” He replied, that would necessitate the
employment of a large corps of clerks and assistants, and that the
maintenance of such offices would, in the end, result in the expenditure
of a much larger sum of money than is paid out in commissions. This
argument, of course, does not in the least refute the well-established
fact that there is a very considerable unnatural emigration caused and
augmented through the agencies and methods above enumerated.

I am not prepared to say that there are remedies to combat this evil,
but I respectfully submit and state most emphatically that the influx of
this undesirable element into the United States could be reduced very
materially if means were adopted to procure the names, addresses, and,
if necessary, the pedigrees of persons constituting this class of
undesirable emigrants. All of the countries visited by me keep public
records of paupers, criminals, ex-convicts, prostitutes, and diseased;
and such records are obtainable, and if placed at the disposal of proper
United States officials the information thus at hand would obviate the
necessity of relying upon the statement of the emigrant himself, and
would tend to keep out of the United States an element which annually
invades our shores in so large a number.

The contract-labor question is somewhat more complex. It is undeniably
true that great numbers of contract laborers are annually imported into
the United States, which fact is well-known to Government officials
abroad. If the statement made to me by Herr Franz von Kaltenbrunn,
Councilor to the Ministry of the Interior of Austria, can be taken as an
argument in point, it establishes this importation of contract labor
beyond a doubt. Herr von Kaltenbrunn, in the interview which I had with
him, exhibited to me a rough sketch of an emigration bill, in the
drafting of which he was then engaged and which he said is to be
submitted to the next session of the Reichsrath (Lower House of Austrian
Parliament), such bill being designed for the protection of Austrian
subjects who are being engaged to work abroad, by requiring the
contractor or his representative to furnish a guarantee or some form of
security to the effect that the promises and agreements contained in the
contract made with such laborer, such as safe passage, payment of wages
promised, etc., will be closely adhered to. Irrespective of this
proposed legislation, it would be very difficult, as stated in the body
of my report, to detect the fact that any such person actually travels
to the United States under contract of labor, and in my opinion there
are but two ways to discover this fact, one being that some means be
found to watch the emigrants prior to their reaching the ports of
embarkation, and the other by close scrutiny and questioning at the
various landing ports of the United States. If the various boards of
special inquiry were aided by attorneys at law assigned to them, a
twofold object would be accomplished; first, it would lead to the
discovery of the importer of contract labor himself, and, secondly, it
would dispel the prevailing opinion abroad that a large number of
persons are constantly deported from the United States as contract
laborers who, in truth and in fact, are alleged to be going to the
United States in good faith and not under contract, which I believe is
frequently the case and is due to the fact that the unfortunate emigrant
becomes so confused by the manifold advices and instructions he receives
prior to his arrival that he is made to believe things he has never
intended to say. The assignment of counsel to the various boards of
special inquiry would also aid them in every other respect.

Respectfully submitted.

                                                      MARCUS BRAUN,
                                          _Special Immigrant Inspector_.

                              CHAPTER XXII
                     WHAT TO DO WITH THE IMMIGRANT

After long and careful study of all the many and complex phases of the
immigration question, I have formed a clear and definite idea of what
should be done with the immigrant. The first suggestion of it came to me
when I saw how grossly I, in common with other Americans of the class
that is informed on the average concerning these things, misunderstood
the aliens who come to our shores, and when I perceived the first
indications of preparation of lies to be told at Naples and at Ellis
Island, in order to evade the laws of the United States. Slowly it was
demonstrated to me that any system which makes inspection dependent on
the word of the immigrant or his friends is radically wrong. Only a
conscientious analysis of the whole system allowed me to formulate the
proposition I am about to state, and I do it without prejudice, but with
strong conviction that it is the correct solution of the gigantic
problem.

Immigration must be either controlled and directed or it must be
abolished, and the last-named alternative is eliminated by common sense
and considerations of a humane nature. We need the immigrants. Our
nation owes its strength to-day to those who have crossed the ocean in
other years. Our great industries need their brawn, our undeveloped
regions need their toil, and we can easily accept 150,000,000 more human
beings as raw material; but they must come as raw material,—good raw
material. That given, our civic atmosphere, our conditions, our national
spirit must do the rest, and patriots must look to the children of the
immigrants for the best results rather than to the immigrants
themselves.

Diseased, deformed, or physically insufficient persons are not and never
can be good raw material, and should not be allowed to leave their
homes, nor should any members of their families on whom they are, or are
likely to be, dependent.

Convicts, prostitutes, persons engaged in questionable pursuits,
anarchists, radical socialists, and political agitators are a menace to
the body politic, though reasonable inability to make a livelihood
should be considered a mark of pauperism rather than failure to
accumulate any property whatsoever under European conditions.

The true conditions of all such persons is readily ascertainable from
the civic, police, and military records in the communes of their
residence, to which can be added the supplemental evidence of their
neighbors and the local officials of the communes. In the communes of
their nativity the truth is known and cannot be hidden. At the ports of
embarkation combined influences can deceive the best officials. At the
ports of arrival the hand of the inspector is still weaker, no matter
how thorough the examination or how excellent the system.

The conclusion is plain: seek the grounds on which to deny passage to
emigrants who wish to come to the United States, in the villages from
which they emanate.

What seems to me to be the best plan to do this, to keep the expense
below that which it is at present, and to avoid the opportunities which
are sure to be presented for wholesale corruption of American officials
by the transportation interests and by the emigrants themselves, is
this:

Select emigrants before itinerant boards of two, three, or more
native-born Americans who speak fluently and understand thoroughly the
language and dialects of the people who come before them,—these boards
to be on a civil-service basis.

The long diplomatic delays and ensuing red tape of incorporating the
privileges of these boards in treaties with the several European
governments can be avoided by temporary operation under the present
consular system of the United States, and little objection would be met
with from any of the governments from whose domains the immigrants come.

In districts from which the emigration is profuse at present, a smaller
number of communes and a more frequent visitation should be the
regulation. The sittings of the boards should be announced by
advertisements a sufficient length of time in advance to allow all
persons contemplating emigration to prepare to appear for examination.
Examiners should be prepared to furnish information as to destinations
and opportunities, and could, with care, prevent an increase of the
congestion in the cities of the East. In extremity, regulations could be
made which would allow them to deny clearance and passage to persons
desirous of going to districts already over-populated with aliens.

As to the requirements for admission to the United States, our present
code of laws has them well defined except in the matter of illiteracy,
and my personal observation has been that illiteracy does not interfere
either with the value of an immigrant to the civic body or with the
rapidity of his absorption among us; in fact, the educated class cling
more tenaciously to all that is Old Worldly, and are more inclined to
hold political views that are at variance with our system of government.
That a man cannot read or write his native tongue does not make him any
the worse piece of raw material here.

When a party of emigrants has been passed and given papers with
photographic identification as well as detailed physical description,
with a time limit of use of thirty days, it should be instructed as to
baggage so as to minimize this aggravating feature, and should depart
under the charge of a courier, going to the nearest port of
transatlantic departure. This would work a great change in
emigrant-carrying lines, but is plainly the most convenient and
economical procedure for all concerned. The party could be delivered
directly on board on the day of sailing, and thus all the frauds and
grafting schemes would be avoided. The saving to emigrants by this
method would more than pay for the expenses of the examination.

It is easy to see how these visiting boards could promote emigration
among the classes which are most desirable in northern and central
Europe, and are now so chary of coming. Families which have something to
lose by being turned back from the United States are loath to dispose of
their property and make the venture. If they knew they were certain of
admission before they left their homes, a year’s time would see the
level of the grade of emigrants greatly elevated.

Of reforms in transportation, little need be said. Closed cabins and
service of food for groups of six or eight, with an American Marine
Hospital Service surgeon in charge of each ship, would bring about all
that is needed, with a few minor regulations.

Ellis Island and the smaller immigrant stations should continue their
functions much as they are now, only that little hospital room and
deportation quarters would be needed; the registry feature would be
decreased to an examination of papers for admittance and to the
maintenance of the excellent card-index system. The distribution and
detention features would necessarily be continued.

To the card-index system should be added a regulation compelling all
aliens to report, at regular intervals, their whereabouts and pursuits,
to federal officials in federal judicial districts, until such time as
they become citizens of the country or are ready to depart. A most
important feature of this should be the indexing and tabulation of the
hundreds of thousands of able-bodied men who have had the excellent
military training of the armies of Europe, and would, if properly
organized, constitute a fine reserve force in America of at least
2,000,000 men.

Deportation is the severest punishment which can fall on an alien in
comparison with anything less than several years’ imprisonment, and all
admissions to the country should be made probationary; the commission of
any crime or crimes, and conviction therefor, to be followed by
punishment and _then by deportation_. Many of the minor crimes committed
by aliens are done with the intention of getting two or three years in
prison in which to learn to read and write English and acquire a trade.

The practical statesman will at once object to this programme on the
ground of the terrific expense of maintaining thousands of men in Europe
to constitute these boards of examiners. By careful computation I have
ascertained that it would cost approximately two dollars per head to
examine and admit each immigrant, whereas at this time it costs each
immigrant nearly five dollars to be examined, inasmuch as the extra
expense to which the steamship company goes is added to the price of his
ticket. Over and above this the money he relinquishes to grafters,
subagents, advisers, etc., totals a sum that is beyond reckoning.

Summing up, this plan would achieve in simple fashion the following
things:

Undesirable emigrants would be prevented from leaving their homes.

Ruin and suffering would not fall on those now sent back.

Desirable immigration would be wonderfully stimulated.

Practices of officials of foreign governments in dumping into this
country criminals, foundlings, agitators, etc., would be ended.

Emigrants would be protected and great economy in travel would be
effected.

Smuggling and underground methods would be disconcerted and
contract-labor frauds prevented.

Naturalization frauds would cease to avail, and legal naturalization
would be greatly increased.

Custom-house officers would be greatly assisted, revenues increased, and
goods-smuggling minimized.

The proper distribution of the flood of immigration would be at all
times under the control of the American government.

Immigration would cease to be affected, to its detriment, by the
business competition of transportation companies interested solely in
conveying as many aliens to America and back and forth again as often as
possible, without any regard whatsoever to the class of people carried,
so long as they have the money to pay the fares and swell the enormous
profits that emigrant-carriers realize at present.

When these things are achieved, there is no one to deny that the
immigration problem will have been solved, unless it be those who are
ignorant and prejudiced in the matter, or who profit by the continued
depression of the grade coupled with the increase in volume of
immigration which mark the present condition in a way to cause every
true American, who has the best interests of his country at heart, to
look to the future with uncertainty and dread.

Transcriber’s note:

 1. Changed “iron she” to “irons he” on p. 108.

 2. Silently corrected typographical errors.

 3. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.