Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1891 — PLAYED DETECTIVE [ARTICLE]

PLAYED DETECTIVE

And Took Passage in the Filthj Steerage. What Commissioner Owen Says Abo in the Quarters of Immigrants on Atlantic Steamers. Special Immigration Commissioner, Mr Schultiez, on bis trip back from Europe disguised himself and took passage in th* steerage of the steamer Servia. His experiences were printed in the Easters newspapers and excited mnch comment Especially was this true in the official circles of the Treasury Department After Immigration Superintendent Owen had read the narrative very carefully he said to your comspondent: “Schultiez har done a very clever piece of detective work, and it will serve a good purpose in bringing to the attention of the public what is now known in official circles to exist. We are well aware of the misery and squaloi with which the immigrants are surrounded during their passage, and it is simply appalling. A short time ago, when I was making a personal investigation of this subject, I went to New York with several other gent.emen and determined to stop oue of the incoming tramp passenger ships for the purpose of getting an exact idea ol the condition of the passengers. We found over nine hundred Italians aboard. They were crowded below deck, the men, women and children being there promiscously. The stench that arose from tho hatches was so great that none of us could gel down the ladders to see the mass of humanity. When the decks were cleared we found that'there was not a single pump below the decks for that great crowd of immigrants. If they managed to struggle up two flights of ladders they could find two pumps at which two basins were placed, and these two pumps and two basins were serving foi nearly one thousand people. There were no water closets on tho lower deck, and only three, or perhaps four, on the uppe t decks. It was grossly Inadequate for the calls of nature of nearly ~ one thousand people, and the result was that filth abounded everywhere. They were liters ally living in filth. In short; what we saw | was exactly parallel to the shocking scenes [ which Mr. Schivultiez describes. I have ■ reported these observations, and they are now a matter of official record, but Mr. Schultiez has gone further, and by surrounding himself with detective methods and a somewhat ingenious and picturesque scheme has brought out some facts which we know in an unofficial way, so that they will be read and understood by the public at large.” ! The Commissioner was asked if any i other immigration official had ever found ! that debauchery existed among the ’women immigrants and crow, as Salinities describes. “No,” continued Mr. Owen> “and 1 doubt very much if the debauchery ivblch Schultiez tells of is anything more than might, be expected among such people. Mr. Schultiez could hardly overestimate the depravity of the ’Steerage,’ ,j eto- " eluded Mr. Owen. “It, exists not only on the tramp ships, but on such as the Servia and the Umbria, which are regarded as palaces on the ocean, but they are palaces on the upper deck alone; below every, thing is vice and filth; It is Fifth avenue and Five Points set side by side.