Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1907 — WILL ADD TO MISERY OF A HARD WINTER. [ARTICLE]

WILL ADD TO MISERY OF A HARD WINTER.

European Labor Leaders Alarmed Over Increase in Homecoming Contingent. * - —■ - — * STEAMSHIPS ABE LOADED DOWN < \ Hundreds of Destitute Aliens Wan. dering Streets of Paris on ... . Verge of Destitution. The increasing contingents of homecoming Italians, Lithuanians and other Mediterranean steerage passengers are disconcerting not only to the steamship companies, who have ‘inadequate facilities for dealing with such a sudden and unexpected traffic, but to the labor leaders of Europe, who deny that these newcomers have sufficient money to pass the winter without working, and declare that they will thus add to the misery of what insure to.be a bard winter among the European working classes. The figures given by the French labor bureau iia to the returning emigrants are corroborated by Nicholas Martin, agent of the American line, who says that all the steerage capacity of every vessel has been taken until Feb. 1, while thousands more will be unable to return to Europe before spring. If this keeps up, a Paris correspotdent says, some special measures must be taken to repatriate the hordes of disappointed adventurers, for the ordinary mean's are insufficient. “To my knowledge several hundred of more or less destitute aliens are wandering in the streets of Paris on the verge of starvation, and the prefecture police books will probably multiply this figure by three,” said one of the officials at the ministry of. works to the correspondent. “The best we can do is to expedite their return to their native countries. Something like half of them have no more money than is barely sufficient to pay their fare.” Turn of Immigration Tide. Never since the first ship sailed out of New York harbor has there been anything like the present exodus of emigrants from that port. Day by day the crowds clamoring for transportation abroad grow greater, with no prospect of their reduction in numbers. Last week 30,000 steerage passengers were carried from New York; this week steamship men say the total will reach 50,000. The steerage rate was raised from s2l to s3l in hope of staying the exodus, but without avail.