Mr. Brandenburg learned from an Italian woman that her husband had been commissioned by a contractor in Pittsburg to go into the Italian provinces of Austria and engage 200 good stonemasons, 200 good carpenters, and an indefinite number of unskilled laborers. These people were to be put in touch with sub-agents of lines sailing from Hamburg, Fiume, and Bremen, and these agents were to be accountable for these contract laborers being got safely into the United States. This woman said many of her neighbors in Pittsburg had come into the country as contract laborers and held the law in great contempt, as it was merely a matter of being sufficiently instructed and prepared, and no official at Boston or Ellis Island could tell the difference.[29] Why should not the law be held in contempt, not only this one but all law, by the immigrant who is introduced to America through its violation, and trained to perjure himself at the outset of his new career? Does not the Commissioner-General sound a note of warning when he says:
The Christian Duty
"It is not reasonable to anticipate that if the great transportation lines do not respect the laws of this country their alien passengers will do so, nor can it be conceded that those aliens whose entrance to the United States is effected in spite of the law are desirable or even safe additions to our population."[30]
Remedy Demanded
It is painful to think that such conditions can exist in connection with so vital a matter as immigration. But it is better to have the facts known, in order that a remedy may be found. Publicity is the safety of republics and communities. And the disclosures of the lengths to which men will go in order to make money should give new and mighty impulse to those who believe in righteousness and have not bowed to the god mammon. If the work of Christianizing the aliens is made harder by the experiences through which they pass and the examples they have set before them by unscrupulous persons, it must be undertaken with so much the more zeal. Respect for law must be preserved, and one of the best ways to accomplish this is to see to it that the laws are enforced and the violators of them punished, even though they represent giant corporations and vast capital.
QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER II
Aim: To Realize the Necessity of Just and Adequate Laws for the Admission and Restriction of Immigrants
I. Method of Admission.
1. What proportion of the immigrants now coming land at New York?
2. What is Ellis Island like—materially—spiritually?
3. Suppose yourself an immigrant: what steps would you take to reach New York? What processes would you undergo on landing? How would you be directed?
II. Governmental Regulation.