REPORTS OF THE IMMIGRATION COMMISSION

INTRODUCTORY.

``Prior to the act of 1819, ``Regulating passenger ships and vessels,"^a there was no law of the United States for the protection of passengers at sea.  In 1796 Congress, at the instance of States having seaports, passed a law directing revenue officers ``to aid in the execution of the quarantine and also in the execution of the health laws of the States."<sup>b</sup>  Again, in 1799, it was decreed by Congress ``that quarantine and other restraints which shall be required and established by the health laws of any State or pursuant thereto, respecting any vessels * * * shall be duly observed by the collectors and other officers of the revenue of the United States."^c  These laws were intended to protect persons already in the country rather than those journeying to or from it in ships, but the act of 1819, above referred to, was the first national legislative attempt to improve conditions surrounding immigrants during the then long voyage across the Atlantic.  This law limited the number of passengers to be carried and specified the amount and kind of food to be provided.  It is of interest also that under this law the recording of data relative to immigration to the United States was first provided for.

The introduction of steam as a motive power in ocean transportation and the enormous increase in the tide of immigration necessitated further legislation relative to the transportation of immigrants, the history of which is told in a special report of the Commission upon that subject.^d

The latest general revision of the law upon this subject occurred in 1882, when ``An act to regulate the carriage of passengers by sea"^e was enacted.  Section 1 of this act was subsequently amended,^f but otherwise it has remained unchanged.

The unamended act of 1882 was in force when the Immigration Commission's investigation of steerage conditions was made.

There has never before been a thorough investigation of steerage conditions by national authority, but such superficial investigations as have been made, and the many nonofficial inquiries as well, have invariably disclosed evil and revolting conditions.  The high percentage of sickness and death which attended immigration by sea during the sailing-vessel period has been practically eliminated by reducing the length of time required for the voyage, and perhaps also in part by the greater precautions in this regard taken by steamship companies; but improvements along other lines are much less conspicuous.  The steerage on some ships at the present time is entirely unobjectionable, but both unobjectionable and revolting steerage conditions may and do exist on the same ship.

It is the purpose of this report to show steerage conditions exactly as they were found, but, what is of more importance, it will show also that there is no reason why the disgusting and demoralizing conditions which have generally prevailed in the steerages of immigrant ships should continue.  This has been amply demonstrated by experiences of the Commission's agents, and the Commission believes that the better type of steerage should and can be made general instead of exceptional, as is the case at the present time.

The report on steerage conditions is based on information obtained by special agents of the Immigration Commission traveling as steerage passengers on 12 different trans-Atlantic steamers and on observation of the steerage in 2 others, as well as on ships of every coastwise line carrying immigrants from one United States port to another.  Because the investigation was carried on during the year 1908, when, owing to the industrial depression, immigration was very light, the steerage was seen practically at its best.  Overcrowding with all its concomitant evils was absent.  What the steerage is when travel is heavy and all the compartments filled to their entire capacity can readily be understood from what was actually found.  In reading this report, then, let it be remembered that not extreme but comparatively favorable conditions are here depicted.

THE OLD AND NEW STEERAGE.

Trans-Atlantic steamers may be classed in three general subdivisions on the basis of their provision for other than cabin passengers.  These are: Vessels having the ordinary or old-type steerage, those having the new-type steerage, and those having both.  In order to make clear the distinction between these subdivisions, a description of the two types of steerage, old and new, will be given.

THE OLD STEERAGE.

The old-type steerage is the one whose horrors have been so often described.  It is unfortunately still found in a majority of the vessels bringing immigrants to the United States.  It is still the common steerage in which hundreds of thousands of immigrants form their first conceptions of our country and are prepared to receive their first impressions of it.  The universal human needs of space, air, food, sleep, and privacy are recognized to the degree now made compulsory by law.  Beyond that, the persons carried are looked upon as so much freight, with mere transportation as their only due.  The sleeping quarters are large compartments, accommodating as many as 300 or more persons each.  For assignment to these, passengers are divided into three classes, namely, women without male escorts, men traveling alone, and families.  Each class is housed in a separate compartment and the compartments are often in different parts of the vessel.  It is generally possible to shut off all communication between them, though this is not always done.

The berths are in two tiers, with an interval of 2 feet and 6 inches of space above each.  They consist of an iron framework containing a mattress, a pillow, or more often a life-preserver as a substitute, and a blanket.  The mattress and the pillow, if there is one, are filled with straw or seaweed.  On some lines this is renewed every trip.  Either colored gingham or coarse white canvas slips cover the mattress and pillow.  A piece of iron piping placed at a height where it will separate the mattresses is the ``partition" between berths.  The blankets differ in weight, size, and material on the different lines.  On one line of steamers, where the blanket becomes the property of the passenger on leaving, it is far from adequate in size and weight, even in the summer.  Generally the passenger must retire almost fully dressed to keep warm.  Through the entire voyage, from seven to seventeen days, the berths receive no attention from the stewards.  The berth, 6 feet long and 2 feet wide and with 2^1/2 feet of space above it, is all the space to which the steerage passenger can assert a definite right.  To this 30 cubic feet of space he must, in a large measure, confine himself.  No space is designated for hand baggage.  As practically every traveler has some bag or bundle, this must be kept in the berth.  It may not even remain on the floor beneath.  There are no hooks on which to hang clothing.  Everyone, almost, has some better clothes saved for disembarkation, and some wraps for warmth that are not worn all the time, and these must either be hung about the framework of the berth or stuck away somewhere in it.  At least two large transportation lines furnish the steerage passengers eating utensils and require each one to retain these throughout the voyage.  As no repository for them is provided, a corner of each berth must serve that purpose.  Towels and other toilet necessities, which each passenger must furnish for himself, claim more space in the already crowded berths.  The floors of these large compartments are generally of wood, but floors consisting of large sheets of iron were also found.  Sweeping is the only form of cleaning done.  Sometimes the process is repeated several times a day.  This is particularly true when the litter is the leavings of food sold to the passengers by the steward for his own profit.  No sick cans are furnished, and not even large receptacles for waste.  The vomitings of the seasick are often permitted to remain a long time before being removed.  The floors, when iron, are continually damp, and when of wood they reek with foul odor because they are not washed.

The open deck available to the steerage is very limited, and regular separable dining rooms are not included in the construction.  The sleeping compartments must therefore be the constant abode of a majority of passengers.  During days of continued storm, when the unprotected open deck cannot be used at all, the berths and the passageways between them are the only space where the steerage passenger can pass away the time.

When to this very limited space and much filth and stench is added inadequate means of ventilation, the result is almost unendurable.  Its harmful effects on health and morals scarcely need be indicated.  Two 12-inch ventilator shafts are required for every 50 persons in every room; but the conditions here are abnormal and these provisions do not suffice.  The air was found to be invariably bad, even in the higher inclosed decks where hatchways afford further means of ventilation.  In many instances persons, after recovering from seasickness, continue to lie in their berths in a sort of stupor, due to breathing air whose oxygen has been mostly replaced by foul gases.  Those passengers who make a practice of staying much on the open deck feel the contrast between the air out of doors and that in the compartments, and consequently find it impossible to remain below long at a time.  In two steamers the open deck was always filled long before daylight by those who could no longer endure the foul air between decks.

Wash rooms and lavatories, separate for men and for women, are required by law, which also states they shall be kept in a ``clean and serviceable condition throughout the voyage."  The indifferent obedience to this provision is responsible for further uncomfortable and unhygienic conditions.  The cheapest possible materials and construction of both washbasins and lavatories secure the smallest possible degree of convenience and make the maintenance of cleanliness extremely difficult where it is attempted at all.  The number of washbasins is invariably by far too few, and the rooms in which they are placed are so small as to admit only by crowding as many persons as there are basins.  The only provision for counteracting all the dirt of this kind of travel is cold salt water, with sometimes a single faucet of warm water to an entire wash room.  And in some cases this faucet of warm water is at the same time the only provision for washing dishes.  Soap and towels are not furnished.  Floors of both wash rooms and waterclosets are damp and often filthy until the last day of the voyage when they are cleaned in preparation for the inspection at the port of entry.  The claim that it is impossible to establish and maintain order in these parts of the immigrant quarters is thus shown to be false.

Regular dining rooms are not a part of the old type of steerage.  Such tables and seats as the law says ``shall be provided for the use of passengers at regular meals" are never sufficient to seat all the passengers, and no effort to do this is made by systematic repeated sittings.  In some instances the tables are mere shelves along the wall of a sleeping compartment.  Sometimes plain boards set on wooden trestles and rough wooden benches set in the passageways of sleeping compartments are considered a compliance with the law.  Again, when a compartment is only partly full, the unoccupied space is called a dining room and is used by all the passengers in common, regardless of what sex uses the rest of the compartment as sleeping quarters.  When traffic is so light that some compartment is entirely unused, its berths are removed and stacked in one end and replaced by rough tables and benches.  This is the most ample provision of dining accommodations ever made in the old type steerage, and occurs only when the space is not needed for other more profitable use.

There are two systems of serving the food.  In one instance the passengers, each carrying the crude eating utensils given him to use throughout the journey, pass in single file before the three or four stewards who are serving and each receives his rations.  Then he finds a place wherever he can to eat them, and later washes his dishes and finds a hiding place for them where they may be safe until the next meal.  Naturally there is a rush to secure a place in line and afterwards a scramble for the single warm-water faucet, which has to serve the needs of hundreds.  Between the two, tables and seats are forgotten or they are deliberately deserted for the fresh air of the open deck.

Under the new system of serving, women and children are given the preference at such tables as there are, the most essential eating utensils are placed by the stewards and then washed by them.  When the bell announces a meal, the stewards form in a line extending to the galley and large tin pans, each containing the food for one table, are passed along until every table is supplied.  This constitutes the table service.  The men passengers are even less favored.  They are divided into groups of six.  Each group receives two large tin pans and tin plates, cups, and cutlery enough for the six; also one ticket for the group.  Each man takes his turn in going with the ticket and the two large pans for the food for the group, and in washing and caring for the dishes afterwards.  They eat where they can, most frequently on the open deck.  Stormy weather leaves no choice but the sleeping compartment.

The food may be generally described as fair in quality and sufficient in quantity, and yet it is neither; fairly good materials are usually spoiled by being wretchedly prepared.  Bread, potatoes, and meat, when not old leavings from the first and second galleys, form a fair substantial diet.  Coffee is invariably bad and tea doesn't count as food with most immigrants.  Vegetables, fruits, and pickles form an insignificant part of the diet and are generally of a very inferior quality.  The preparation, the manner of serving the food, and disregard of the proportions of the several food elements required by the human body make the food unsatisfying, and therefore insufficient.  This defect and the monotony are relieved by purchases at the canteen by those whose capital will permit.  Milk is supplied for small children.

Hospitals have long been recognized as indispensable, and so are specially provided in the construction of most passenger-carrying vessels.  The equipment varies, but there are always berths and facilities for washing and a latrine closet at hand.  A general aversion to using the hospitals freely is very apparent on some lines.  Seasickness does not qualify for admittance.  Since this is the most prevalent ailment among the passengers, and not one thing is done for either the comfort or convenience of those suffering from it and confined to their berths, and since the hospitals are included in the space allotted to the use of steerage passengers, this denial of the hospital to the seasick seems an injustice.  On some lines the hospitals are freely used.  A passenger ill in his berth receives only such attention as the mercy and sympathy of his fellow-travelers supplies.

After what has already been said, it is scarcely necessary to consider separately the observance of the provision for the maintenance of order and cleanliness in the steerage quarters and among the steerage passengers.  Of what practical use could rules and regulations by the captain or master be, when their enforcement would be either impossible or without appreciable result with the existing accommodations?  Tile open deck has always been decidedly inadequate in size.  The amendment to section 1 of the passenger act of 1882, which went into effect January 1, 1909, provides that henceforth this space shall be 5 superficial feet for every steerage passenger carried.  On one steamer showers of cinders were a deterrent to the use of the open deck during several days.  On another a storm made the use of the open deck impossible during half the journey.  The only seats available were the machinery that filled much of the deck.

Section 7 of the law of 1882, which excluded the crew from the compartments occupied by the passengers except when ordered there in the performance of their duties, was found posted in more or less conspicuous places.  There was generally one copy in English and one in the language of the crew.  It was never found in all the several languages of the passengers carried, yet they are as much concerned by this regulation as is the crew.  And if passengers of one nationality should know it, it is equally important that, all should.

Considering this old-type steerage as a whole, it is a congestion so intense, so injurious to health and morals that there is nothing on land to equal it.  That people live in it only temporarily is no justification of its existence.  The experience of a single crossing is enough to change bad standards of living to worse.  It is abundant opportunity to weaken the body and emplant there germs of disease to develop later.  It is more than a physical and moral test; it is a strain.  And surely it is not the introduction to American institutions that will tend to make them respected.

The common plea that better accommodations can not be maintained because they would be beyond the appreciation of the emigrant and because they would leave too small a margin of profit carry no weight in view of the fact that the desired kind of steerage, already exists on some of the lines and is not conducted as either a philanthropy or a charity."

^a  1 U.S. Stat. L., p. 54, sec. 4.

^b  1 U.S. Stat. L., p. 474.

^c  1 U.S. Stat. L., p. 619.

^d  See Steerage Legislation, 1819-1908.  Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 40.

^e  Appendix A.