Speech #470053212

It allots to each steamship passetIger carried on thoe lirst deck. next below the uppersuost dock. or in a poop or deckhouse oio main deck. one hundred cubic feet ot Space. and ot the seconl leee. below the uppermost deck. one bundred saud twenty feet. it forbids the carrying of passengers oil any other decks. an regulates the height between decks at not less than seven feet. Iso sailingvossels palssengers shall be carroed on a dlek utie beiisg anr orlup deck. that is. noxt below the uppermost deck. or in a poop or deckhouse built on the main deck. and shall be allotted on( hundred and twenty cubic feet space. This section applies mll legislation for the protectisn of steerage palssengers to steamships as well as sailingvessels. casd thereby reiuoves the liarricr which. tnder the rulings of our courts. had made it inpossible heretofore to afford relief upon complaints made by steerago passengers against steamship coolpanies. because under these ruliugs the present laws did not apply to steamships. but only to ssilingvessels. The courts thereby virtually declared steamship passengrs. although they constitute at the preseut tie99 per cent. of all inotmigrants now crossing the sea. to be at the mercy of these colpanies. This fact will become still more apparent by the folbIwing extract from a letter of the surveyor of the port of New York. ir.