Speech #520113684

In New York? It is a fact that she arrived there with 2.200 immigrants. steerage passengers. It was probably simply due to the fact that a large accumulation of prepaid passengers had come together. partly booked before September1 and partly representing families and residentsin this country. Mr. President. the doctors who appeared before this committee have some opinions on the subject of the steerages of ocean steamers. Dr. Stephen Smith. a man of superior authority. who would not say what he did not believe. says: The extreme filthiness of Immigrant ships has long been a crying evil. Steamships arrived at the port of New York during last September. carrying upwards of 1.000 steerage passengers among whom cholera prevailed. which were so filthy that quarantine officials were nauseated by the sights and smells. The neglect of the officers of these steamships to enforce common cleanliness of the steerage deserves the punishment of a forty days quarantine. He also says: The entire neglect of the steerage passengers by the proper officers of the ship in all matters that pertain to their cleanliness. comfort. and health has long been the subject of bitter complaints on the part of the immigrants themselves. and was strikingly apparent during the summer. The food is usually poor in quality and insufficient in quantity. and is served without tables and table appliances. the water is often unfit to drink. the bunks are filthy. the closets are foul. bathing facilities are absent or inadequate. the sick are not properly attended. and disorder and discomfort reign throughout the steerage. The appearance of these quarters on some of the cholerainfected steamships in September last showed the most criminal neglect by the officers. Dr. Shakespeare. port physician of Philadelphia. in his letter of December 5. has something to say on this subject. He says: The herding of these people (that is. the class of people who. in ordinary times. cross the Atlantic in the steerage) into the miserably ventilated and frightfully unsanitary quarters usually provided for the steerage passengers on transatlantic steamships. the modern rapidity of ocean travel. and the great facility with which these swarms of people are soon distributed all over our country. tend to multiply the danger to the public health. He also recommends the Philadelphia board of health to so enforce the Presidents proclamation suspending immigration as will insure the public health against the dangers which are sure to arise from the subterfuges and evasions systematically practiced by the transatlantic steamship companies. or by the westwardbound steerage passengers themselves. or both. in order to defeat the only purpose which can justify the issuance of the Presidents proclamation. viz. the protection of the United States against the introduction of cholera infection through the persons or apparel and effects of the class of people who. in ordinary times. travel in the steerage. Dr. Shakespeare further says: I contend that the conditions of the steerage. for which the transportation companies are responsible. are unfit surroundings for American citizens at any time. much more so when they may be further endangered by close association with immigrants who may have in their persons or personal effects the infection of cholera. I wish in this connection to emphasize the fact that there is no Atlantic transportation steamer with the steerage full that ever came into an American port. even after some effort to make a decent appearance. clean enough to escape indictment and punishment for maintaining a public nuisance if the same law were applied to them that is now almost daily enforced for the protection of Philadelphia against the slovenliness of some of her own citizens. The business and trade of the ports of Boston. New York. Philadelphia. and Baltimore have been made to suffer solely because of the greed of these companies for the profits by this traffic in human freight in quarters but little better than those provided for the transportation of cattle. Mr. President. if any reputable physician. if any person not interested in the steamships. familiar with this subject has ever asserted that the transportation of immigrants in large numbers across the North Atlantic by the steamship companies is conducted under conditions of suitable cleanliness and proper protection to the health of the immigrants. I have yet to hear from that authority. Many years ago we used to hear of the horrors of the middle passage when negroes were kidnapped in Africa and brought here to establish the system of American slavery. I will not say that there are any such horrors in the steerages of the North Atlantic steamship companies. but I do undertake to assert that when 2.000 immigrants are crowded intoone of these ships and bad. weather comes on and the portholes are closed and the hatches are covered. the conditions which exist below decknot in the cabins and saloons where the newspaper friends of these steamship companies are entertainedthe conditions below ii the steerages are dishonoring to the steamship companies which permit them. are disgraceful to humanity. and are a discredit either to the laws or the administration of the laws of the United States.