under this provision the number of contract laborers deported during the period from January 1, 1906, to June 30, 1910, was as follows: TABLE 3.-Aliens within the United States ordered deported by reason of being contract laborers, fiscal years 1906 to 1910.

[Compiled from reports of the United States Commissioner-General of Immigration.]

The immigration act of February 20, 1907, placed at the disposal of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor $50,000 annually, to be expended in the enforcement of that part of the act which excludes contract laborers. Subsequently the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization has made careful investigation of the subject, and because of this no specific inquiry in this regard was undertaken by the Commission. However, in the inquiries of the Commission in Europe and the general investigations in the industrial field in this country, considerable information was secured respecting the methods by which foreign laborers are induced to come to the United States; and in order to take advantage of the investigations conducted by the bureau, the Commission employed Mr. John Gruenberg, a special immigrant inspector, who had made an extensive inquiry into the subject, to prepare a report upon it. What follows is based in part upon the original investigations of the Commission and in part upon data furnished by Inspector Gruenberg.

CONTRACT LABOR DEFINED.

The Attorney-General, in a recent opinion, has construed the contract-labor laws as follows:

[Opinions of Attorneys-General, vol. 27, 1908-9, pp. 483-484.]

By the act of February 23, 1887 (24 Stat., 414), alien contract laborers were prohibited from landing, and by the alien immigration acts of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat., 1084), and of March 3, 1903 (32 Stat., 1214), it was recognized that aliens brought to this country in violation of the said act of 1885 were subject to exclusion.

Under this law it was uniformly held that it was essential, to justify the exclusion of the alien or to inflict the penalty provided for its violation, that there should have been a completed contract made previous to the importation of the alien. (United States v. Edgar, C. C. A., 8th cir., 48 Fed., 91, 93; Mollier v. United States, C. C. A., 5th cir., 57 Fed., 490, 494; United States v. Craig, opinion by Justice Brown, 28 Fed., 795, 799.) In consequence of this construction of the statute, Congress, by the act of 1907, provided that an alien shall be subject to exclusion who has been "induced or solicited to migrate to this country by offers or promises of employment," thereby making it no longer necessary to show that he came in pursuance of a contract for labor previously entered into.

But the courts have been inclined to strictly construe the statute against contract alien laborers, and have especially thought to reach the spirit of the act rather than to enforce its letter. (Church of the Holy Trinity v. United

States, 143 U. S., 457; United States v. Gay, C. C. A., 7th cir., 95 Fed., 226; United States v. Craig, supra.)

The meaning of the words added in the act of 1907 does not require that their effect be given greater force than to cure the defect in the previous law, which it was the manifest purpose of the amendment to remedy, and the statute as thus amended could very properly be construed to prohibit only an offer or promise of employment which is of such definite character that an acceptance thereof would constitute a contract.

*

A broader meaning is not suggested by the sixth section of the act, which makes it unlawful to assist or encourage the importation or migration of an alien by promise of employment through advertisements printed and published in any foreign country. This, like the similar phrase, section 2, is directed against a promise which specially designates the particular job or work or employment for which the alien's labor is desired.

The construction thus placed upon the contract-labor laws makes it clear

(1) That they" prohibit any offer or promise of employment which is of such definite character that an acceptance thereof would constitute a contract."

(2) That the prohibition to encourage the immigration of an alien by a promise of employment is "directed against a promise which specially designates the particular job or work or employment for which the alien's labor is desired."

The practical effect of this decision is that to justify the exclusion of an alien or the infliction of the penalties provided for a violation of the contract-labor laws it is not essential to prove that there was a completed contract entered into previous to the importation of the alien, but it is essential to prove that the "offer of employment " by which the alien is induced to immigrate was of such definite character "that an acceptance thereof would constitute a contract," or that the "promise of employment" is one "which specially designates the particular job or work or employment for which the alien's labor is desired."

It is difficult, however, to conceive how the letter of the law respecting the importation of contract laborers could be made more stringent than at present. Under its terms it would appear that in order to be admissible to the United States an immigrant must be entirely without assurance that employment awaits him. The spirit of the law as interpreted by the Attorney-General in the opinion previously quoted is less rigid in this respect, but nevertheless an arriving immigrant who knows what he is going to do in the United States is very liable to be excluded if that fact becomes known to the immigration authorities. In this way hundreds of immigrants are annually debarred at United States ports as contract laborers, while doubtless hundreds of thousands more are admitted who have practically definite assurances as to the place and nature of their employment in this country. In fact it is the almost universal opinion of those who are engaged in enforcing the immigration laws and of those who have studied the immigration problem that many immigrants come to the United States virtually under promise of employment; and that a much larger number come by reason of direct or indirect solicitation on the part of quasi labor agents in the United States or of steamship companies as represented by agents, subagents, and other employees. In some cases these acts are in violation of the law on the subject and in other cases merely methods of evading the law.

The operations by which immigrants are imported or induced to come to the United States are carried on both in the United States and abroad.

The principal factors in the United States engaged in such operations are (1) employers of labor, (2) labor agents, (3) state boards of immigration, and (4) padrones.

The principal factors abroad are the steamship agents and subagents.

EMPLOYERS.

Various methods are used by employers in securing immigrant labor from abroad. Common among these are advertising in foreign publications; personally engaging employees; placing orders through labor agents, padrones, or steamship agents abroad or in the United States; and soliciting through immigrant employees. Under the immigration law skilled labor may be imported if labor of like kind unemployed can not be found in this country, but comparatively few workmen are imported under this provision. Moreover, the importation of skilled laborers by any means is not particularly extensive. The supply of such laborers in Europe who desire to emigrate, as well as the demand for their services in the United States, is comparatively limited, while the fact that skilled labor usually requires a rather definite promise of employment makes it easier for the immigration authorities to detect and prevent violations of the law. The vigilance of organized labor in the United States is also a very important factor in preventing the importation of skilled laborers. The importation of unskilled laborers is more easily accomplished. As a rule they do not demand a definite contract, but are content to emigrate upon the assurance that employment can be had in the United States. Consequently it is only necessary for employers desiring additional unskilled immigrant labor to let that fact become known among recent immigrants already in their employ or to deal with the quasi labor agents who operate in industrial communities where recent immigrants have gone in large numbers. When the immigration of laborers is induced through employees, such employees are given to understand that work will be furnished any of their relatives or friends who may come to the United States. These operations, like those carried on through the medium of labor agents, are indirect and difficult of detection by the immigration authorities.

LABOR AGENTS.

Many of the labor agents above referred to are former immigrants who have engaged in business as immigrant bankers, steamship ticket agents, grocers, or saloon keepers, and whose success often depends in a large measure on the number of new immigrants who come to the community where their business is carried on. They are not employers of labor, and usually their purpose is not to secure labor from abroad as an end in itself, but to secure it as a source of profit to them in other ways. These labor agents invariably have foreign connections.

Their methods consist principally in cooperating with the steamship agents abroad in spreading statements alleging an incessant demand for labor in America. The means they employ are letters,

sometimes forged, purporting to come from immigrants who have obtained employment here, and circulars or newspapers, printed in America in various foreign languages, containing false, exaggerated, or misleading accounts of conditions and rates of wages. These are sent abroad and are distributed by steamship agents among the peasants in the small villages. These letters, circulars, and newspapers form the basis of the operations carried on by steamship agents abroad, and for furnishing this material the American labor agents are rewarded by their foreign associates with consignments of groups of immigrants. To avoid difficulties with the immigration service, the immigrants are furnished with various and mostly fictitious addresses, and only the leader of the group, as a rule, has the address of the real consignee, who usually is the labor agent. Substantial proof showing the character of these operations is contained in various reports on file in the Bureau of Immigration, and it may be sufficient to cite the following as an illustration of the manner in which the "addresses of relatives or friends" of immigrants are manipulated.

In August, 1909, a group consisting of eight Greek laborers arrived on the steamship Patris. Three of them had the address of John B. Costas, a Greek labor agent of New York City, while the addresses of the other five were practically fictitious. A letter from the steamship agent of Piræus reads as follows: "

By the Greek transatlantic steamer Patris, of Embrikos Line, leaving Piræus the 29th for New York, are coming a few countrymen. I have to ask you to give them the necessary instructions, recommendations for the three recommended and addressed to you-Nicholas Koukouvas, Antonius Skoumbourdis, and Michael Chalkitis. The other five we have directed to others. For the moment we can not recommend all of them to one and the same address.

Thanking you in advance, I remain,

L. M. KOUTSOUFANIS.

There are numbers of this class of labor agents engaged in dealing almost exclusively with immigrants of their respective countries in nearly every industrial center in the United States. Practically all of these labor agents are from eastern and southern Europe and Asia Minor, and they usually cooperate with steamship agents, money lenders, and others in their native land.

Except in some special cases, the "offers or promises of employment," whether they are made by the labor agents or their accomplices abroad, consist usually of mere broad assertions concerning labor conditions and rates of wages in America. To induce the immigration of this class of aliens it is seldom necessary to make other than vague, uncertain, or indefinite promises. In reality the "offers or promises of employment" by which those aliens are induced to immigrate are perhaps never "of such definite character that an acceptance thereof would constitute a contract," nor are they given a promise which specially designates the particular job or work or employment for which the alien's labor is desired" in this country. When all this is considered it would follow that the operations in importing laborers carried on by labor agents are probably not within the prohibition of the contract-labor laws.

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a Letter dated Piræus, July 26 (August 8), addressed to Costas. The original letter is attached to Inspector Gruenberg's report to the Commissioner of Immigration at Ellis Island as Exhibit 2, dated September 10, 1909.

STATE BOARDS OF IMMIGRATION.

For some time past state boards of immigration have endeavored to promote the movement of laborers into certain sections of the United States where additional labor was needed. In some instances such boards have been careful to keep within the requirements of the immigration law; in others they have been less careful and have undoubtedly gone beyond what was intended by the framers of the immigration law, which provides as follows:

SEC. 6. That it shall be unlawful and be deemed a violation of section four of this act to assist or encourage the importation or migration of any alien by promise of employment through advertisements printed and published in any foreign country; and any alien coming to this country in consequence of such an advertisement shall be treated as coming under promise or agreement as contemplated in section two of this act, and the penalties imposed by section five of this act shall be applicable to such a case: Provided, That this section shall not apply to States or Territories, the District of Columbia, or places subject to the jurisdiction of the United States advertising the inducements they offer for immigration thereto, respectively.

The terms of this section are of so general a character that in some instances the work of the boards tends to approximate that of ordinary labor agencies.

PADRONES.

The operations carried on by padrones are confined to the direct importation of aliens, either to employ them in their own various business enterprises, such as bootblacking, fruit vending, or candy making, or to hire them in groups to contractors or other employers. Relative to the padrone system, the Commissioner-General of Immigration, in his report for 1907, pages 70-71, says:

The most distressing branch of the alien contract-labor law violations is that which involves the use of what is commonly called the "padrone system;" for by this means not only is foreign labor introduced under contract or agreement, but often the laborers are mere boys and are practically enslaved by the padrones who effect their importation. This system is applied principally to youths of the Italian and Greek races, the boys being placed at hard labor, with long hours, under conditions wholly unsuited to their age, and subjected to a wage arrangement which amounts practically to a method of blackmailing; in other words, they are in effect owned by the men who advance the money and procure their immigration from Greece and Italy.

This work is carried on quite extensively, and it would seem that there is a great demand for this class of immigrants on the part of the numerous importing padrones and a remarkably large supply abroad. It is morally certain that importations of aliens by padrones are effected by means of "contracts or offers or promises of employment." Nevertheless, it may be said that such "contracts or offers or promises of employment" are usually so vague, contingent, and indefinite that an acceptance thereof would not constitute a contract. Neither can adult aliens imported by padrones designate the particular job or employment for which their labor is desired. Therefore this class of operations is probably not prohibited by the contract-labor laws.

On the other hand, "the contracts, offers, or promises of employment" made to import or to induce the immigration of minors are almost invariably so certain and definite that an acceptance thereof would constitute a contract, or else the particular job or work or