Chapter VIII: Agencies for Men

Sources of information: Visits as investigators; interviews with employers and employees; advertising.

All of the agencies previously described provide employment for both men and women, or for women alone. But, in some, women are never seen, although they may be lodged in the same building or brought in on request. These are general agencies for contract laborers, farm hands, miners, lumbermen, brickmakers, railroad hands, cattle men, etc.; shipping agencies for sailors and vessel employees; padroni for unskilled Italian workmen; trades-union agencies for skilled workmen; and miscellaneous agencies for barbers and bartenders, besides the few run by Japanese, Chinese, and Greeks for their own countrymen.

General labor agencies are the most numerous and best patronized, and are frequented by large numbers of immigrants. The majority of applicants for work are shipped out of the city, and the service which these agencies render in relieving labor congestion is incalculable, and would be even greater if the dishonest ones were regulated and the honest ones better protected and encouraged. Many thousands of immigrants would be homeless and idle and would become charity seekers were they not sent out to farms, mines, and other places where labor is needed.

A description of one such honest agency is typical of all. It occupies an entire building and has no saloon in connection with it. The first floor is used for offices, one department for employment, another for transportation, and the third for banking. There are a number of clerks employed, who speak the various necessary languages, and careful records are kept of every transaction. The agency preserves a copy of every labor contract and gives one to the employer. Transportation is sold without commission; and the banking business, which is essential when dealing with foreigners who have relatives abroad and few friends here, is conducted as an accommodation rather than for the small commission charged. Last year this agency sent abroad more than $135,000 in savings, and not one complaint was filed. The fees charged are from $2 to $3, and are collected from the employer, no charge being made to the employee. The entire upper part of the building is a lodging-house, where men waiting for employment are lodged free of charge; and the rooms are kept clean and are not overcrowded. Men who are not waiting for employment, but have no other lodging-place, are charged twenty-five cents a night. When work is provided for immigrant men outside of the city, an office attaché must find their baggage and check it to the proper destination, secure transportation, escort the men to the station, and see that they are started right. For all of this service the employer pays. No liquor is permitted on the premises, and no employee of the agency is allowed to accept gifts or fees from the men. Careful inquiries are made about employers, and men are sent out only in response to bona-fide orders. When the transportation is not paid by the employer in advance, the agent furnishes it, but only in cases where the employer is known, and care is taken in every way to prevent sending men where there is no prospect of work.

Most of these labor agencies, however, do not conform to this type and standard. In New York the greatest number are found in saloons or in saloon hotels. In Chicago, though the law prohibits this, they are run in saloons and gambling places, or in such close connection with them that conditions are similar to those in New York. In Boston and Philadelphia they are frequently over saloons, or so near them that the men find them convenient waiting-rooms. Fully two thirds of all agencies are located in or near saloons; and in New York this is true, almost without exception. Sometimes the agency is not at fault, since the saloon locates near it because of the prospect of patronage; in other instances the saloons induce agencies, by various promises, to locate over or near them. Where the agency is in the saloon, the same proprietor runs both. Fewer than one sixth are in living rooms, or cellars, and these are chiefly Italian, Greek, Slav, and Bohemian. In New York "Employment Furnished" is one of the signs used to attract custom to coffee houses, with their small gambling devices.

The average number of rooms used for office purposes is less than for intelligence offices, partly be-cause the rooms are larger, as in saloons, and because men are quite willing to wait about outside. Fully one third are lodging-houses, and few recommend to other lodging-places. About one half have some office equipment and system, and the other half do business in any way that brings in fees. Equipment varies from table, chairs, and a record book, up to well-furnished rooms with desks, registers, files, telephone, chairs, etc. In saloons business is often transacted over the bar, and orders for drinks and for jobs seem to be indiscriminately mixed. Here tables and chairs constitute most of the furniture, and men drink and gamble while they wait. Where they are conducted in living rooms, there is little more equipment than in intelligence offices similarly located.

A few descriptions are typical of most of these. One, in the basement of a tenement, is a saloon and restaurant, where the men smoke, talk, eat, and drink. At night they are allowed to sleep on some rude benches. Another, which advertises "Employment for bakers and confectioners," is a bare room with a bar, one end being filled with tables and chairs where the men play cards and drink. Saloon hotels often have a combination office and saloon on the ground floor, and the second and third floors are used for lodgers. A trip through such a house showed men drinking and playing cards all over the premises, and in some places, where women were seen, the men told us they "hang about to get the men's money, and are favored and encouraged by the house." In one of these, where the saloon is in the basement, there are card and billiard tables at which several young men were playing, and groups were hanging about the windows and at the bar. Another is in a dark, gloomy basement with a low ceiling, and filled with wooden benches. At night these benches are transformed into rude bunks. This place was filled with all kinds of indescribable baggage, and was dirty and disorderly beyond description. There is no eating-house, but employees bring in food, such as cold meat, "street bacon," fruit, etc. Because of the crowded condition, most of the "placing" is done on the street, and benches are placed along the sidewalk for the crowds who cannot get in. Another agency has a hair-dressing store in the basement below it, and consists of a large bare room, filled with wooden benches and chairs. Though women were waiting here the proprietor said he never did any business with women employers, and advised us not to get any help in the neighborhood. After a careful inspection of immigrant agencies, there is little reason to doubt that some of these saloon hotels are nothing more than disreputable houses, and that the employment agency is the means by which patrons are attracted.

Agencies not in connection with saloons have a much better tone and more system. They usually occupy from two to four rooms, and keep a registry, and the business is often transacted in a space set apart by a railing from the general waiting-room, or in a separate room. The walls are frequently covered with maps, and the rooms are clean and well supplied with chairs. Occasionally intoxicated employees are seen, and the office may be dirty, but the crowd of idle men is orderly and more or less free from the sodden, disreputable "rounder" element found in saloon agencies.

The business of general labor agencies frequently includes foreign banking and the sale of transportation. These also are usually over or next to saloons, but have more equipment and system. They do not confine the foreign banking to employees placed by them, but remit money for all classes of immigrants at a good commission. Transportation is often furnished at a profit, and heavy charges are made for carrying and storing baggage. These profits, together with the fees for lodging and changing money, make the unemployed, especially the immigrants, so desirable a prey that expensive systems are maintained to lure them to the agencies, such as hiring men to frequent parks and other lounging-places, where they present various inducements.

The character of many of these agencies is unmistakable. From the list of licensed places, it did not appear if they were for men or women, and at all of them "servants" were asked for, to be sure women were not kept, before men investigators were sent to the place. The treatment accorded us as employers was seldom civil, and we were regarded with extreme suspicion. Some, especially for farmers, kept both men and women, though the latter were rarely in and about the saloons, but runners were sent up through the hotel or out to surrounding lodging-houses "to rout them out." At one place a farmer, waiting on the sidewalk asked us: "You married? if you be you 'd better send yer husband for help; for the men and women waiting for jobs at this office are not fit companions for a lone woman, and the women only come here to drink." In another saloon hotel, where men and women were waiting and talking together in the back part, one woman was complaining in German over her fee, and, still grumbling, she and the proprietor disappeared up-stairs. In such agencies they usually told us, with suspicious glances, that they had no help to suit us. A German man and woman, whom we met outside, said that they had just landed and had been recommended to go there by a man whom they met on the boat from Ellis Island to the city. They said two girls in their party had gone with men that evening to the country, but they did not know where. The man said, "The place seems no good to me; they advertise in country places, and strange men come and pick the women out like cattle and take them away." Both had bundles and had been engaged to go to the country. Outside of another saloon hotel a waiting employee suggested, "You'd better get out of this neighborhood before dark"; and at another, where women seemed plentiful, we asked for help, and were told to go to the "mission houses." When we replied that we had seen several women, they said, "Oh, they are only after the men's money." In another, where we asked for rates for a friend to Germany, the proprietor was impertinent and said he furnished rates, but chiefly, to California. When asked why the sign on his window said he sold steamer tickets, he replied, "Well, I have a right to advertise what I like, and my office is not for employment, but for labor contracts." He refused all further information. In Chicago few saloon agencies supply women, and they are seldom found about them. In Boston, the appearance of women creates a commotion, and few are found in the Philadelphia agencies.

The following information concerning business methods is indisputable, since it was gained by men through visits to the agencies, through talks with waiting employees, and tips from them, and from numerous records of prosecution. It is misleading to say that all of these agencies resort to the methods outlined, but the business is not and cannot be limited to honest men so long as any person who can pay a license fee can engage in it. And so long have these conditions been ignored that the whole business has little standing in the eyes of business people, and many reputable agents either just make a living, or are driven to less honest methods through the effective and unscrupulous competition of their associates.

Agencies have many sources of revenue. Where lodging is not free, the charge varies from twenty cents upward a night, and the scheme in some cases is to keep a man out of employment until he has no more money for board. One investigator reported: "This place is a lodging-house and the office is run for the lodgers' benefit. I am sure the boarding end of the business is simply another way to get money and not have to give it back, as the law requires, if the man fails to get employment." A woman living next door said, "No one ever seems to get a job there." It is customary for employers to advance transportation, to be deducted later from the wages, and the agency then rarely has a profit, but where the man pays for his own, or the agent advances it, he can charge a higher rate. Some agents refuse to allow the employees' baggage to be moved except by their own expressman, and this is a source of profit, as is also the storage of baggage. A commission is charged for sending money to the immigrant's home, and for changing money. One agent charged $5.02 for exchanging $105.02, and gave the man a worthless $100 bill. The money was recovered upon complaint to the city bureau. The chief income is from fees. In the more honest offices such employers as farmers pay $1 to $3 for each employee and the latter is charged nothing, although the farmer later may deduct $1 from his wages. Contractors and employers of large numbers of men frequently pay $1 to $2 each, while others get the entire fee from the employee. Fees for employers rarely exceed $3, and are quite uniform; but for the employee they are oftentimes limited only by what he can pay, and that may be $1 or $20. Instances are recorded where men have paid $5, $10 $15, for positions paying from $1 to $2 a day, with no assurance of their permanency.

There are many misunderstood contracts, and many hardships to employees for which agencies cannot be held responsible. They are at best but a medium of exchange, and cannot vouch for the competency and reliability of employees or the honesty of employers. They are imposed upon by both. Worthless, unreliable men ask for positions and cause dissatisfaction when placed; orders come in from apparently reliable employers, and when the men arrive they find they have been hired as strike breakers. Hours, wages, and work are misrepresented to the agent, and he in turn misrepresents them to the men. In many instances agents trust employers for fees and transportation, and are never paid. There is a desire on the part of employees to "do the agency" whenever possible, and much bad faith is due to the desire of each to get ahead of the other. But, granting all of this, agents, even when thoroughly honest, work much hardship through sheer carelessness and indifference in the pressure of business, and there are methods and schemes and frauds which are deliberate; indeed, they are so intentional that they are the policy, and, in some instances, the sole business method of certain agencies. Only a few of the many can be outlined here.

To attract men, some advertise on their cards "Positions furnished free." Then, upon various pretexts, they charge from $2 to $5. Once in an agency it is difficult to get out without paying something, so alluring are the promises. One style is known as a "dollar office." The manager has desk room in other offices or occupies bare rooms. He advertises for men or drums up trade through agents. Every applicant is charged a dollar before any offer is made, though catch-words are thrown out about "good business," "orders," etc., and when the dollar is secured nothing further is done. The agent does not care for an additional fee, but lives on these dollars, and makes no effort whatever to get employment. The man gets "tired of waiting"; or "sick of daily promises" that "there will be something to-morrow." In one a man came in, paid his fee, and was told to "call next day." After he had gone out the proprietor said: "There goes another d—— fool, he has thrown his money away; well, we must make ice while the weather is cold; when it gets warm these suckers will look out for their own jobs." He boldly admitted that he made no attempt to get jobs, except by clipping newspaper advertisements. His contracts read, that "he [the employee] shall in no way hold the managers responsible for failure of service," and he advertises: "We are the helping hand of the public, and the all-seeing eye of your interests."

The transient agency is ordinarily simply an address at which mail is received. Attractive and unusual advertisements are inserted, and for further information applicants must send varying small sums. These agencies change addresses frequently to avoid detection by the postal authorities. This kind of business is usually lucrative, for the men are shrewd and clever advertisers. Typical transient offices spring up during periods of great demand for labor. For instance, they advertise for help for the St. Louis Exposition, and furnish employees with addresses, who, after paying their fare, find, when they arrive, that they are stranded, and that the city is crowded with similar disappointed people. In New York, after such an agency had in an incredibly short time collected about one thousand fees, it was notified it must give a bond, and in the night it quietly decamped for some other city. These have no bona-fide orders from Exposition authorities, but rely upon the general demand and the "good luck" of the individual who pays for the job. Another such agency relies upon strikes. It opened an office in New York City recently, and advertised for two hundred men for permanent work in Connecticut, in the place of strikers on a street railway. Conspicuously lying about the office were newspaper accounts of the strike. The men reported, and paid fees, and on the specified morning about 150, with their bags, gathered there to receive the promised transportation. They were told, "The manager has received a telegram and gone to Philadelphia unexpectedly." His clerk had also disappeared.

Saloon agencies claim that they do not charge fees, but as a rule employees contradict this. The methods are really simple. They advertise daily in newspapers and on posters as follows:

"Wanted—Farm hands—1000 laborers for railroad work in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois; free fare. Men for Denver, Colo., Wyoming, Kansas City, Minneapolis, and Omaha; cheap fares. Austrians, Greeks, and Italians for Indian Territory and Arkansas. 5oo men for woods in Wisconsin; cheap fare. Molders and laborers for factory. Frame window makers, and help for all kinds of positions."

"Wanted—500 Laborers for Railroad work in Missouri and Indiana; free fares. Marble cutters and carvers; no union. Porter who can speak German. We have positions for all classes of help."

"Wanted—500 Railroad laborers, company and contract work; free fare; low rates to New Orleans and points South. Farm hands $25 to $30 per mo. and board. Good homes for winter, also other jobs near city."

In addition to these advertisements, their cards read: "Wanted—500 laborers every day, highest wages, free fare, daily shipment"; and these are widely distributed throughout the year, regardless of demand or season.

Several hundred men respond to these, and after paying a fee, usually $1, they are told by the agent that the transportation will come any time, that they will be sent out before evening, and that they must hang around within call; and of course the saloon is most convenient. They are naturally feeling good at the prospect of a job and spend money freely for drinks. By evening the transportation has not arrived, plausible excuses are given, and they are told to come the next day. This is kept up until the protest becomes vigorous, and then the dollar fee may or may not be returned; but in the meantime the saloon has taken in over its bar from$1 to $5 from each one. Proprietors admit that from two hundred to seven hundred men weekly are drawn there, solely by promises of work. Even if such an agency fills some positions, men are kept waiting with the temptation to drink before them. One employee said, "Jobs seem to depend on how much we drink; if we are good drinkers we get in with the proprietor and he favors us if a job comes in, and the other fellows stand no show."

Daily advertisements in newspapers, offering places to a number of men varying from one hundred up to one thousand, are usually prospective and do not represent orders waiting to be filled, and to this degree are fraudulent and misleading. Sometimes when an agency has filled a bona fide order for two hundred men, it does not scruple to keep the advertisement running, or to send other men to the same places during the rest of the week. When large manufacturers and contractors complain that these extra men are sent, the agency simply replies, "We give them a rest and try others." In some cases, men are sent to firms from whom orders have been received years ago; and to others, because the agent has seen some newspaper account of a dearth of labor. Occasionally employers lend themselves to these frauds, and for a small commission are quite willing to tell applicants, "The position has just been filled," when no vacancies existed. It thus appears to the employee that the agency is honest and that he is too late; and the agency then has an excuse to retain the fee. In this way men are induced to become vagrants, for often they must tramp or steal rides to get back. One of the speakers before a labor congress, in commenting on this condition, said:

"Another feature of modern industrialism which is proving a potent force in the disintegration of families, is the employment agency. It is the auction-block of the wage-system. While New York City is threatened with bread-riots, while in Buffalo and every industrial centre in the State of New York factories are closed or running five hours per day, five days per week, —— Agency has a flaming sign—'4,000 men wanted in New York State to work on railroads; good wages; free transportation.' These men pay the employment office one dollar each. The railroads transport the 4000, its officials knowing at the time they want only 350. But the presence of the 4000 will make it easy to make their own terms with the 350 they want. The employment office has made $4000, and the railroad corporation has an overcrowded labor market as a menace to the refractory. The remainder of these men are a thousand miles from the homes they left buoyant with the hope of soon earning some money to send to the wife and babies. Out of work, away from home, they degenerate morally and physically until, in Chicago, there is another batch of deserted wives, in New York, another set of tramps. These victims are men who are out of work and want it. Such agencies make most when times are hardest and their victims can least afford to be fleeced. The farther they can ship their victims, the better they like it; and, as the Iowa and Missouri Bureaus of Labor Statistics have shown, the corporations of the West would rather give free transportation to five hundred men from a distance than to employ the one hundred men they need directly from the neighborhood of the work to be done. The farther they can get a man from home, the better terms they can make with him."

This is further verified by the fact that an advertisement in a Kansas City paper will ask for five hundred men for St. Louis, while a St. Louis paper of the same date will advertise for a thousand wanted in Kansas City.

The character of work and of wages is often misrepresented. In one case five men were sent to work in a smelter, and the contract called for employment at from $2.40 to $3 per day, and the return of the $12 fare if they remained thirty days. They were put to work as common laborers at $1 to $2 a day, ten hours' work; and when they demanded the terms of the contract they were discharged, and of course lost their fare, which was part of the scheme. Another employee, with his countrymen, answered an advertisement in a German paper calling for men to go to Florida, to work in oyster canning factories. In giving his experience he said:

"We started South in an emigrant car. In two days we were put off the car in a town in Mississippi. We were ordered into wagons and driven to an oyster cannery. There we were put to work 'shucking' oysters at one cent a pound. The best we could make was fifty cents per day. We were shown a row of shanties, where we were told we could live, but that we would only have one room to eight persons. We had been promised furnished houses. After enduring this for four days we threatened to go to the local authorities, and finally were sent back North."

When the agent who sent these men was arrested, there were found in his office twenty other homeless victims who had paid money for positions in Mexican mines and were waiting to be shipped.

In another instance, there were such frequent changes of men under some railway section foremen that the officials investigated and found that the foremen were in collusion with the agency, and that they accepted men with the understanding that at the end of two weeks or a month they would be discharged and new ones taken. The foremen received forty per cent. of the fees for their part in this business. In other cases contractors in league with agencies will not hire men directly, but send them to the agency, where they must first pay their fees. Sometimes the men give the agency an order on their employer for $5, and the contractor sees that it is paid. Other contractors, not in league with agencies, have rake-offs, which they take as compensation for giving jobs to the men. This rake-off system, through the agency and independently, is one of the most serious problems of unskilled labor.

But the schemes are not all to defraud the employee, and some are so unscrupulous that they rob left and right. Occasionally they ask large industries to order men from them, especially when they employ a nationality in which the agency deals, as Swedes. When the company refuses, they not only threaten, but have deliberately sent people out to cause dissatisfaction and induce the men to leave. In one case, an application was made for an injunction to prevent employment agents from carrying on this work. Another made considerable money last year by advertising for partners. Several men were trapped and induced to put in small sums at various times during the year and then were forced out by misrepresentation of the amount of the proceeds, or the methods were such that others were glad to withdraw, without insisting upon a return from their investment.

One practice seems to be peculiar to agencies which supply lumbermen. When the demand exceeds the supply, representatives from the camps come down, and with the aid of the agency men are made drunk and then sent up to the camps in box cars. When they wake up sober they are at the camp, penniless, and quite willing to work awhile. Lumber camps are often imposed upon, too; for when they order and pay for experienced men they are sometimes sent farm hands and other incapable workers who are discontented and useless.

The frauds practised upon farmers are about the same as upon household employers. There are "stool pigeons" who go around the corner with the farmer and then desert him. A common practice is to get the farmer to advance both fees, and the employee agrees to have it taken out of his wages. Then he deserts at the earliest opportunity, and the agent gives him fifty cents out of the $3 for his share. Agents send out men not fitted for farm work; others they know will not remain, and they induce some to go by a misrepresentation of the kind and amount of work and wages. As the farmer usually advances the railway fare, he loses this in addition to the fee, if the man leaves soon.

The contracts with the laborers are often bare-faced frauds. One agency asks a $5 fee, and the contract reads: "If within —— number of days we cannot secure you a position, upon surrender of the contract we will give you an especial advertisement in a leading morning paper in lieu of your fee." Others state that the "fee is for the privileges of the office only," and their entire effort consists in clipping out advertisements and giving the addresses to applicants as a bona-fide order from the firm. Of course they find the place filled, for others who read these advertisements early in the morning have the advantage.

The return of fees is accomplished with much difficulty. Some States require men to wait thirty days before they can even ask for them. By that time they have often left the city, or through other means have secured positions, which they do not wish to risk by leaving to prosecute an agency for the return of a small fee. An agency which sends men out on false promises to places several miles away stands little chance of a prosecution.

An agency which falls somewhere between the general labor office and the shipping agencies for sailors is that for shipping cattle helpers, etc. It advertises somewhat as follows for men to help on cattle ships: "Attention—Best opportunity to work passage on fast steamers to London, Liverpool, Antwerp; no steamship work." In addition, they have "pullers-in" whom they pay $1 for every man they bring in from the parks or wherever they find them. The work on these vessels is misrepresented as easy, and ignorant foreigners are induced to pay sums ranging from $5 to $25 for "passage money" to their homes in Europe. All sorts of misrepresentations are made to them about the nature of the passage, the possibilities of returning to the United States when they wish, and about railroad tickets to their homes when they arrive at European ports. Emphasis is placed upon the passage rather than upon the labor.

Upon the prosecution of some agencies in New York City, the following facts were brought out: That passage fees range from $5 to $25; that misinformed men are oftentimes stranded without means of return; that they are told the work is light and food good, and instead find the hours long, the work heavy, and their food only what the regular cattle men leave; that they are often inhumanely treated and have undesirable places to sleep; that some agencies refuse to let the men carry their baggage to the steamers, but make them bring it to the agency and charge from twenty-five cents to $1 for taking it down; and that they coach the men to pass the examinations set by the Department of Animal Industry for all cattle tenders, in regard to age, physical ability, etc. But places are not always given for fees, and there are many complaints. Two men in New York paid $25 each, $20 for a ticket and $5 for a fee, and were given a letter to an agent in New Orleans who was to ship them to South Africa. The agent there claimed he knew nothing of the New York firm, but had several complaints against it. These men were forced to sell their clothing in order to get back to New York. This stranding of sailors in Southern seaport towns is a favorite practice. Another employee was sent to Boston. When he presented the card given him, he was told the office had no connection with a New York agent. In a cheap lodging-house that night he was robbed of $10. After visiting another employment agency, he got a job in a lumber camp, met with an accident which sent him to the hospital for three weeks, and then pawned his watch to get back to New York. This was one train of events for which an agency received $5.

There are in all seaport and large lake towns shipping agencies, which are for the purpose of supplying all vessel employees. Very little is known of these, for by adroit methods they avoid being licensed and conduct their business in connection with sailors' boarding-houses and saloons. The New York law has hitherto not affected them, because they claim they receive no fees, and the only law which reaches them is a United States statute which reads:

"If any person shall demand or receive directly or indirectly from any seaman or other person seeking employment as seaman, or from any person on his behalf any remuneration whatever, for providing him with employment, he shall be liable to a penalty of not more than $100. "

This law is ineffective as it now stands, for prosecutions are by civil action, and the process of the courts is so slow that ordinarily a sailor is out of port long before the case can be heard. There is an amendment before Congress to change violations to a misdemeanor, thereby bringing it before the criminal courts. The Federal law also prohibits retaining of clothes by boarding-houses, and collection of money for indebtedness to saloons.

These shipping agencies are usually located in or above saloons, and while some have presentable offices, many are even worse than general labor offices. One was found in a dirty three-story shanty, the ceilings little more than six feet high. In another, the only equipment in an outer room was two long benches nailed to the wooden partition, and in an inner office a long table, a desk, and some chairs. In a third the windows and chairs were broken, and the whole appearance was that of a storage room. In one building the saloon was on the first floor, and the proprietor rented the attic to sailors for $1.50 a week to sleep in as best they could.

The men who run these agencies are known as shipping masters, and usually devote themselves to a particular line of work. One will supply trans-Atlantic steamships, another, deep-water sailing vessels, and another, coasting schooners. The usual fee charged is $2, which is paid by the boarding-house keeper, who gets a lien on the sailors' pay. For this fee and any board due, the sailor gives his note, and these amounts are deducted from his wages and paid by his employer. The relation between the agent, the boarding-house keeper, the saloon-keeper, and the runner for the boarding-house is very close. When a seaman finishes a trip the runner is waiting for him, takes him to a good saloon to spend his money, and then to the boarding-house. When he gets sufficiently in debt to the boarding-house keeper, that worthy gets him a berth and ships him out. The sailor is thus at the mercy of the agency, saloon, and boarding-house. Most of these boarding-houses do not even compare with what rank as decent places, and some of them are in league with immoral houses, which share profits with them. One shipping agent said he furnished "girls as well as crews to sailing vessels only." These boarding-houses ask $7 per week, and never charge for less than one week, even when the sailor is at the house less than one day. In New York they are licensed and inspected, but the law is so worded that these houses have a monopoly and decent unlicensed places cannot compete with them. Sailors are practically forced into them, and so powerful are the houses and agencies that sailors know they cannot get jobs, and sailing masters know they cannot get crews, without them.

A Federal law which helps the whole system is that seamen cannot get an advance on wages unless they are in debt; then they may make allotments to their creditors. If a sailor wishes to leave money with his wife and child before sailing, his recourse is to get in debt to the boarding-house keeper, and give him an assignment to cover this indebtedness and the amount for his family, which the keeper pays to them. It is to the boarding-house keeper's advantage to get him into debt, and he knows that pay is always forthcoming. Because of this system of shipping crews, and the alliance with saloons, American ports have a bad reputation, as the masters say they never know what kind of crew they will have or how much premium they must pay boarding-house keepers.

The evidence that these agencies do collect fees from sailors is most conclusive. Our investigators have been told the fee charged them would be $2 for furnishing licensed engineers. One affidavit shows that the sailor agreed that $1 should be deducted from his wages, and a receipt was given him stating this agreement. Another, who had signed no advance note, who had not stayed at a sailor's boarding-house, and was not in debt, had £4 deducted when he reached Liverpool as a fee for shipping him. His voyage was for three months at £6 a month, so almost one fourth was deducted. It is so difficult to prove that fees are charged that the following copies of affidavits are appended, selected from the many:

"I am a seaman, and on —— I was engaged as a fireman to work on board the S. S. —— at $25 a month by a shipping master named ——, who lives at No. At the time he engaged me he demanded two ($2) dollars as a shipping fee and I went aboard said vessel and made the voyage to —— and returned to and was discharged from the ship on April ——, and the two ($2) dollars shipping fee was deducted from my wages by a man in the —— Consul's office. I was refused payment of my wages until the $2 was agreed by me to be deducted. I am acquainted with ——, and to my knowledge he was a seaman on board the S. S. —— and on the same voyage, and there was demanded of him a shipping fee of $2 in the —— Consulate."

"I went to the boarding-house of ——, in —— Street. When I had been in the house five or six days, —— got me, through ——, shipping agents, a job as fireman on the S. S. ——. When I began work on the vessel, I left the house. I was engaged for a period of —— days. When I finished, a note was given me by the engineer for my pay and this I took to the shipping office of ——. I there signed the note, and gave it to Mr. ——, who placed it on file. —— then gave me $2, saying that he had no more change and would give me the rest at the house. He never afterwards gave me a cent. According to —— reckoning, there was due me, at the rate of £4 5 s. a month, for which I work, the sum of $15.82. —— therefore withheld from me $13.82 . At that time I was only indebted to him five or six dollars for five or six days' board. On Sunday, Nov. ——, I made a demand on —— for my clothes which were in his house. He refused to give them to me."

A boarding-house keeper's testimony shows the fee system between shipping masters and boardinghouses:

"I brought six men to the S. S. ———, bound for the ———, who signed on board and who made the voyage which was completed ———. It was agreed by ———, shipping masters for the said vessel, that $45 should be paid to ———, for the said six men, to be deducted from the wages of the said six men, and $32.50 was paid and $) $12.50 was retained by ——— as a shipping fee, and the said ——— refused to pay said $12.50 to the said ———. This payment was made before the said voyage was begun."

Because of the reckless, often improvident nature of many sailors, boarding-house keepers need some protection, and $2 is not a high fee for an agency. But every such agency should be licensed, inspected, and regulated, and the collusion between agencies, lodging-house keepers, and saloons made less profitable. In view of the evidence, this seems a not impossible task.

In some cities, free shipping agencies and sailors' homes have been started to meet some of the evils, and the need of the extension of these seems imperative, for the sailor is more dependent than others, since he resorts less to advertising, depends but little on his fellows, and two thirds of the time is in debt to the boarding-house which places him.

The Italian labor agencies present different methods and problems, although the frauds are not unlike those in others. The few places run openly as employment agencies are found in living rooms of tenements, in basements, and dark coal-cellars, and are usually headquarters for clubs and social purposes. A few others are found in barber shops, and some saloons are used as meeting-places for the agent and employees. With the Italians, much of the work is done on the streets and in other business places. The Italian agent is the padrone, and his power over Italian workmen is absolute for many reasons. The padrone or bosso typifies conditions in the smaller centres of Southern Italy transplanted to this country, and only slightly modified by the new surroundings. The Southern Italian peasant has been brought up for generations past under a bureaucratic system, and being apparently ignorant, though really intelligent, he instinctively relies on some one else for leadership and advice. He thinks an intermediary is always necessary in anything that is outside his routine of life. In Italy this intermediary may be the local priest, the Syndic of his henchmen, the local professor, or some one supposed to have special powers, ability, or pull. In this country that spirit of dependency for leadership is intensified by ignorance of the language. The peasant laborer, brought up with a strong sense of campanilismo for the village whence he came, turns to the compatriot here from the same or near-by village whence he himself comes. If such compatriot knows his business, he has the elements for a successful padrone. He sets up a bank or a notary's office or a store, and there his fellow-villagers congregate. It is their club-room as well as the centre of social and business life.

When the laborer is out of work he goes there to lounge; when he goes to work out of town that remains his headquarters. He puts his money there; through it, he sends money to Italy; letters for him must be addressed there, and the banker will write for him what letters he wants. If the padrone is honest he can do much good, even though he makes money at the business. But his powers for evil, if he is not honest, are unlimited. The Italian may be shrewd enough not to trust him entirely, but he will trust him more than any one else in the new country. As a natural consequence of what might be called this friendship the laborer turns to the banker or padrone for advice as to work, and he will go where the padrone sends him. He does not require any cast-iron agreement, or indeed any formality of agreement, in accepting a job, for two reasons: First, contracts are not necessary between friends; second, the laborer knows that if the padrone cheats him he can get satisfaction afterwards by an appeal to the padrone's constituents, for there is a strong spirit of defensive solidarity among the men, which is the most efficient check to too flagrant a disregard of rights by the padrone.

American contractors were quick to see that such padrone could furnish a constant supply of laborers under the padrone's personal control. The men looked to the padrone, not to the contractors, which meant so much less trouble for the latter. So they delegated certain powers to the padrone. They said to them, in practice, "Your men are good workers, but we can't handle them—we don't know their ways; as long as they do the work you can manage them as you please: we'll let you feed them, house them, and pay them." Thus the padrone's power was strengthened from the side of the employer as well as of the employee. Now, it must be obvious that on the "job" outside the city, the laborer's shanty becomes the club-room as the bank was. The same system goes on in every particular.

This system explains also what many Americans think are cases of imported laborers from Italy. The padrone or banker, growing in importance, being the go-between between the laborer here and his family and relatives in Italy, becomes known on the other side. Perhaps he sends a contribution to the local church of his native village, or perhaps he founds one of the numberless Italian societies here bearing the name of his village. He then becomes known as its president on the other side. Things look bright at a distance and attractive. Michele hears that Giuseppe is now president of a society and a banker,—great land, that America!— and he comes and swells the list in the padrone's following.

Such a system for obtaining employment is bad for the men because it tends to destroy independence, individuality, and initiative. It is bad for Americans because it keeps the men away from American influences, but at present the system seems to be a necessity. The evils inherent in such a system where these bankers are unreliable and unscrupulous are three: The sources of supply, the abuses of the commissaries, and the failure to forbid brutal acts by bosses. When the supply is limited such agencies send tailors, barbers, waiters, and other men utterly unfit for such work, out to contractors to work in mines or on the streets, misrepresenting the work. But even then the commissions are not enough, and they resort to other methods.

Second. There is a good profit in running a camp-store or commissary even on a legitimate basis, but it is a work of detail with which contractors dislike to bother. So they let out this privilege to such agencies, the consideration being that they furnish the men necessary for a given job, and, in certain cases, guarantee the cost of transportation. Although the men are allowed to "buy anywhere," there is generally no other place to buy except the camp-store. The contractors honor the storekeeper's statements, but will entertain no appeal from the decision of the storekeeper regarding store complaints, so if a charge is extortionate, as it often is, the laborer is helpless, as what he owes the storekeeper is deducted rightly or wrongly by the contractor from his wages. Another evil is that the storekeeper makes use of the so-called "boarding-house laws," and arrests men who may be dissatisfied and wish to leave. In this way they are kept at work.

Third. While agencies are not directly guilty of the brutality of bosses, yet they send Italian laborers into camps where they know it exists. Transportation is sometimes advanced by the contractors, and if the men leave this is a clear loss, so many methods are used to keep them. From a careful investigation by Mr. Gino C. Speranza, it appears that some of these abuses include employing armed guards, and from the wages of the men is deducted the pay of these guards. One affidavit shows that

"a laborer at one of these camps had been knocked down and was being beaten by a boss with a heavy stick, and cried out to his countrymen for the sake of their common blood to save him. Thereupon two ran to his assistance with their picks, but were followed by their own boss who stopped them at the point of a revolver. But even then, while they could not help him, they shouted to the abused one not to resist or he would surely be killed. It appears further that the man who had been knocked down was forced to stand up and be pushed along by the boss, and whenever he fell he struck him blows with a long stick."

The extreme disregard of law and the indifference of authorities is furnished by a case where

"six Italians, who left camp because of bad treatment, while in the custody of law on a warrant for alleged nonpayment of board, were bound with ropes by a contractor who entered the grand jury room in the county court house and led them into the public street, where, in the presence of the 'whole town' and of several officials, he hitched them to a mule and would have pulled them back to camp in that manner, had not a justice of peace interfered."

These are briefly some of the evils for which some bankers are directly responsible, for in most instances they know the conditions of these camps, and send ignorant men into them upon false pretexts and promises.

Of this system and its possible improvement, Mr. Gino C. Speranza says:

"The business of a padrone, even on a legitimate basis, is a profitable investment. The commissary privilege let out by contractors to the padrone is very valuable. There is no reason why contractors should sell such valuable privileges to cheap padroni. By cheap padroni, I mean men who care for nothing except to make an ex-. orbitant profit. Contractors should understand that the padrone can make a good profit and still not bring the men into servitude. They ought to take an interest in this as a business proposition-for the laborer who feels himself fairly treated is a better worker than one who thinks himself aggrieved. What appears as a humanitarian motive has its business side. The Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants is practically demonstrating it. It has undertaken the work of an office itself to contractors as a padrone. Employers of Italian labor looked doubtfully upon such offers; they feared it was too philanthropic and not businesslike enough. The same belief was entertained regarding Mills hotels as practical paying concerns. How could they compete with lodging-house rates and give infinitely better accommodation for the same price? They did, and they are proving good investments. The trouble was that the lodging-houses were making too excessive a profit. So with the Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants. It has demonstrated that there can be a practical, businesslike padrone system at a fair profit, even by treating the laborers with consideration. We can give them healthier quarters, equally good food at cheaper rates, and see that they get fair play, better than any other padrone, and still make the business self-supporting. What is more, we try to bring the laborer and the contractor more in touch, to the benefit of both through better mutual understanding. We send an experienced Italo-American with them to act as a sort of friend, if questions arise. That friend is the type of foreman that eventually will supplant the Irish foreman on jobs where Italians are employed. The Irish foreman on Italian jobs is an anomaly."

The dangers which beset the unemployed, unskilled laborer at employment agencies would, we believe, exist more extensively for skilled workers if trades unions did not prevent them. Their system is efficient because it is co-operative. At the headquarters of local unions men wait or leave their addresses and are notified when work comes in. The Pattern Makers send telegrams to registered unemployed men when a job comes in. The business agents get work for men, and many employers send directly to them. There is, of course, no charge. Unions are active because to them it means an opportunity for pushing themselves or putting a man in a new place where they have little hold. The incentive is not money but power. The trades journals give information of places where men are wanted, and some unions, like the American Society of Engineers, and the Granite Cutters, have a plan whereby each local union notifies the national headquarters of unemployed members and the number of positions which it is able to fill, and telegrams are used to inform men of vacancies. This is the nearest approach in this country to the system of the German free agencies.

So far as a medium of exchange can do so, trades unions solve the problem for certain classes of skilled workers among men. There is but one general criticism of them,—and some of the secretaries admit the evil, and have taken steps to eliminate it,— that union headquarters are so often in or about saloons and men must wait about them. One reason is that liquor dealers recognize the advantage and offer places at lower rates. Wherever settlements or individuals have been able to offer desirable rooms, unions have expressed themselves as more than willing to meet there, so the saloon is not essential to the success of trades-union meetings and labor agencies. Another condition to which the attention of unions is called is the method of hiring waiters and miscellaneous male help for hotels. The head waiter often makes his headquarters in a saloon, from which he frequently receives a fee, and here the men come to meet him, are employed, and spend money freely for drinks, and, as usual, the men spending the most money in this way are employed.

The attitude of trades unions toward private agencies is not one of great friendliness, and in some instances they have attacked them,-not so much because of fraudulent and immoral conditions, but because many are active during strikes and furnish strike breakers, and because they handle many foreigners whom the unions cannot or do not care to unionize.

These groups include most of the agencies run for men, although there are a few special ones. In some saloons are found agencies for bartenders, and in a number of barber shops are found those for barbers. These are usually licensed. They accept fees only when positions are offered, but even then abuses are so serious that, at a Federation of Labor meeting, resolutions were introduced condemning their methods, and these were endorsed by the Bartenders' International League. In a few instances these agencies furnish barmaids and female barbers.

New York City has one Chinese employment agency, run for men. It is located in a printing office where a Chinese weekly is published. It furnishes individual Chinese workers for households and elsewhere, and sends them out in large numbers to fill contracts. The fees depend upon the risk and the places to which they are sent. The English used by the manager was so defective and the Chinese of the interpreter was so unintelligible that much could not be learned beyond this.

New York has also a Japanese agency, which is located in a business house and is well equipped as an office. Employers are charged $3, and employees different amounts depending upon the position and the fees they can afford. Women nurses and companions are supplied, and men for household and other work are furnished.

There are also some agencies which supply Greeks. These are often located in undesirable places, over or near saloons, and supply other nationalities, both men and women. They claim that they obtain employees, through Greek pastors, from Ellis Island and furnish large numbers of men to contractors.

The remedies for the abuses in men's agencies lie along four lines: adequate legislation, which will provide for constant and careful inspection, and an accessible bureau of complaint; an association of the reputable agencies, which will insist upon certain standards and methods in the business; extension of trades-union agencies to the unskilled workers, and the establishment of employers' agencies. These last are being introduced in various parts of the country and are of two kinds. In one the employers start it as a business venture, so they can secure men when wanted. They put in a competent manager, adopt good business methods, and conduct the agency for the advantage of both employer and employee. The other is a more co-operative plan, each employer becoming a subscriber and paying so much a year, and receiving employees when wanted. It is not philanthropic, and offers no training, but is simply a well-conducted agency. It has the personal interest of employers, and since there is usually a surplus of employees this is a great advantage. The Employers' Association of Chicago has recently organized a free bureau for the purpose of supplying manufacturers and others. Each applicant is required to give a reference, and it proposes to keep track of "union men who violate the law and slug." About seventy-five per cent. of the men who have applied are not union men, so this represents a new independent movement on the part of employers. Similar bureaus are to be established in other cities and States, and an interchange of business arranged. The municipal free agency, described in connection with free employment agencies, is well worthy of consideration as a means of improving conditions for unemployed men.