the padrones frankly admit, that women do not take offense at boys coming to their flats and order more readily from them than from the padrones, who, being adults and rough in appearance, inspire the women with fear. These peddlers, as a rule, rise between 5 and 6 in the morning and sometimes earlier if the vegetable markets have to be visited for purchases. After their day's work is done they return home, generally between 4 and 7 in the afternoon. Upon reaching home the boys are made to do the cooking and prepare their principal meal. In each peddling company there are usually from three to four wagons and from four to eight boys. Three or four nights in the week their food consists of meat stews with beans or potatoes. On other nights no meals are prepared, but they eat bread, cheese, and olives. They are inadequately dressed for cold winter weather, but in spite of this and of the insanitary conditions under which they eat and sleep they are usually healthy, owing to their being in the fresh air during the entire day.

The shoe-polishing business is the main field in which the padrone system is operated, and it is therefore treated in greater detail in this report.

Boys employed as bootblacks live in insanitary quarters and are absolutely ignorant of the necessity of fresh air. They and their employers close all windows to prevent the contracting of colds, and, in addition, sleep with their heads covered, this being the manner of sleeping in their native villages. Wherever space will allow, two and three beds are placed in one room, three and sometimes four boys sleeping in one bed. In some places no beds at all are used, but the boys roll themselves up in their blankets and sleep on the floor.

As the shoe-polishing shops are opened between 6 and 6.30 in the morning, the boys are compelled to get up between 5 and 5.30 o'clock, and in large cities, where living quarters are some distance from their place of work, they rise as early as 4.30. They remain at work from morning until 9.30 or 10 at night, excepting in some small cities where the shops are closed about 8 or 8.30 o'clock, and on Saturday and Sunday nights the closing hour is usually later. After the doors to the shoe-shining establishments are closed the boys have to mop the floors, clean the marble stand and other fixtures, and gather up the rags to take home. They then proceed to their living quarters, where supper has to be prepared, although in places where upward of ten boys reside, one of them usually acts as cook in the morning and prepares the night meal. Of the meal prepared in the morning the boy cook at noon takes part to the shop, the other part being left at the house for supper. In the rear of nearly every shoeshining establishment a small space is partitioned off. This is almost without exception filthy and nauseating. Into this place the dinner is brought. Each boy then disappears behind the partition and devours as fast as he can his share of the food, the padrone or his manager apportioning it. They eat singly, and if customers arrive the boy has to suspend eating his dinner and attend to patrons. In the majority of places the noon meal consists of bread and olives or cheese. When the shops are closed and the boys reach home, supper is prepared or heated; after eating, the boys go to bed, all so completely exhausted that many retire with their working clothes on,

divesting themselves of only their coats and shoes. Two of the boys have to remain up to wash the dirty rags used at the shop and hang them around the stove to dry, so that they may be available for use the following day.

In some few places beds and sheets are used, and the boys live under fair conditions; these are exceptions, however, and occur in places run by Greeks who are somewhat Americanized, are married, and have their wives taking care of the living quarters.

Some padrones running shoe-shining establishments in the business sections of the larger cities, in order to save a few dollars in rental, lodge their help nearly an hour's walking distance from their place of business, and as no car fares are allowed by the padrones, the boys have to walk. The time consumed in covering this distance the boys pay by loss of sleep, that is, they have to get up early enough to have breakfast, walk downtown, and be in the business district in time to open the shops by 6 or 6.30 a. m. They have to work every day in the year, as they are permitted no days off. In a good many shops the boys are not contínuously at work and are enabled. to get breathing spells, but they are nevertheless confined to the place during the entire year. So absolute is this confinement in most cases that boys have been in the United States and in the same city three or four years and upward and yet their knowledge of the city they live in is limited entirely to their work place, their living quarters, and the streets they traverse in going to and from work.

Padrones forbid the boys to have much to say to Greeks coming to the shop unless the padrones are present. By this means of complete isolation they are enabled to keep their help in ignorance of the English language and the labor conditions in this country, thereby preventing them from receiving information by contact with persons of their own race and learning that they can do better in other occupations and elsewhere. The boys are constantly watched by either the padrone, the manager, or relatives of the padrone; in every shoe-shining place the padrone has relatives laboring for him who act as spies on the other boys. The moment an outsider engages a boy in conversation those interested crowd around to hear. In nearly all instances the boys refuse to answer questions concerning their ages and their work in the presence of the padrone or his spies; if they do answer, they lie, making such false statements as they have been instructed to make by their employer. To frustrate further any attempts of outsiders to induce them to leave, either for places of like character or for other occupations, many padrones insist on reading, or having their managers read, all letters the boys receive while in their employ and likewise examine letters they send out, not excepting those to their parents. Through this method the padrones are enabled to prevent complaints against themselves from the boys to their parents in Greece, whose good will the padrones are anxious to retain. They dislike to have it reported in Greece that they are mistreating their help, as information travels from village to village easily and creates a tendency to blacklist them, thereby closing in a measure their source of procuring new recruits. In some instances boys are physically punished by padrones, but such cases are not frequent.

EFFECT OF SYSTEM ON ALIENS, MENTALLY, MORALLY, AND PHYSICALLY.

The effect of this system of servitude on boys, mentally, is one that must be expected under the circumstances. They are in the majority unable to read and write their own language, for the reason that they came from villages in Greece where compulsory education has only recently been enforced, and because in their early youth many are hired out in their own country to serve an apprenticeship in stores and cafés, or as bootblacks in large cities. They arrive here rather young and under the close confinement enforced upon them have no time to attend either day or night schools and no other means of securing any education. They therefore remain ignorant of the language and conditions in this country until from three to four years have elapsed after their arrival. By that time, through contact with outsiders-Americans and Greeks-who patronize their places of work, they usually awaken to the great possibilities of advancement within the reach of every poor but ambitious youth in this country. They then write to Greek newspapers to secure English primers and begin the arduous task of learning to read and spell English words, enlisting the assistance of kind-hearted patrons. This marks the first step in their gradual emancipation. In places where boys have to work constantly, owing to rush of business, they lack entirely the opportunity to improve themselves mentally. As a result many young men are found in such places who have been at work shining shoes for over four years with no ambition to attempt anything else.

The continuous work of long hours with no recreation or recuperation in the least, and the physical fatigue incident thereto, arrest perceptibly the development of their power of mind.

Their surroundings are such that they receive no good advice; nor do they hear anything calculated to elevate them morally. The only times they are seen at church are during Holy Week and on Easter Sunday morning, at which times they appear at services between 10 o'clock in the evening and 4 o'clock in the morning. They are permitted to attend on these occasions because the ceremonies in the Greek Church are held late at night or in early morning hours, and therefore their attendance does not interfere with the business of their employers.

The ravages on the constitutions of boys laboring under this system are appalling. The causes that bring about this deplorable result are chiefly the following:

(1) Long hours and close confinement to their work.

(2) The insanitary conditions under which they live.

(3) Their unhealthy manner of sleeping, with total disregard of the necessity of fresh air.

(4) Their close confinement to the work they perform in places overheated and poorly ventilated in the winter.

(5) The stooping position required by their work.

(6) The inadequate nourishment, as a rule, of the food they receive, as the padrones pay for all victuals and make every effort to economize.

(7) The dust of shoes, swarming with microbes, and the injurious polishing chemicals they inhale while at work.

(8) The filthy condition of their bodies, resulting from their failure to bathe.

(9) The inadequacy of their wearing apparel to meet the severity of our winters, so much more trying than those of Greece.

As the boys and the majority of the padrones are ignorant of the dangers of contagion and infection, and unfamiliar with the symptoms of pulmonary disease, they do not consult physicians until the affection is beyond check or control.

The statement which follows, signed by nearly all of the Greek physicians of the city of Chicago, among them Dr. Nicolaos Salopoulos, Greek consul-general for many years, can leave no doubt that the situation is grave.

CONSULATE-GENERAL OF GREECE,

Chicago, November 16, 1910.

MY DEAR SIR: In compliance with your request that I embody in a written statement intended for the United States Immigration Commission what I verbally said to you regarding the ruinous effects of shoe-shining work on young Greeks, I beg to state:

In my extensive practice as physician among Greeks in this city and in my official visits as Greek consul-general to neighboring States, I have had the opportunity of examining and treating numerous boys and studying their living conditions and the character of their work. As a result, I am convinced that all boys under 18 years of age, who labor for a few years in shine establishments, develop serious chronic stomachic and hepatic troubles, which predispose them to pulmonary disease.

Kept in close confinement for long hours, inadequately nourished, living under insanitary and unhygienic conditions, maintaining almost continuously stooping positions, and inhaling dust full of microbes and cheap polish chemicals, the majority of them ultimately contract tuberculosis. Some very few, favored with exceptionally vigorous constitutions, may resist, but if they remain at such work for a long time they generally become affected through contagion.

It is, in my opinion, more humane and infinitely better for young Greeks to be refused admission into the United States than to be permitted to land if they are intended for such employment.

Very truly, yours,

Mr. A. A. SERAPHIC,

Immigrant Inspector, City.

UNITED STATES IMMIGRATION COMMISSION,

N. SALOPOULOS, Greek Consul-General.

United States Congress, Washington, D. C. GENTLEMEN: We, the undersigned Greek physicians, practicing in the city of Chicago, Ill., respectfully submit to your honorable commission the following: This statement embodies in substance what each of us verbally stated to United States Immigrant Inspector A. A. Seraphic with reference to our observations of the effects of shoe-shining work upon the physical condition of young Greeks in this city and vicinity.

In our extensive practice among Greeks we have become familiar with the character of work performed by bootblacks and the conditions under which they live. We have professionally observed that young immigrants laboring in shoeshining places for a period upwards of two years become affected with chronic gastritis and hepatitis. These diseases undermine their constitutions, so that if they continue longer at the same work they become afflicted with pulmonary tuberculosis. Being too ignorant to take precautionary measures, the disease is communicated to others by contagion. The causes we attribute to the close confinement of these boys, their long hours at work, their insanitary and unhygienic living conditions, inadequate nourishment, stooping position, and the inhaling of dust, from shoes, that is full of microbes and mixed with polish

chemicals which irritate and injure the bronchial tubes and pulmonary organs. We deem this occupation highly injurious and destructive to the physique of young Greek boys, and believe that the United States Government would do better to deport them rather than to allow them to land if they are destined to this employment under existing conditions.

Respectfully,

Without exception, all the Greek physicians of our large cities who were interviewed on this subject expressed substantially the same views as those embodied in the foregoing letters.

HISTORY OF THE PADRONE SYSTEM IN THE UNITED STATES IN CONNECTION WITH SHOE-SHINING ESTABLISHMENTS.

The movement to import Greek boys and use them as bootblacks in the United States commenced about fifteen years ago simultaneously with the first efforts of Greeks here to invade the field of the shoe-shining business, which was then almost entirely in the hands of Italians and negroes, confined, however, to booths and stands or chairs located within or just outside of saloons and hotels.

The Greeks were the first to dignify this business by setting up expensively fitted places exclusively for it in locations where high rentals are paid. The promoters of the system were Smerlis, of New Jersey; Coliviras Brothers, of Baltimore, Md.; Yokaris Brothers, of New York; Janopoulos and Manetas Brothers, of Tennessee; Bouzos Brothers, of Louisiana and Alabama; Mihalopoulos Brothers, of Illinois, and others. These were among the first to engage in the business, and as they found it profitable in a short time branched out and established several shops in the leading cities of the United States. The first-mentioned padrone, Smerlis, is credited with having personally started and operated over 100 establishments in the United States. He has now sold practically all his places in this country and is said to maintain only three in Canada. Most of them have become financially independent. Their success led others of this race to embark in the business, and within a few years practically every city in the Union of over 10,000 population had bootblack shops run by Greeks. It was then that the influx of Greek youths into the United States commenced in earnest. Prior to that period few Greek minors arrived, and practically all were destined to the New England States for employment in the cotton mills.