Most of the boys originally employed as bootblacks in the United States came from the province of Arcadia, district of Tripoli, for the reason that all the padrones operating shoe-shining places here come from that section of Greece. A great number of the youths of this particular section follow the occupation of bootblacks at home, as tourists will learn by conversing with bootblacks in the principal cities in Greece and also in Turkey, where Greeks form a large element in the population.

As the demand from the United States for boys increased so that this particular province could not meet it, recruits were drafted from other sections of Greece and from Turkey. The padrones continued to open new places in various cities of the United States. From the ranks of those who worked under the system new padrones sprang up, started new places, and enforced the rules of the system as rigidly on their help as they had been applied to themselves. The capital required to embark in this business is inconsiderable, the fixtures, chairs, and all paraphernalia being available on credit. Hence it became easy for Greeks with a little capital to operate such places, provided they could procure the necessary help. This was an easy matter for them to arrange. They wrote letters to their relatives or friends in Greece and brought over all their youthful kinsmen, or sons of their friends, who naturally regarded them as guardians and protectors.

In the year 1903 Smerlis and some other padrones conceived the idea of organizing a trust of the shoe-shining business in this country, and several conferences were held with that end in view. They felt that they could entirely control their labor by having the parents of boys in Greece give mortgages on their property to some representative of the padrones, guaranteeing the time of service of their sons in their employ in the United States. The padrones thought this could be easily accomplished, as it had been successfully tried in individual cases. They proceeded to make arrangements for the consolidation of their interests, but investigations directed by the Bureau of Immigration at this time resulted in the deportation of many boys and gave the padrones the impression that their prosecution was intended under the criminal statutes.

Under the act of 1885 and that of March 3, 1903, no criminal prosecution of any importer of labor could succeed, as the only punishment provided for was a fine of $1,000, with no imprisonment. It was useless to secure judgments against padrones for violation of these laws, as all their funds were sent to Greece and the money that they retained here was kept in places where it could not be reached. By the substitution of the words " a misdemeanor " for the word "unlawful "in section 4 of the act of February 20, 1907, it became possible to institute criminal proceedings against some of them under section 5440 of the United States Revised Statutes, charging them with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States. Where it was possible they were charged also with violation of section 8 of the immigration act of February 20, 1907.

See p. 375.

SEC. 8. That any person, including the master, agent, owner, or consignee of any vessel, who shall bring into or land in the United States, by vessel or otherwise, or who shall attempt, by himself or through another, to bring into or land in the United States, by vessel or otherwise, any alien not duly admitted by an immigrant inspector or not lawfully entitled to enter the United

The Bureau of Immigration was instrumental in indicting and convicting quite a number of padrones under the conspiracy statute and under section 8 of the immigration act, and these convictions were purposely given wide publicity in the Greek press. This had a discouraging effect on some importers and rendered others extremely careful in importing youths from Greece. They now import their labor indirectly through relatives in Greece in a manner that places the padrones almost beyond the reach of our criminal statutes. Some have desisted from importing labor, and by paying better wages are enabled to engage young immigrants brought in by their parents or others. The fact that boys are in great demand in shoe-shining places in the United States has been in the past and is now well advertised throughout Greece. Since the passage of the act of February 20, 1907, and the insertion of the provision in section 2a which excludes, at the discretion of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor or under such rules and regulations as he may from time to time prescribe, all children under 16 years of age unless accompanied by one or both of their parents, it is not uncommon for parents of youths destined to the system in the United States to accompany their children in order to insure their landing at the ports of entry. Without exception, during primary inspection or before the boards of special inquiry they state that they bring their children to this country for the purpose of placing them in schools and giving them an education, and that it is their bona fide intention to send for their families as soon as they are able to do so.

Under the present immigration statutes such statements, if aliens are physically eligible, generally land them, for their likelihood to become public charges is easily overcome by having some one of their friends, relatives, or townsmen telegraph to the officers at the ports of entry their willingness and ability to befriend the aliens. A week after landing the father will deliver his son into the hands of the padrone as prearranged, directly or indirectly, through correspondence. In some few cases, where no agreement exists, the father generally proceeds to Chicago to one of the Greek saloons or restaurants on South Halsted Street, where he is sure to meet friends and be taken care of. As Chicago is regarded the most likely market to hire boys who are brought there by their parents, padrones throughout the United States have some relative or friend represent them in that city in securing the boys' services. Within a week of the arrival of any boy in Chicago he can find his way into some shoeshining establishment, east, west, north, or south.

Chicago offers the best advantages for boys destined to the system in the United States in violation of law; next to Chicago, other cities in the interior, away from the ports of entry, are desirable. Destinations to cities not distant from the ports of entry are studiously avoided, because the heads of the system here, and those interested in Greece in its behalf, know well that the nearer to a port

States shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, on conviction, be punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or by both such fine and imprisonment for each and every alien so landed or brought in or attempted to be landed or brought in.

" See p. 732.

of entry the destination of a young alien is the more likely he is to be detained by the immigration authorities; his examination is more rigid, and those relatives or friends he claims to have are required to call in person. On the other hand, the farther the destination from a port of entry, the less rigid the examination is if the aliens are provided with a good address and their railroad tickets; the likelihood of requiring their relatives or friends to call in person is further removed. In other words, they know that their cases can not stand a searching investigation and they plan accordingly. In addition to these reasons, Chicago is advantageous to padrones because every province of Greece is there well represented in the Greek colony, and this enables them to have some friend to meet those they expect and direct them to their destination.

Padrones operating in such distant localities as Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, in importing labor from Greece have had the aliens go to Chicago, whence they were directed to their final destinations. This method, besides rendering the admission of the aliens easier, does not attract the attention of officers to the places of the padrones, and thereby prevents detection. In some instances boys are instructed in Greece to report to a saloon keeper in Chicago or in some other western city, and they do not know their actual destination. Upon their arrival the saloon keeper forwards them, as prearranged with him.

Early in 1907 many Greek boys landing in the United States either came in charge of pseudofathers or falsely claimed that they were destined to cities in the interior to some one who they alleged was their father. Pseudofathers were adult immigrants bearing distant or no relationship at all to the boys they brought in as their sons. They did this either for pay or, in the majority of cases, as a favor to the parents of the boys in Greece or the padrones in the United States to whom the boys were destined. In such cases the boys assumed the surname of the pseudofather and the claim was made during primary inspection that they were father and son. The examining inspectors at the ports of entry, being unable to devote much time to such cases by separating them and putting them through a rigid examination to determine the truth or falsity of the relationship claimed, generally passed them. In like manner boys were instructed in Greece to assume the surnames of persons residing in the interior of the United States and claim at the ports of entry that they were en route to join their fathers, each naming as his father the party whose name he had assumed. If the boys were not landed the parties whom the boys claimed as fathers sent affidavits to the immigration officers at the ports of entry embodying the false statement that the detained boys were their sons. Upon receipt of said affidavits the immigration officers, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, generally allowed the boys to land.

As before stated, many of the boys who now arrive as intended recruits to the system are brought by their parents, who find it less expensive to accompany them in person than to run the risk of having them deported.

There are still now and then young aliens landed fraudulently in charge of pseudo fathers, but the number of such violations of law has been materially decreased.

EFFECT OF SYSTEM IN CERTAIN INDUSTRIES.

The effect of the system as enforced by the Greeks in the shoeshining business here has been such as to enable them to displace the Italians and other races and leave the Greeks in almost entire control of the field throughout the country. There are several thousand shoeshining places in the United States operated by Greeks, and with few exceptions they are under the padrone system. Their success even at the outset was a foregone conclusion, as the basis on which they managed their business was, and is now, such as to render competition impossible. No other race could have competed with them in this line unless they were able to secure their labor under equally favorable conditions; in the majority of cases the Greeks derive an income from each boy amounting to from $100 to $200 a year, and in some cases to from $300 to $500 a year. This is explained as follows: The wages paid by the padrones now to young Greeks in shoe-shining establishments range from $80 per year minimum to $250 per year maximum. The average wages are from $120 per year to $180 per year. The boys are bound by agreement to turn their tips over to their padrones. In most places, as soon as the tipping patron has departed, the boy deposits his tip in the register; in some places tips are deposited in a separate box to which the padrone holds the key. In small cities, and even in the poorest locations, each boy's tips may exceed the sum of 50 cents per day, while in large cities the tips average higher.

The Greek padrone, therefore, who pays $180 or less wages per year, generally receives back more than the amount of wages in tips alone. If paying such low wages he may even deduct their amount and the boys' boarding expenses-a sum seldom exceeding $40 per year for each boy-and still have enough left to amply repay him for allowing the boys to work in his place. In other words, from the total amount of tips-money that belongs to the boys by rightthe padrone is enabled to pay the boys' annual wages and still have a respectable sum left; all this independently of the legitimate profits of his business.

CAUSES IN GREECE AND IN THIS COUNTRY WHICH RENDER THE ALIENS WILLING TO SUBMIT TO THE SYSTEM.

The poorer classes in Greece, and particularly those of the provinces from which bootblacks are drafted, have little ambition to educate their children, because they themselves are to a large degree ignorant, and unable to appreciate the value of education.

The Greek peasant is therefore more concerned with the income he is able to derive by placing his children at work than with edu cating them. As heads of families of the Greek peasantry are gener ally poor and overburdened by the excessive interest rates exacted from them by usurers, and also by the system of providing a dowry for each of their daughters, they look upon their male offspring as the means of lightening the burden of providing for their families and furnishing dowries for their daughters. It is a common occurrence in Greece, as well as among the Greeks in the United States, for the young men who have several sisters in their family to labor for

fifteen and twenty years under conditions bordering on privation to save enough to pay the dowry required for each one of their sisters when she becomes of marriageable age. These requirements add greatly to the already heavy burdens of the people, and as in Greece females do not work outside of their homes, the earning capacity of a family is restricted to the male members, and the father loses no time in placing his boys in employment.

In Greece and Turkey they are hired out to grocers, café or restaurant keepers, peddlers, and bootblacks. There they serve an apprenticeship of three months to a year, gratis, and then commence to earn a salary of from 50 to 100 drachmae (about $10 to $20) per year. Their annual wages seldom exceed the latter amount. The compensation received by these boys in Greece is considered by the boys and their parents satisfactory, for the reason that such amounts suffice in many instances to cover the living expenditures of the entire family of a peasant for a year.

Boys hired out in Greece and Turkey to grocery-saloon combination stores are compelled to work from 6 o'clock in the morning until 11 and 12 o'clock at night, and sometimes later if required by the presence of drinking parties in the places. They are as a rule treated unkindly by their employers, because saloon and coffee-house keepers in those countries are generally of the undesirable class of citizens. The boys exhibit wonderful qualities of patience and endurance under the most trying conditions. This is attributable to their realization of the family responsibilities and obligations which devolve upon them as described above.

The rights of workmen are little understood by the laboring classes in the interior of Greece, and, as a result, when an opportunity is offered a peasant to place his son at work in the United States at high wages he deems himself fortunate. He instructs his son, therefore, not to quit the service of the padrone he is assigned to here, unless he (the father) so directs. Immigrants who come with their sons to the United States also instruct them likewise, and as soon as they accomplish their object of placing the boys at work in the system, in the majority of cases they leave for the West, where they remain as railroad laborers long enough to earn their passage back to Greece.

The boys in their helplessness believe that were it not for the opportunity of employment offered them by padrones they would starve because of their ignorance of the language and labor conditions in this country. As a matter of fact, during their first and second years in the United States they are profuse in their expressions of gratitude to their employers for giving them the opportunity to earn their bread and some money. As the process of their becoming familiar with the country's opportunities and language is very slow, correspondingly retarded is their realization of the fact that labor enjoys rights in this country under which such an abuse as the padrone system need not be tolerated.

Some padrones, through intentional misrepresentations to these ignorant boys, succeed in convincing them that justice is seldom administered in this country, and that it is purchasable; that the police and all officers are grafters, intent principally upon extorting blackmail rather than performing their duty. In this way they make