Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/140

120 thirteen hundred square feet. Here is transacted all the executive business of the Commission, complaints are heard and investigated, grievances remedied, and the general correspondence, except that relating to the Treasury Department, conducted by a force of several clerks, under the direct supervision of the Deputy Superintendent. To this officer the chief clerks of the various departments make their reports, which are by him laid before the General Agent, who bases his instructions upon them. The General Agent, who unites with these functions the duties of Superintendent, is the chief executive officer of the Commission—the centre and focus of all its business. He controls the interior working machinery of the Commission, transacts its outside business, and conducts its correspondence. He receives all communications to be laid before the Board, and acts generally as secretary at its meetings. He also supervises the inland transportation of emigrants, and his vigilance is constantly exercised to prevent the extortions and impositions in the way of overcharges and delays to which they are subjected. It is his office, moreover, to regulate advances on the luggage of emigrants, which are made from time to time out of the funds of the Commission to enable the owners to proceed to their destination. The business of the Commission before the Legislature is likewise attended to by this officer, in securing such amendments to the emigration laws as the experience of the Commissioners from time to time may suggest.

XIV. The Treasurer's Department is conducted by the Treasurer, Mr. George W. Wheeler, who has most creditably occupied that position since the formation of the Board, and by two clerks under him. It is divided into various branches, having severally charge of correspondence, of the money affairs, and of the business with the various counties and institutions of the State.

A. Correspondence.—One of the clerks, under the authority of the Treasurer, receives daily from the New York General Post-Office all letters deposited in the box of the Commissioners of Emigration, comprising letters addressed to the Commissioners of Emigration; to the Treasurer, to the General Agent and other officers of the Commissioners of Emigration in Castle Garden;