Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/150

128 buildings have been replaced by substantial brick structures, sewers have been built, walks laid out, sea-walls erected, and not a single year has passed in which the Commissioners have not spent thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars for the benefit and succor of those who are entrusted to their care. It would be tedious and tiresome to narrate the history of each improvement suggested and carried out for the amelioration of their condition. It will be sufficient to give a description of the buildings and institutions at present comprised in the establishment on Ward's Island. Before doing so, however, it will be necessary to state, in a few words, the history of the connection of the Marine Hospital on Staten Island with the other establishments of the Commissioners, which connection existed for just sixteen years, that is, from May 5, 1847, to April 29, 1863.

When the Commission was organized in 1847, it had no lands, nor buildings, nor means. Hence it was a wise policy to commit to its charge the Quarantine grounds and hospitals, even saddled with the condition that the Commissioners of Emigration had to receive and gratuitously nurse non-emigrants, such as sailors and sick citizens. In this way, the indispensable means were at once provided for receiving and caring for arriving immigrants, who were affected with various contagious and infectious diseases, among which cholera, small-pox, and ship-fever were widely prevalent. The number of sick was appalling. In the first eight years of the Commission, nearly 50,000 were treated within these hospitals. Since that time, large hospitals on Ward's Island have been erected, owing to which the sanitary condition of the immigrants has greatly improved. Accommodations for all emigrants not affected with infectious diseases being afforded on Ward's Island, the reasons for placing the Marine Hospital in the charge of the Commissioners ceased to exist. There was, in addition, other strong and positive ground for a change; it was unjust to those from whom the emigrant fund is collected to make that fund to contribute towards the support of the Quarantine and the maintenance of the health laws. In years in which the means of the Commissioners were seriously diminished by a decrease of immigration, it was hardly possible for them to maintain those who paid the commutation money. Nevertheless, the Commissioners were