tions. That the immigrants admitted represent as good a type as was the case in any recent year is hardly subject to doubt. Private aid societies state that the demand for assistance to newly arrived aliens has been substantially reduced. The statistical showing that more immigrants receive assistance to come in may safely be accepted as an evidence of greater confidence and corresponding frankness.

Published reports are liable to create a false impression about the character of our immigration. We hear much of those who stop in a few congested cities, and this condition does present a question deserving of serious consideration. We do not, however, hear of those who go into the interior, and who in a few States at least constitute the majority of the farm owners. Furthermore, the fact is overlooked that, for illustration, in the last fiscal year 333,262 aliens departed from this country as compared with 838,172 arrivals. Finally, it is undoubtedly true that the postal savings banks now influence many aliens to keep in this country the savings which they heretofore sent abroad.

The trend to congested centers has been resisted by a vigilant enforcement of the contract-labor clause, while the Division of Information has afforded every proper encouragement to go to the farms.

In one respect, however, there is ground for just complaint. The authorities of several States insist that their eleemosynary institutions have too large a percentage of alien inmates. Although it seems that the larger contribution of these alien inmates was made by immigrants of earlier years, the complaint appears to be well founded even now. Investigation shows that the chief difficulty lies with the system of primary inspection. Admissions upon appeal constitute a relatively small proportion of these inmates. A certain proportion of such mistakes is unavoidable; but it is believed that substantial protection can be secured by strengthening the primary inspection force, especially the medical staff. This situation has been made the subject of a recommendation by the Treasury Department and the Department of Commerce and Labor for an increased appropriation. A larger medical staff, with more alienists and the allowance of more time for examination, would, in all probability, relieve the chief difficulty under which the service now labors in this respect. It has been the general policy to administer the law strictly to exclude willful offenders, but to use the discretionary authority which the law confers to relieve in cases of mere misfortune. Especial consideration has been given to those cases in which incoming aliens sustain immediate relation to persons already admitted. Such immigrants represent in some degree the rights and interests of persons who have been naturalized or who have acquired a domicile. It is impossible to pass upon the cases of such immigrants regardless of the family relations which attach to them.

The law itself recognizes the propriety of this policy. It provides in terms that when an alien has declared his intention to become a citizen his immigrant wife or children suffering from a contagious disease shall be admitted, if it is determined that the disorder is easily curable or that they can be admitted to land without danger to other persons. Obviously no medical examiner will assume the responsibility of giving an affirmative certificate that any contagious disease is easily curable or that admission may be granted without danger to other persons. It is, therefore, the accepted policy, for illustration, in cases of trachoma and other similar diseases, to permit detention upon condition that proper hospital treatment without cost to the Government be secured by the execution of a bond.

The law is silent with respect to the families of aliens who are domiciled here but who have not yet filed a declaration of intention to become citizens. Where the intention to remain here has been clearly established, and other conditions have been shown to be favorable, it has also been the policy to detain such contagious cases for treatment, with provision for proper protection against danger and cost.

In a considerable proportion of cases the necessity for ultimate rejection has not been avoided. But it is believed that the readiness to relieve and the success in the greater number of cases does much to inspire the persons immediately concerned with confidence and ready submission to the controlling purpose of the law.

The immigration law is also silent with respect to the foreign-born children of naturalized citizens. The practice had been to regard them as immigrants without claim to special right or consideration. This resulted in the anomalous situation that the foreign-born children of aliens who had merely declared the intention to become citizens received the protection for which the law provides, while the children of naturalized citizens were denied all protection. Still further, while few States provide for the segregated treatment of such diseases as trachoma, naturalized citizens were not even permitted to provide for the treatment of their dependent children in hospitals. Manifestly no such result was intended. An examination of the statutes bearing upon the question has led me to the conclusion that the immigration law was not intended to apply to the minor foreign-born child of a naturalized citizen; but that under the naturalization statute such child is in a position, by taking up residence in this country, to perfect the inchoate right of citizenship which has been created for it by the naturalization of the father. The law says that the naturalization of an alien shall confer citizenship upon his minor children, provided that this citizenship shall not begin until the child begins its residence in this country. Properly speaking, these children do not belong to the immigrant class.

This conclusion, it is true, is in conflict with the decisions of several courts, relying upon a decision of the United States Supreme Court. Since that decision was rendered, the naturalization law has, however, been so amended that, in my judgment, the conclusion reached by me can not be avoided. Furthermore, the importance of the question is greatly overestimated with respect to the number of persons who are affected by the ruling.

Generally speaking, it has seemed to me that where aliens come to join a family established in this country a liberal policy is properly applied. The physical condition of incoming aliens is of course of great importance, but so is the confidence and good will of those who have already been accepted. The increased cost is inconsiderable, especially when it is remembered that the head tax collected from immigrants during the last fiscal year exceeded the entire appropriation for the Immigration Service for the same year by $280,264. A more detailed discussion of the work of the several Bureaus follows.

66247-12-2

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY.

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF CLERK.

NEW BUILDING.

Congress at its last session approved the Department's recommendation for the enactment of a law giving the head of the Department authority to enter into a five-year lease for a building sufficiently large to take care of all of those branches of the Department in the District of Columbia now in rented quarters, except the Bureau of the Census. The Department has accepted an offer to erect a building which it is expected will be delivered not later than September 1 of next year and which it is believed may be occupied until the new Government building is erected. The loss of efficiency in administration due to the fact that the bureaus which will go into this building are now occupying three entire buildings and parts of three other buildings, all at different locations, is very much greater than might appear. This situation will now be corrected, as will also other equally important conditions, such as lack of proper light and ventilation and unsatisfactory protection of employees and property against the danger of fire. In fact, the effort to obtain a modern sanitary building was undertaken primarily because it was desired to remedy as soon as possible the unsatisfactory conditions under which many of the employees are required to labor.

LABOR-SAVING MACHINERY.

The introduction of labor-saving devices of many kinds throughout the Department has been uniformly encouraged. Machines for making photographic reproductions of letters and documents have been installed for the purpose of saving the time of typewriters. Dictating machines have been provided in a number of offices for the purpose of saving the time of correspondence clerks and stenographers, and computing machines of various kinds have been purchased whenever it has been found that they could be used to advantage. A mechanical section has been installed in the Division of Publications for duplicating circular letters, notices, etc. The large number of adding machines in the possession of the Bureau of the Census has afforded an opportunity for considerable saving in other

branches of the Department, as many of these machines have been distributed where they could be used to advantage, instead of buying new machines. It is thought that the actual deterioration in these machines through moderate use will not be appreciably greater than the deterioration that would result from mere idleness.

PURCHASE OF SUPPLIES.

Much delay and confusion in the purchase of supplies has been occasioned during the past few months by the more strict enforcement of the law relating to such purchase (sec. 4 of the act of June 17, 1910), under recent decisions of the accounting officers. No criticism of these decisions is intended, but the sudden change from a rather loose to a strict construction of the law resulted in an appreciable increase in the details attendant upon the purchase and distribution of supplies. It is quite apparent that the law referred to ought to be amended. While it is undoubtedly true that the General Supply Committee, established by this law, has justified its creation, it may be suggested that the jurisdiction of this committee now includes purchases that were not contemplated. It has been urged that the annual schedule of supplies, which contains all those articles for which contracts are made by the Secretary of the Treasury upon the recommendation of the General Supply Committee, now includes articles which apparently are not common to the needs of two or more departments as required by the law. Great advantage undoubtedly results from a central contracting agency for all articles that are in fact common to the needs of the departments, but on the other hand there would be a disadvantage in the inclusion in the general supply schedule of articles which are needed for special purposes only.

The decisions of the accounting officers referred to above have raised the doubt in the mind of purchasing officers whether they have the authority to purchase a particular article not actually named in the schedule except through the Secretary of the Treasury. Resolving the doubt in such manner as to be on the safe side and to avoid the possible suspension of accounts, the Secretary of the Treasury has been asked to include in the supply schedule articles that are not strictly common to the needs of the several departments. The result is that the supply schedule has a tendency to grow to proportions which were probably not anticipated by the framers of this legislation.

The remedy for this condition would seem to be to so amend the law as to make it clear that the heads of departments retain the right to purchase independently of the general schedule such articles as are needed to meet special needs. In this way there is greater certainty that the Department will get an article of the exact quality