in the Taylor case, fixing the status of alien seamen under the immigration law-or rather placing them, in effect, outside the operation of that law-was not rendered until November 18, 1907, masters of vessels had not, as a rule, been complying with this regulation of the bureau for a considerable period of time prior to that date." The only available source, therefore, from which approximately reliable information regarding the number of deserters could be obtained was the records of the foreign consuls at the different ports of this country to whom, under the navigation law, shipmasters are required to report all desertions. Even the consular records are not wholly complete for the reason that frequently deserters are not missed until just before the ship sails and it is then too late to report the desertion to the consul. In such cases the report is made at the home office.

While the figures given in the following tables do not, therefore, represent the entire number of desertions at the different ports during the period covered by the investigation, it is believed that they do indicate the extent of these desertions sufficiently to justify the statements contained in the foregoing extracts from the reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration with regard to the seriousness of the problem which the immigration authorities are compelled to face.

The following table shows the number of alien seamen deserting at the ports of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston during the three months' period July 1, 1907, to September 30, 1907:

TABLE 1.-Number of alien seamen deserting at the ports of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston, July 1, 1907, to September 30, 1907. [Based on information received to December 1, 1907.]

The marked disparity in the foregoing table between the number of desertions reported to the immigration authorities and the number reported to consuls indicates plainly how little attention was paid by masters of vessels to the regulation requiring them to furnish the immigration authorities with lists of all deserting alien seamen. When one considers that at the port of New York during the period mentioned in the table the consular records show 4,357 desertions, whereas masters of vessels reported to the immigration authorities only 38, it becomes apparent how great a handicap is placed upon the immigration officials in their efforts to prevent the temporary or permanent residence in this country of undesirable aliens who come here under the guise of bona fide seamen.

a See Appendix II, pp. 368-369,

Information with regard to the number of desertions reported to consuls at the principal southern ports for the period July 1, 1907, to September 30, 1907, was not available. It is believed, however, that the number of desertions at these ports was not greatly in excess of the number reported to the immigration authorities. The number reported to the immigration authorities during the period mentioned was 573, distributed as follows: Norfolk, 118; Charleston, 12; Savannah, 43; Key West, 3; Tampa, 12; Pensacola, 86; Jacksonville, 1; Mobile, 41; New Orleans, 257.

The number of deserting alien seamen reported to consuls at the port of New York during the period July 1, 1907, to September 30, 1907, according to the country from which they came, is given in the following table:

TABLE 2.--Number of deserting alien seamen reported to consuls at the port of New York, July 1, 1907, to September 30, 1907, by country from which they [Based on information received to December 1, 1907.]

came.

The following table shows the number of desertions reported to the immigration authorities by masters of vessels at the port of New York from July 1, 1907, to September 30, 1907, according to the date of desertion and the vessel from which it occurred:

TABLE 3.-Number of deserting alien seamen reported to immigration authorities at the port of New York, July 1, 1907, to September 30, 1907.

It is not possible to state with any reasonable degree of accuracy the proportion of deserting seamen who remain permanently, or for a considerable period, in this country. Undoubtedly many deserters leave the country immediately by reshipping on other vessels, but data as to the exact or even approximate number who reship are not available. Nor is it possible, of course, to tell what proportion of those remaining here are persons who, under the immigration law, would have been excluded. While these data would be valuable in showing the extent of evasions of the law they are not necessary to a correct appreciation of the dangerous character of the loophole in the law itself. The important thing is that the opportunity for evading the law is there and those who wish may avail themselves of it.

The ease with which the law may be evaded is demonstrated by the cases of eleven Dalmatians who were on the articles of the AustroAmerican steamship Giulia, which arrived at New York on March 8, 1907. These men immediately deserted, and on or about the 14th of the same month seven of them were accidentally found at an employment agency in search of work, which was offered them at some point in West Virginia. They were arrested on a warrant and brought to Ellis Island, where two of them were found to have syphilis, a dangerous and loathsome disease. They all stated under oath that they had shipped as members of the crew with the intention of gaining admission to this country by smuggling themselves ashore. Another case is that of Ferdinand Kocsa, aged 18, a native of Hungary, employed as steward on the Cunard ship Ultonia, which arrived March 5, 1907. He was arrested as a deserter on April 9, 1907, and taken to Ellis Island, where he declared under oath that the chief steward of the Ultonia said to him and others that "anyone who wanted to leave the ship and not come back may do so after supper, when through with work." Kocsa was even permitted to take his baggage with him when he left the ship.

Joseph Reinisch, another Hungarian, signed as a steward on the same trip. He stated under oath that the third steward put him ashore at night, and that about 25 others left the ship in the same

manner.

Beric Iva, aged 24, deserted from the Cunarder Carpathia on her arrival at New York, September 25, 1906. He was afterwards found in the insane ward of the Wards Island Hospital, and was deported on May 2, 1907.

Csengeri Marton, aged 35, native of Hungary, signed articles to ship as steward on the Cunarder Ultonia to New York only. Upon the ship's arrival he deserted, but subsequently appeared at Ellis Island in a destitute condition, and was found to be suffering from chancre, a venereal disease, which he had contracted before sailing. Morris Rosenblatt, who signed at Liverpool on the articles of the American Line steamship Merion, deserted upon the arrival of the Merion at Philadelphia. He was subsequently apprehended at Waterloo, Iowa, brought back to Philadelphia, and found to be suffering from a bad case of trachoma. His deportation followed.

The foregoing are cases of deserting seamen whom the immigration authorities were able to locate and place under arrest. With respect to the great majority of deserters, however, the immigration officials have little or no information, and the detection and apprehension of such deserters is seldom accomplished. In fact, the number of deserters apprehended as compared with the total number of desertions is so small as to be insignificant. Of 573 deserters reported to the immigration authorities at southern ports during the period July 1, 1907, to September 30, 1907, only 36 were apprehended.

DISCHARGED ALIEN SEAMEN.

The number of alien seamen who enter this country in evasion of the immigration law is not made up entirely from the ranks of those who desert. Ineligible aliens who sign as members of the crew may secure an easy entrance into the country by the simple method of appearing at the consulate and receiving a regular discharge as

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bona fide seamen who intend to reship. All that is necessary in securing a discharge is for the alien to declare his intention to reship on some other vessel. There being no system of supervision to ascertain whether or not he afterwards carries out his declaration to reship, his entrance into the country by this method is accomplished without difficulty and with practically no risk of future detection.

At some of the ports of the country it is the practice of consuls and masters of vessels to require that, before being discharged or paid off, alien seamen shall report to the immigration authorities for examination. This arrangement, however, is one between the consuls or masters of vessels and the immigration authorities. It can not avail to prevent the entry into this country of seamen who announce that they intend to continue their calling as sailors. A simple declaration to reship at once establishes the alien's status as a bona fide seaman and secures his release without medical examination. This is the fact regardless of the alien's physical condition, or of the fact that under the immigration law he would be a person coming within one of the excluded classes.

Of course, where alien seamen announce that they intend to become residents of this country and to give up their calling as sailors, they are liable to inspection at the hands of the immigration officials, to manifesting by the ship's officers, and to the payment of head tax, just as are other incoming immigrants.

The following table shows the number of alien seamen discharged by consuls, the number discharged by immigration officials, and the number admitted as immigrants at the ports of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston, during the period July 1, 1907, to September 30, 1907.

TABLE 4.-Number of alien seamen discharged to reship and number admitted as immigrants at the ports of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston, July 1, 1907, to September 30, 1907.

It is undoubtedly true that a majority of discharged seamen are bona fide sailors who reship at once on other vessels. Probably the percentage of discharged seamen who reship is greater than that of deserting seamen who reship; but there is the best of reasons for believing that, as in the case of deserting seamen, a considerable proportion of discharged seamen never leave the country. Moreover, there is good reason for the belief that of those who remain here a large proportion are undesirable and ineligible aliens who have adopted this means of evading the immigration law.

Five thousand four hundred and eighty alien seamen deserted and 5,405 alien seamen were discharged at the ports of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston during the three months' period July 1, 1907, to September 30, 1907. The length of stay in this country of each one of these seamen was, in effect, a matter entirely within the control of the individual alien. In such a situation the opportunities for an evasion of the immigration laws are too great not to be taken advantage of by that class of aliens who, except for the opportunities thus offered, would be unable to gain an entrance into the country. Unless the situation is remedied, large numbers of criminals, persons afflicted with tuberculosis or with a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease, aliens rejected at foreign ports, and those who for any other reason are ineligible to land, will continue to find in this rôle of bona fide seaman an easy and effective way of evading the immigration law and securing admission to the country.

An interesting test was made in the course of the investigation to discover what proportion of aliens applying at certain employment agencies were aliens who had regularly entered the country as immigrants. The names of 85 applicants for work, who stated that they had just arrived at New York and who gave the names of the vessels upon which they had come, were selected from the records of a certain number of employment agencies. Out of this number only 8 were found, upon a search of the records at Ellis Island, to have entered the country as regular immigrant passengers.

STOWAWAYS.

Stowaways furnish another class of aliens not a few of whom gain admission to this country in violation of law. Despite the vigilance of ships' officers to prevent the concealment of stowaways on board vessels at foreign ports, a considerable number of aliens each year are able to employ this method of securing free passage to the United States. They succeed in boarding the vessel usually with the connivance of some member of the crew, although sometimes they are assisted by outside parties who, for a consideration, smuggle them on board. As a rule they are persons coming within one of the two following classes: Those who have been rejected at the foreign port as ineligible under the immigration law to land in this country; those who are without sufficient funds to pay their passage and are unable to secure employment as members of the crew.

Unless protected by the employees who assisted them to embark, they are usually discovered during the voyage and on arrival in port are reported to the immigration authorities. It not infrequently happens, however, that through the collusion of members of the crew stowaways remain undiscovered during the voyage, and upon the arrival of the vessel in port are smuggled ashore without inspection by the immigration officials and in violation, in many instances, of the provisions of the immigration law which forbid their landing.

As illustrative of this practice, the following instances are cited: On July 5, 1907, the steamship Estonia arrived at New York from the port of Libau, Russia. According to the statements made by Wilhelm Kisling, Heinrich Seibert, Heinrich Rudolf, and Johannes Helwig, they were among 40 or 50 aliens who had been rejected by