The following table shows the distribution of persons deported from Canada during the years 1907 and 1908, by cause and race:

TABLE 41.-Immigrants deported from Canada after admission, by race or nationality and cause, fiscal years 1907 and 1908.

[Compiled from reports of Superintendent of Immigration, Canada.]

It will be noted that, with the exception of the Bulgarians, all of whom were deported as public charges, the various causes of deportation were well distributed among the races. Particularly suggestive is the fact that the English contributed largely to each class of what Mr. Bryce terms " ineffectives in general."

The Canadian law relating to the deportation of admitted aliens is radically different from the United States law upon the same subject. Under the latter but one class of aliens can be deported for acts committed or because of circumstances due to causes which arise subsequent to their admission to the United States. The exception noted occurs in section 3 of the immigration law of February 20, 1907,′′ which provides that—

any alien woman or girl who shall be found an inmate of a house of prostitution or practicing prostitution at any time within three years after she shall have entered the United States shall be deemed to be unlawfully within the United States and shall be deported * *

b

The United States law, however, also provides: "

That any alien who shall enter the United States in violation of law, and such as become public charges from causes existing prior to landing, shall, upon the warrant of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, be taken into custody and deported to the country whence he came at any time within three years after the date of his entry into the United States.

Appendix H, p. 145.

Section 20, United States immigration act of February 20, 1907. Appendix H, p. 145.

a

A comparison of the last-mentioned provision of the United States law with section 28 of the Canadian act of 1906, previously quoted (p. 49), clearly indicates the radically different policy of the two countries in this regard. Under the Canadian law deportation was not restricted to those cases where the alien became a public charge from causes existing prior to landing, but he could be deported from Canada for causes arising at any time within two years after landing. Because of this difference in the law and policy of the two governments it is impossible to make comparison other than to merely indicate the result obtained under each. This is presented in the following table, which shows the number of immigrants admitted to each country during the fiscal years 1907, 1908, and 1909, and the number deported from each country after admission during the same period:

TABLE 42.-Immigrants admitted and aliens deported after admission, Canada and the United States, fiscal years 1907 to 1909.

[Compiled from reports of Superintendent of Immigration, Canada, and reports of United States Commissioner-General of Immigration.]

As previously stated, no restriction was placed upon the deportation of delinquent, defective, and otherwise undesirable aliens from Canada, provided the cause for such deportation arose within two years after arrival. Under the United States law the process of deportation, except in the case of prostitutes as noted, is accompanied by the necessity of proving illegal entry into the country or, in the case of public charges, that they became such from causes existing prior to landing. Moreover, under the Canadian law municipal authorities are required to cooperate with government officials in making the deportation provision effective, an arrangement which does not and can not exist in the United States. On the other hand, the United States law permits deportation within three years, while the Canadian law under discussion limited such time to two years. All things considered, the possibility of deporting undesirable aliens is much less restricted in Canada than in the United States, but the above table indicates that, in spite of severe legal restrictions and the absence of compulsory assistance from state or municipal authorities, the comparative results obtained in the United States were decidedly favorable.

The possible effect of the adoption in the United States of the deportation provisions in the Canadian law must of necessity be a matter of speculation. A suggestion in this regard, however, based on the census of alien inmates of penal, reformatory, insane, and charitable institutions in the United States made by the Bureau of Immigration in 1908, is interesting if not conclusive. The census referred

a Under the present Canadian law, act of May 4, 1910, the time within which such deportation can be made is fixed at three years.

79520°-VOL 40-11---5

to included all penal, reformatory, and charitable institutions, public and private, including county jails and poorhouses, institutions for feeble-minded, hospitals, asylums, and penal institutions of all classes in the United States and in Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico. In the case of all aliens detained in institutions covered by this census an attempt was made to learn the length of time they had been in the United States. This information could not be secured from all aliens, and the percentages which appear hereafter are based upon answers of aliens from whom this information could be obtained." The data, moreover, are not entirely reliable for the purpose at hand, as the census included some aliens classed as criminals who, while detained in penal institutions at the time, had not actually been convicted of crime. The census also included persons detained for minor offenses as well as serious crimes, and it is probable that even under the sweeping provisions of the Canadian law not all of this class would have been considered deportable.

The results of the census show that 60,501 aliens or unnaturalized foreign-born persons were detained in all penal, reformatory, and charitable institutions, and the approximate number who had been in the United States two years or less was 7,769.

The following table shows this result in detail:

TABLE 43.—Aliens detained in penal, reformatory, and charitable institutions, United States, 1908, by class and length of time in country.

[Compiled from report of United States Commissioner-General of Immigration, 1908.]

The total number of inmates of all institutions enumerated was 610,477, including 60,501 aliens, 73,593 naturalized citizens, and 476,383 native born, and theoretically, under the Canadian law, 7,769, or 1 to every 79 of the whole number detained, were deportable.

MEDICAL OFFICERS AND THEIR DUTIES.

The Canadian immigration laws and regulations confer great administrative authority upon medical officers, especially with reference to the admission, exclusion, and deportation of immigrants. The chief medical officer is directly responsible to the immigration department for the proper enforcement of regulations necessary to prevent the landing of undesirable immigrants. Local medical officers at ports of landing exercise like authority in a more restricted field. The following regulation issued under the Canadian law, and

a Report of United States Commissioner-General of Immigration, 1908, p. 96.

applied alike to the chief and to local medical officers, illustrates the peculiar powers vested in these officials: "

All agents and officials of the department must obey all directions given by the medical officer regarding the deportation or the retention of any immigrants with respect to whose health there has been, or is, any question.

In striking contrast with this is the position of medical officers under the United States immigration law, section 17 of which provides:

* *

*

That the physical and mental examination of all arriving aliens shall be made by medical officers of the United States Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service, who shall certify for the information of the immigration officers and the boards of special inquiry * any and all physical and mental defects or diseases observed by said medical officers in any such alien * * *

*

*

To complete the contrast, attention is directed to the following regulation of the United States Bureau of Immigration relative to medical officers detailed from the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service to the immigration service:

Every officer of such service (United States Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service) detailed for this duty shall, subject to the instructions of the Surgeon-General of the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service, be under the direction of the immigration officer in charge of the port to which he may be detailed.

It will be observed that the authority of the United States medical officer does not extend beyond the mere certification of the physical and mental condition of immigrants, their admission or exclusion being entirely in the hands of the immigration officers, boards of special inquiry, and the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, except in cases where rejection is mandatory under the law.

On the other hand, the Canadian medical officer exercises absolute authority with regard to the admission or rejection of immigrants when the matter of health is in question and his functions as an administrative officer of the government extend even beyond this. In short, the duties of the Canadian medical officer are administrative as well as professional, while the United States medical officer serves merely in an advisory capacity.

CONTRACT LABOR.

Canada's contract-labor policy is exceedingly interesting in comparison with the United States policy in that regard.

d

An immigrant coming to Canada without first having assured himself that some definite employment awaits him is quite likely to be debarred from entering on that account; while an immigrant who comes to the United States with such assurance, and admits it, is necessarily excluded as a contract laborer.e

The difference in the policy of the two countries, as far as individual cases of so-called contract labor are concerned, is strikingly illus

• Report Canadian Superintendent of Immigration, 1909, p. viii. "Appendix H, p. 145.

United States Immigration Laws and Regulations, eighth edition, December 15, 1909, p. 33.

d Circular letter "In re exclusion of over-seas immigrants," Canadian Superintendent of Immigration. Appendix C, p. 105.

e Section 2, United States immigration act of February 20, 1907, Appendix H, p. 145.

trated at Canadian ports where immigrants destined both to Canada and the United States are examined. A single instance observed by a member of the Commission will illustrate the point. At Quebec recently a young Englishman destined to a middle western State was held for the United States board of special inquiry because he innocently admitted to an inspector that his brother, already in the United States, had assured him that he could have work on a railroad if he would come. Acting upon that assurance he left England to join the brother. When examined before the Board, he stated that he did not know the name of the railroad or the nature of the work, but simply had been assured that such a place awaited him. A rigid though sympathetic cross-examination failed to change the young man's story, and he was excluded by the Board, a decision which could hardly have been otherwise under the provision of the United States law which excludes-a

persons

* * *

called contract laborers, who have been induced or solicited to migrate to this country by offers or promises of employment or in consequence of agreements, oral, written, or printed, expressed or implied, to perform labor in this country of any kind, skilled or unskilled.

While the above-mentioned case was being considered before the United States board, Canadian officials were conducting an examination of Canadian-bound immigrants from the same ship in which assured employment was insisted upon as one of the chief requisites. to admission.

Canada's policy in this regard is clearly illustrated by the following from an advertising pamphlet issued by the authority of the minister of the interior:

Important.-Farmers, farm laborers, and female domestic servants are the only people the Canadian immigration department advises to emigrate to Canada. All others should get definite assurance of employment in Canada before leaving home and have money enough to support them for a time in case of disappointment.

PROTECTION OF IMMIGRANTS.

Under the Canadian system the official interest of the government in the immigrant continues until he has secured employment or reached his final destination in Canada. At many points in the districts to which immigrants go the immigration department maintains agencies which assist the newcomers, and so-called immigration halls for the free accommodation of newly arrived immigrants have been established at various places. The Dominion government also maintains free information or employment bureaus in the principal centers for the benefit of employers of labor as well as persons seeking employment. Through these bureaus the immigration department and its agents abroad are kept informed as to the demand for labor in various parts of the country, and so are enabled to, in part, direct immigrants to points where assured employment awaits them. many cases the agents abroad advise the employment bureaus of the coming of immigrants in order that arrangements for their employment may be completed by the time they reach Canada. The Cana

In

a Section 2, United States immigration act of February 20, 1907. Appendix H, p. 145.

b"Classes Wanted in Canada." Issued by the authority of the minister of the interior, Ottawa, 1909..