WAR ACTIVITIES.

Aside from the duties performed by this office in connection with the issuance of passport permits the work performed under this heading was all incident to the detention and disposition of the cases of alien enemies and the taking over in this port of a number of Dutch vessels and the disposition of their crews, all of which was fully covered in our last year's report.

In connection with the enforcement of the selective service law this office acted solely in a cooperative capacity, reporting to the local representatives of the Department of Justice all cases of Chinese applicants for return certificates and for admission to the United States who were eligible for military duty and who had seemingly failed to comply with that law.

It might be mentioned in this connection, however, that 23 of our employees either volunteered or were called for military duty under the provisions of the selective service act, 1 additional employee having proceeded overseas in connection with Red Cross work, and another having resigned to cooperate with the Young Men's Christian Association as an instructor at one of the Military camps. Of those temporarily leaving the service for military duty, 14 have returned and assumed their duties

here.

PERSONNEL.

It can be truthfully said that the work at this station has been performed with a better spirit of cooperation, with a higher degree of efficiency, and greater dispatch (considering the comparative inexperience of some of the more recent additions to the force and the initiation of new methods of procedure in some branches of the work) than at any previous time in the station's history. This is due, primarily, to the cheerful response and conscientious effort manifested by the entire personnel.

PASSPORT-PERMIT WORK.

Immigration officers in this district, acting as permit agents of the State Department, handled 7,996 applications of aliens for permits to depart from the country, 'of which 6,928 were granted, and 144 refused. There were also granted 1,440 citizens' permits for travel to the insular possessions and 14 such permits refused.

Sixty-four aliens' applications were withdrawn and 136 permits were not called for, 85 cases being pending at the close of business June 30, 1919.

It is impossible accurately to state the cost of performing this work by reason of the fact that many employees not actually assisting in the execution of this class of work were paid from the appropriation "National security and defense, 1919, United States Department of Labor (passport permits)."

By reason of inadequate and ill-adapted office accommodations and, for a time, the fact that all of the personnel were unfamiliar with their new duties incident to the promulgation of the passport-permit regulations, there was necessarily considerable confusion and delay when this work was first undertaken; but as the employees became more familiar with the requirements, the work progressed more speedily and smoothly, and since suitable office accommodations have been provided there has been no further complaint from any source.

COMMISSIONER OF IMMIGRATION, SEATTLE, WASH., IN CHARGE OF DISTRICT NO. 16, COMPRISING THE STATE OF WASHINGTON AND WESTERN CANADIAN BORDER PORTS AND STATIONS.

APPLICATIONS (INCLUDING CHInese).

A total of 21,502 aliens applied for entry at all ports in District No. 16 during the year just closed, of which number 19,915 were found admissible and 1,393 were excluded and deported. The cases of 194 applicants are pending at the date of this report, while 7,904 United States citizens returning to resume their residence in this country were admitted. Including the 1,393 aliens who were debarred, the total number of passengers of all classes examined was 336, 187.

Three hundred and forty-one aliens of the Chinese race were admitted on primary examination and 17 by boards of special inquiry; 36 were debarred under the exclusion laws and 2 under the general immigration law. During the year 5,300 Japanese were admitted and 29 debarred. Of those admitted, 4,235 were of the nonlaboring classes and 1,065 were laborers. All of the latter held proper passports, 139446°-19-23

excepting 137, 129 of whom were deserting seamen, recorded statistically as admitted aliens. Of the Japanese who were excluded, 20 were laborers without passports. Aliens numbering 7,204, and 5,745 American citizens, departing, were recorded during the year.

At Canadian border ports, 12,760 alien applications for admission were acted upon, with 11,377 admissions and 1.313 rejections. At Canadian seaports, 2,086 aliens applied for entrance, 2.080 of these being admitted and 6 excluded.

DEPORTATIONS (EXPULSIONS, INCLUDING CHINESE).

One hundred and seven aliens were ordered deported on departmental warrants, 5 of whom were anarchists and 47 persons who had been found teaching or advocating the unlawful destruction of property. This number does not, of course, represent the volume of work that was performed under the above heading, for there were considered in the offices of this district the cases of 5,444 aliens, with respect to 2,139 of whom investigations were conducted, and 205 warrants of arrest issued, under 167 of which hearings were held. In 64 cases, warrants were canceled by the depart

ment.

Four Chinese and 5 Japanese aliens were among those deported on warrant, the charge as to all of the former and 3 of the latter being entry without inspection.

SEAMEN.

A total of 54,127 alien seamen (including 7,452 Chinese), members of crews of 1,208 arriving vessels, were examined, and seamen's identification cards were issued to 7,901 alien and 76 citizen seamen.

For the fiscal year 1918 a total of 15,370 alien seamen were reported, an increase for 1919 of 38,757, accounted for mainly by the fact that in previous fiscal years the total alien seamen arrivals from British North American ports were not given in the annual report, only the Chinese employed on vessels plying between the United States and British North American ports being listed and inspected upon arrival. Two hundred and six aliens were reported as deserters. Of this number, 103 Japanese, 2 Chinese, and 8 of all other nationalities deserted their vessels before they were inspected and identification cards issued to them; 58 Japanese, 4 Chinese, and 31 of all other nationalities left their vessels and were logged as deserters after identification cards had been issed to them granting them permission to land in pursuit of their calling.

The number of Japanese who leave their vessels by deserting is steadily on the increase. Most of them are young men who have had a very limited seafaring experience, and rarely, if ever, does one of them ship out of the United States as a seaman. It is evident that it is a well established practice among the Japanese for laborers, who can not obtain passports to come to the United States, to secure employment on a Japanese vessel destined for a United States port, with the sole object in view of deserting at the first opportunity upon arrival here and engaging in laboring pursuits ashore. Japanese masters continue to deprive seamen of their identification cards; refuse them shore leave and place guards aboard to prevent seamen from quitting their vessels. In many instances whole crews with the exception of officers have been locked up every night during the stay of the vessel in port to prevent their desertion. Aside from the question of the right of a master to refuse a seaman shore leave or to confine him aboard ship in order to prevent him from deserting, the fact remains that if Japanese masters had not taken these precautions to keep their crews aboard there would have been in many instances wholesale desertions and hundreds of Japanese seamen who were anxious to get ashore to engage in laboring occupations would have gained an entrance.

The crews of the passenger steamers of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Co. and the Grand Trunk Pacific Steamship Co., the former making two trips daily and the latter biweekly trips between Puget Sound and British Columbia ports, have since January 1, 1919, in accordance with bureau instructions, been examined at the ports of Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia, respectively, with satisfactory results. It is hoped that sections 4 to 18, both inclusive, relative to seamen, of the bill (H. R. 15302) to prohibit immigration for a period of four years and for other purposes, will be embodied in whatever legislation is enacted at the present session of Congress to regulate immigration. The enactment of the said sections into law will, with the promulgation of stringent regulations for their enforcement, remove many of the defects in the present laws regulating seamen and effectively close gaps therein through which inadmissible aliens now succeed in gaining entry into this country under the guise of seamen.

STOWAWAYS.

Fourteen stowaways, all of whom were Japanese, were found on arriving vessels. They were all excluded and deported.

No vessels were searched for stowaways during the year owing to the lack of a sufficient number of officers to do the work. The 14 stowaways were discovered and reported by the masters of the vessels on which they were secreted.

ESCAPES OF ALIENS FROM VESSELS AND STATION, EXCLUSIVE OF SEAMEN.

Eight aliens escaped from detention house, Seattle, and 2 from Snohomish County jail, Everett; all were held on departmental warrants.

FINANCIAL AFFAIRS.

Head tax was collected aggregating $99,108, and the total fines assessed were $2,520, $1,000 being on account of illiterate aliens, while $1,500 was collected in fines in criminal prosecutions in the courts.

The allotment to this district for 1919 was $60,000, and disbursements thereunder totaled $58,486.

CRIMINAL CASES.

Five convictions were secured out of 8 cases before the courts, 2 cases being still pending.

WRITS OF HABEAS CORPUS.

All of the habeas corpus cases instituted and tried in the courts of the district during the year were in the cases of those arrested and ordered deported on the charge of being anarchists or of advocating or teaching the unlawful destruction of property. A number of other cases of the same kind were instituted in the district of New York, the aliens having been arrested in this district, ordered deported and taken to New York for deportation. In some of the cases second writs were sued out in New York after similar suits had been dismissed here.

Fifty-five writs were sued out this year in addition to 1 pending from 1918. The writs were dismissed in 48 cases, and in 8 the aliens were released by the court.

WHITE-SLAVE MATTERS.

Twenty-three persons were apprehended in the act of bringing in women or girls for prostitution or other immoral purposes; 19 immoral alien women and girls were excluded and 7 arrested, after 56 investigations concerning aliens of this class.

Although a large number of investigations and arrests have been made of the immoral classes as shown by the foregoing report, the investigations have developed the fact that there have been but comparatively few cases where it was believed that successful prosecutions could be maintained.

CONTRACT LABOR.

One hundred and seventy-five alien contract laborers were rejected, 74 of whom appealed to the department. Of the latter, 17 were admitted, 44 excluded, 8 admitted temporarily under bond, and 5 cases are awaiting decision at the close of the year. William J. McConnell, the section 24 inspector for this district, has devoted practically all his time during the past year to labor employment and passport work. No suits have been instituted during the year.

A number of Japanese have arrived at our ports under contract and without having made applications to the Secretary under the provisions of rule 27. The employers contended that they had not had sufficient notice of the necessity of doing this or that they were of the opinion that they were not violating the law, and in most cases were permitted to file nunc pro tunc applications and allowed to enter either on bond or otherwise. Notice has now been served that this privilege would not be permitted in the future, and that a failure to make the necessary application prior to arrival would cause their rejection and deportation.

Acting under the provisions of rule 27, the department has granted the petition of the Canadian Bankers' Association to import such skilled and confidential help as may be necessary to properly operate the Canadian bank agencies which their members have established in the United States. This is certainly a good arrangement

and tends to promote a better feeling in the international affairs of the two countries so far as the banking interests of each are concerned.

Our officers make every effort to properly enforce the provisions of the contractlabor laws. In view of the fact that evidence of prior employment must in a large majority of cases be secured from the admissions or confessions of the aliens themselves, it is somewhat surprising that so many violations are discovered, especially as the aliens are, as a rule, of the most intelligent classes. Undoubtedly many more secure admission than are detected and rejected.

WORK OF THE MEDICAL OFFICERS.

During the year the medical officers have certified 1,124 aliens as being afflicted with disease of different kinds. The great majority of them were afflicted with uncinariasis (hookworm).

All passengers arriving in this district are now being examined by regular officers of the Public Health Service.

In addition to examining the arriving passengers and crews of vessels, these officers examine and treat all seamen, who are found to be afflicted with such diseases as require their detention for hospital treatment. The Public Health Service has no building at Seattle for the treatment of hospital cases, but a bill is now pending before Congress for the erection of such a structure. All aliens certified for uncinariasis are treated in the detention house by private physicians. Uncinariasis is not now regarded as a dangerous contagious disease, but the Surgeon General has expressed his opinion "that any alien afflicted with hookworm should either be excluded or held until cured." In consequence of this the bureau has advised boards of special inquiry that they should generally exclude aliens so afflicted, allowing the privilege of appeal and of making application for hospital treatment.

Eighty-eight alien seamen were certified by the medical officers during the year, 45 of said certifications being for dangerous or loathsome contagious diseases. All of the 45 were placed in hospital for treatment.

SMUGGLING OPERATIONS.

During the war, owing to the vigilance of both the Canadian and the United States immigration officers, there were but comparatively few surreptitious entries of aliens from either country into the other. Since the armistice was signed surreptitious entries are again on the increase. This is partly due to the fact that labor conditions are much better in the northwestern part of our country than in the portion of Canada adjacent to the border. Nineteen Chinese were arrested shortly after they had gained their entry into the United States. Two arrests were made of smugglers of Chinese, both of whom were successfully prosecuted and convicted. One notorious smuggler of Chinese was arrested during the early part of the year for attempting to smuggle Chinese from the United States into Canada for the purpose of evading military service. He was prosecuted and convicted for violation of the selective service act.

CHINESE PREINVESTIGATION MATTERS.

Two hundred and seventy-seven applications for return certificates under rules 13 and 15 of the regulations were disposed of as follows: One hundred and thirteen applications for laborers' return certificates were received, 104 of which were granted, 4 refused, and 5 withdrawn; 141 return certificates were issued to members of the exempt classes and 18 refused; 12 cases of this class were appealed to the bureau, 8 of such appeals being dismissed, 1 sustained, 2 withdrawn, and 2 pending.

INVESTIGATIONS.

Investigations, totaling 1,169, were conducted as regards aliens applying for admission to the United States, 191 in connection with warrant cases, 415 in naturalization matters, and 7,823 in other matters connected with the work of the service. In addition to the above, 877 Chinese cases required investigations, 767 of these referring to Chinese applicants for admission, 87 being preinvestigations of status under the exclusion laws, 22 warrant cases, and 1 to determine lawful residence in this country. The bulk of immigration work at the port of Seattle concerns the immigration of Japanese. Recently the secretary of the Veterans' Welfare Commission, a State organization, has interested himself in the Japanese immigration problem, and is now actively agitating the question with the view of restricting Japanese immigration, and in addition deporting Japanese heretofore admitted to this country. He

has solicited and secured the cooperation of the Seattle Star, a daily newspaper published in the city of Seattle. Quite an agitation has been worked up over this problem due to the fact that the Japanese have recently gone into a great many different lines of business. They are engaging extensively in the hotel business, restaurant business, and grocery stores, and have established recently three banks in the city of Seattle. The chamber of commerce in this city is doing all it can to encourage a more friendly relationship with the Japanese with the view of further expanding our trade with Japan, and making this the most important trade point with that country. The labor organizations have taken the matter up very industriously, and it is expected on the part of those who are agitating the question that they will secure the active cooperation of the unions toward a further curtailment of Japanese immigration. Propaganda is being worked up now for the purpose of urging the question before Congress, asking for stringent legislation affecting the Japanese people. This service has strictly enforced the law and the regulations as they concern this problem, and nothing more can be done on its part to allay the agitation. The service is not presuming to determine what the law or regulations should be, but rather to enforce the law and regulations as they now are.

Probably the most important feature of the work in this district concerns the Canadian border, as this district has jurisdiction over the Canadian border as far east as the east line of Montana. The service has attempted to enforce the law and regulations relative to immigration from Canada strictly. Canada is now afflicted with a great deal of industrial unrest. It is suffering by reason of an over immigration had a few years previous to the war. Its industrial condition is not as good as that of this country. There is some unemployment in Canada, particularly in Vancouver, British Columbia. The shipyards there are expected to close down because of no additional contracts, and several thousand more men will be thrown out of employment. With the few men stationed along the Canadian border it is a physical impossibility to prohibit the entry of undesirables from that country. There are a great many railroads crossing the border, and a great many more wagon roads, and very frequently when an undesirable is rejected at a port of entry he simply walks across the line. The work is unsatisfactory because of the inability to enforce the law strictly. If an arrangement could be made with Canada by which the service would dispense with the Canadian border inspection and place immigration officers at all ocean ports of entry into Canada, examine the aliens seeking admission to Canada, for admission to the United States as well, and give to all those admitted to Canada admission also to the United States, it is believed the work would be much more effective. It is understood that a like arrangement would have to be made by Canada in this country, so that one admitted by the United States would also be entitled to ad mission to Canada. Such an arrangement would have for its object the elimination of the boundary line between the two countries so far as the immigration question is concerned. The writer appreciates that the Japanese and the Chinese and Hindus now in Canada would be allowed to come to the United States of their own accord, but a more strict curtailment of the problem of immigration on the Canadian border as it affects the future would be the result.

STATION AND EQUIPMENT.

During this fiscal year the service has secured and equipped for detention purposes additional space in its present building. These added facilities have relieved to a great extent the former crowded conditions in the detention quarters, which can now accommodate 310 persons. The new quarters are well ventilated and nicely equipped.

COOPERATION WITH OTHER DEPARTMENTS.

This service has cooperated with all investigative branches in Government service dealing with war activities to the full extent of its power. Numerous investigations made by this service have been ultimately handled by one of the other branches of the Government referred to.

ILLITERATES.

During the past year there were 149 cases of illiterates held for board of special inquiry at our seaports, which was approximately 2.3 per cent of the arrivals. Of these 133 were found to be exempt from the illiteracy test and admitted by the board. Nine were rejected and appealed, 5 of whom were admitted outright by the Secretary, 4 admitted on time bond, and 7 were deported without appeal. Of the 149 cases, 98 were Japanese, 12 Chinese, and 39 other races.