TESTIMONY OF MR. J. P. HAYES.

Mr. BUSIEK. Please state your name in full.

Mr. HAYES. J. P. Hayes.

Mr. BUSIEK. You are manager of the Western Union Telegraph Co. here? Mr. HAYES, Chief clerk.

Mr. BUSIEK. Chief clerk.

Mr. HAYES. Yes, sir.

Mr. BUSIEK. You were served with a subpœna to produce a certain telegram from R. H. Taylor to Frank H. Tape, transmitted from Buffalo, N. Y., June 4, 1914. Have you that telegram in your possession?

Mr. HAYES. I have a copy of it, sir.

Mr. BUSIEK. Will you produce that copy?

Mr. HAYES. If the commission please, I submit that the telegraph company should not be required to produce this message, inasmuch as a telegram is considered a privileged communication.

Chairman WALSH. This commission is appointed by the Congress of the United States and is given by statute full power to compel the introduction of documents of that character. Let a formal order be made upon the Western Union Telegraph Co. that this telegram be produced at this hearing.

Mr. BUSIEK. I will ask that this copy be marked as an exhibit. (The telegram reads as follows:)

FRANK H. TAPE,

1618 Thirty-fourth Street, Seattle, Wash.

BUFFALO, N. Y., June 4, 1914.

Insist on statement in writing giving reasons for request your financial standing and defer replying until you hear from me regarding particulars written me. Write me what down-town office is used for.

(Rubber stamped:) Duplicate of telephoned telegram.

Mr. BUSIEK. That is all. Thank you, Mr. Hayes.

Mr. HAYES, I will get a copy of that, will I—of that order?

Mr. BUSIEK. Yes.

Chairman WALSH. Where is the original?

Mr. BUSIEK. The original is in Buffalo, N. Y.

Chairman WALSH. Oh, yes.

Mr. BUSIEK. Mr. Coggins, please take the stand.

TAYLOR.

TESTIMONY OF MR. J. P. COGGINS.

Mr. BUSIEK. Your name in full, please.

Mr. COGGINS. J. P. Coggins.

Mr. BUSIEK. What position do you occupy with the Postal Telegraph Co. ? Mr. COGGINS. Manager.

Mr. BUSICK. And have you in your possession a copy of a telegram purporting to have been sent by one Frank Chew to Seattle, Wash., to R. H. Taylor, Buffalo, N. Y., under date of June 3, 1914?

Mr. COGGINS. I have.

Mr. BUSIEK. Will you produce that copy?
Mr. COGGINS. On the order of the court.

Mr. BUSIEK. I ask for a ruling.

Chairman WALSH. The same ruling will be made in the case of the production of this telegram as was made in the one introduced by the preceding wit

ness.

Mr. BUSIEK, I ask that this copy be marked as an exhibit and introduced in evidence.

(The telegram reads as follows:)

SEATTLE, WASH., June 3, 1914.

R. H. TAYLOR,

Castle Inn, Buffalo, N. Y.:

Boss request written statement my financial standing, monthly income, what house cost, and machine. Wife refused make statement as to income; personal Charge me with grafting. I have no fear; asked for investigation myself. The questions are personal. Shall I stand pat and not tell? I have

reasons.

interest in canneries with Chinese-shall I disclose it-which brings good income? Will do as you say. Have written full particulars.

Mr. BUSIEK. That is all.
Mr. Taylor.

TESTIMONY OF MR. RICHARD H. TAYLOR.

Mr. BUSIEK. Take the stand, Mr. Taylor, please.
Chairman WALSH. Be Sworn, please, Mr. Taylor.

FRED CHEW.

You solemnly swear that

the testimony which you are about to give in the hearing now pending before this commission, being the investigation into the alleged smuggling of Asiatics into the United States, shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Mr. TAYLOR. I do.

Mr. BUSIEK. Your name in full.

Mr. TAYLOR. Richard H. Taylor.

Mr. BUSIEK. What position do you occupy?

Mr. TAYLOR, Inspector, United States Immigration Service.

Mr. BUSIEK. Is that a civil-service position?

Mr. TAYLOR. It is excepted. I was appointed under an Executive order. Mr. BUSIEK. When?

Mr. TAYLOR. In 1907.

Mr. BUSIEK. By whom?

Mr. TAYLOR. President Roosevelt.

Mr. BUSIEK. Have you served continuously since?

Mr. TAYLOR. Why, I will explain just how I entered the service, and that will make it probably shorter. In 1907 I was employed in the United States Secret Service, and at that time we made investigations for all departments, by assignment. I was requested in July, 1907, to make investigations for the Immigration Service. I was assigned for three months. That is a temporary appointment, which is the practice.

I was again reappointed at the expiration of three months. That led to a request for my permanent employment. And that was followed by an Executive order which gave them permission to employ me continuously. I remained in the service then for 1908. I was out for three months at the request of the War Department, investigating the Plaquemine Locks, La. I then went back into the Immigration Service, and in 1908, the latter part, I again went back to the Department of Justice to investigate the Oklahoma land frauds, the Gov. Haskell land frauds. That kept me out about three months. In the fall of 1910 I resigned from the Immigration Service, and at the request of the Chief of the Secret Service, took charge of the New York division of the Secret Service during the absence of the chief, who was made deputy chief police commissioner of New York.

Mr. BUSIEK. Mr. Flynn?

Mr. TAYLOR, Mr. Flynn. I remained in charge there until he resigned and came back.

Chairman WALSH. How long was that?

Mr. TAYLOR. That was about seven months. And when that work was finished the department requested my return, and I returned to the service and remained until the last election, when I resigned and went back to the Secret Service. Chairman WALSH. Who requested your return at that time?

Mr. TAYLOR. The Commissioner General of Immigration, Mr. Keefe. I went back to the Secret Service at the last election, and went with Mr. Wilson from the time he was elected until he was inaugurated. And then on the 1st of July following I returned to the service, and have been with it ever since. Chairman WALSH. How did you happen to return to the service, Mr. Taylor? Mr. TAYLOR. At what time?

Chairman WALSH. This last return?

Mr. TAYLOR. At my own request.

Chairman WALSH. And by whom was the order made?

Mr. TAYLOR. For the return?

Chairman WALSH. Yes.

Mr. TAYLOR. There was no order made. Under the civil-service rules an employee is eligible for reinstatement any time within a year.

Chairman WALSH. And you applied for reinstatement, did you?

Mr. TAYLOR. I applied for reinstatement; yes, sir.

Chairman WALSH. And it was granted by the department?

Mr. TAYLOR. It was granted by the department.

Chairman WALSH. And you have remained-could you have remained in the Secret Service?

Mr. TAYLOR. At a smaller salary; yes, sir.

Chairman WALSH. At a smaller salary?

Mr. TAYLOR. At the salary I went over, I might have stayed with the Secret Service. The salaries are not the same as the Immigration Service.

Chairman WALSH. You get $3,000 per year in the position you are in?

Mr. TAYLOR. Yes, sir.

Chairman WALSH. And did anyone have your place while you were gone? Mr. TAYLOR. No, sir.

Chairman WALSH. Did you confer with anybody while you were gone as to the conduct of the affairs of the office?

Mr. TAYLOR. Any of the immigration officials?

Chairman WALSH. Yes.

Mr. TAYLOR. No; I was out of touch with the immigration officials.

Chairman WALSH. Entirely out of touch and out of touch with those that had been under you prior to that time, prior to the time you entered the Secret Service during the Wilson campaign?

Mr. TAYLOR. As far as I recollect it, I did not work at all for the service. I might state that we are not allowed to do work for any service where the compensation is fixed by the sundry civil bill, a bill that creates the appropriation for the Secret Service. There is a prohibitive clause in it.

Chairman WALSH. NOW, what is the nature of the work that you have been chiefly engaged in since you have been connected with the Bureau of Immigration?

Mr. TAYLOR. Criminal and civil investigations of all kinds, conduct of officers, smuggling of aliens, handling of criminal cases, instructing officers as to criminal procedure, and work of that kind.

Commissioner GARRETSON. I would like to know right there, how many convictions have there been of members of the department during the period that you have been in the service, on information furnished?

Mr. TAYLOR. Well, now, inspector in charge at Chicago, Mr. Davies, I investigated him and found that he was submitting false accounts. He was dismissed. The matter was submitted to the district attorney for criminal prosecution, and he decided that dismissal was sufficient punishment. He was an old man. It was in connection with taking deports from Chicago to New York.

Mr. BUSIEK. We do not care about the details of the case, Mr. Taylor; but have any immigration officers been convicted under the United States laws?

Mr. TAYLOR. Inspector in charge at Albuquerque, N. Mex. I convicted him for participating in Chinese smuggling, together with the conductor and brakeman of a train running from El Paso to Albuquerque. Commissioner GARRETSON. That is Col. Green?

Mr. TAYLOR. Yes.

Commissioner GARRETSON. Right there I want to ask a question. All plead guilty, didn't they?

Mr. TAYLOR. Plead guilty; yes, sir.

Mr. BUSICK. Mr. Taylor, just give the commission, tell the commission what offices

Chairman WALSH. Please finish any convictions that were had; Green, of Albuquerque.

Mr. TAYLOR. Green, of Albuquerque, was one; was sent up for a year and a day, if I remember correctly.

Chairman WALSH. Was there any other?

Mr. TAYLOR. The inspector in charge at Galveston I found engaged with the Chinese in smuggling. He was not convicted; dismissed from the service. Chairman WALSH. Is that the one you mentioned first?

Mr. TAYLOR. No.

Chairman WALSH. What was the first one?

Mr. TAYLOR. The first one was Davies, inspector in charge at Chicago, Chairman WALSH. Then the Albuquerque case. What was the next one? Mr. TAYLOR. Holman, inspector in charge at Galveston, Tex.

Mr. BUSIEK. Any others?

Mr. TAYLOR. Inspector at-you want simply the investigations?

Mr. BUSIEK. No; the convictions.

Chairman WALSH. The conviction of any person.

Mr. TAYLOR. That is the only conviction of an officer.

Mr. BUSIEK. Now, tell the commission the men reported adversely by you and who are now disconnected from the service as the result of such reports? Mr. TAYLOR. Well, the inspector in charge at Cleveland.

Mr. BUSIEK. Who is that?

Mr. TAYLOR. I can't call his name.

Mr. BUSIEK. Cullom?

Mr. TAYLOR. Cullom.

Mr. BUSIEK. Isn't it a fact that Cullom is now with the service?

Mr. TAYLOR. He was not at the time Davies took charge; in and out four times. Last time I left Buffalo he came in and bid me good-by and said he had quit forever.

Mr. BUSIEK. Had he quit or was he discharged?

Mr. TAYLOR. He resigned.

Mr. BUSIEK. He resigned?

Mr. TAYLOR. Yes,

Mr. BUSIEK. That was the cause of each severance from the service, that he resigned?

Mr. TAYLOR. Yes.

Mr. BUSIEK. And was then reinstated under the civil-service rule because he had severed his connection from the service without delinquency or misconduct. Isn't that true?

Mr. TAYLOR. That is true. We permitted him to resign and reinstated him under the regulations; we reduced him as the cause for his first resignation. Mr. BUSIEK. What had he done?

Mr. TAYLOR. Why, excessive drinking.

Mr. BUSIEK. Wasn't it a fact also that he would go to Chinese and have them cash worthless checks?

Mr. TAYLOR. Yes.

Mr. BUSIEK. And that was reported by you, was it not, Mr. Taylor?

Mr. TAYLOR. Yes; that was reported by me-his general misconduct. If I remember correctly, he was making a Chinaman do his laundry for nothing. Mr. BUSIEK. You reported adversely?

Mr. TAYLOR. Yes.

Mr. BUSIEK. And he was allowed to resign?

Mr. TAYLOR. Yes.

Mr. BUSIEK. Subsequently?

Mr. TAYLOR. Yes; he was allowed to resign. He was reduced and ordered transferred, if I remember correctly, to Detroit from $2.520 to a lesser figureI forgot what-and he resigned rather than to accept the transfer.

Mr. BUSIEK. And he resigned rather than accept transfer?

Mr. TAYLOR. Yes.

Mr. BUSIEK. And then later on and within a year he was reinstated in the service, certified by the department that the severance from the service had been without delinquency and misconduct, and he was reinstated in the service? Mr. TAYLOR. I presume that would be the procedure.

Chairman WALSH. As a matter of fact he did have a rotten record, didn't he? Mr. TAYLOR. Yes, sir.

Chairman WALSH. Did you have to make any recommendation with regard to him?

Mr. TAYLOR. If I remember correctly, I did not. There was some question at that time about any investigating officer making recommendations. That has been reversed periodically, and I do not know if it was in effect at that time or not.

Mr. BUSIEK. What other investigations of officers did you make that resulted in their severance from the service?

Mr. TAYLOR. The commissioner of immigration at New Orleans. I won't say positively that he has been dismissed, or what has happened, except what I have read in the papers since I left Washington, that he had been demoted and ordered transferred and resigned-was going to resign on the 1st of July, according to the newspaper article.

Mr. BUSIEK. Is that the usual procedure in the department, Mr. Taylor, that when a special investigator makes an adverse report on any officer, that he is given an opportunity to resign rather than be put out of the service?

Mr. TAYLOR. No, sir; that is not the rule. That is within the discretion of the department. We can simply make a recommendation-the Commissioner Gen

eral makes a recommendation to the Secretary. The Secretary has absolute charge of all appointments, reductions, and transfers.

Mr. BUSIEK. If a man resigns the Secretary has nothing to do with that? Mr. TAYLOR. If it comes through the Commissioner General, he either approves or disapproves of the resignation. If a man was under charges he probably would not permit him to resign until it was decided whether the charges were sufficient to warrant his dismissal.

Mr. BUSIEK. Are there any other officers now who, because of your activity or reports, have been demoted or taken out of the service, peremptorily discharged?

Mr. TAYLOR. Why, yes, sir; the inspector in charge at Los Angeles. In 1910 I investigated the southern district and found that he was absolutely incompetent and the affairs in the district were unsatisfactory.

Mr. BUSIEK. In what regard?

Mr. TAYLOR. What is that?

Mr. BUSIEK. In what regard were they unsatisfactory?

Mr. TAYLOR. Why, the way I put it, I thought the man was a little out of his mind.

Mr. BUSIEK. Who was that-Inspector Emke?

Mr. TAYLOR. No, sir; you mean Engleke?

Mr. BUSIEK. Inspector Engleke?

Mr. TAYLOR. No, sir; I had nothing to do with his dismissal. That was Ridgeway. He was inspector in charge at Los Angeles under Inspector Weddell, who took Engleke's place at San Antonio. Weddell was entirely in charge of the southern California district. I found Chinese smuggling operations were rampant. I went down in Mexico and came up through with them, and took a Chinese with me, and we immediately started getting the smugglers and I made the recommendation as I found them in that district. Chairman WALSH. You did what?

Mr. TAYLOR. Made a report of conditions just as they were found, and then the district was put under charge of the supervising inspector, Capt. Connell being put in charge of the entire southern California district, and Ridgeway was demoted to $1,380, I think it was, and resigned.

Mr. BUSIEK. Up to that time southern California had been in the San Francisco district, had it not?

Mr. TAYLOR. No, sir; it was in the San Francisco district up to the time that the Immigration Commission made an investigation, and it was then taken away and a man named Weddell was put in charge of southern California. It was a separate district, and in July, on my recommendation, the bureau put it under the supervising inspector at El Paso.

Mr. BUSIEK. And southern California, or all of California up to about 75 miles south of San Francisco, is under the El Paso jurisdiction now, is it not? Mr. TAYLOR. Under the El Paso jurisdiction, with subheadquarters at Los Angeles.

Mr. BUSIEK. And the northern portion of this district is 1.300 miles by rail from El Paso, is it not?

Mr. TAYLOR. About that.

Mr. BUSIEK. Did you ever investigate the southern California district; that is, prior to this Immigration Commission?

Mr. TAYLOR. Why, that is just about the time that I made an investigation. I was then working for the Secret Service, and I made an investigation. About that time, if I remember correctly, reports were circulated that smugglers were operating there. I took up the work and I found there was a man working under the name of Garland. whose right name was Greenhall, a man whose record we had, and found it was very bad. It subsequently developed he was in the employ of the Immigration Commission, and that the acts he was committing were presumably for the purpose of getting evidence.

Mr. BUSIEK. Did you investigate John Canfield, and a man named Agard and Engleke at that time?

Mr. TAYLOR. I investigated Agard, in connection with Garland, and found he was working with Garland, and so reported. Engleke I did not investigate, except as to the Chinese smuggling at that time, which did not amount to very much. There were about 10 or 12 Chinese coming to Ensenano--that is, our distributing point. When they come to Ensenano we are satisfied they are en route to the United States. They were catching a reasonable number of those Chinese and smugglers.