Mr. PARK. Yes, sir. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. How large a family have you? Mr. PARK. Wife and two children. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. What does your living cost you a month? Mr. PARK. About $30 or $35. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Altogether? Mr. PARK. Yes, sir. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Just show us how you arrive at that $35. What do you pay for rent? Mr. PARK. No rent. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Why? Mr. PARK. I live in my own house. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. What does it cost you for food? Mr. PARK. For food, about between $15 and $20. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. For the family? Mr. PARK. Yes, sir. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. You have two children, you say? Mr. PARK. Yes, sir. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. A family of four, and it costs from $15 to $20 for food a month? Mr. PARK. Yes, sir. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. And clothing? Mr. PARK. Clothing, about an average-children's clothing, I think, comes to about, I should judge, about $10. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. A month. And your wife's clothing-does your family dress in European fashion-American fashion? Mr. PARK. Yes, sir. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. What does it cost to dress your wife a month? Mr. PARK. I don't know, she makes all her own clothes. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. She has to buy the material, and shoes and hats and all that sort of thing? Mr. PARK. Yes, sir. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. About how much is the cost of that, if you can estimate it? Mr. PARK. She don't buy clothes very often. I could not estimate that. She very seldom goes out. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. It does not cost a thousand dollars? Mr. PARK. No, sir. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. It costs more than a dollar a month? Mr. PARK. Yes, sir. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Give us some idea about how much it costs. Mr. PARK. About $5, I should say. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. About $5 a month. your clothes on an average a month? Mr. PARK. Yes, sir. What does it cost you for Commissioner WEINSTOCK. How many suits of clothes do you have a year? Mr. PARK. I don't get but one suit of clothes a year. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. You have one suit you have all the time? Mr. PARK. No, sir; I have two suits, but my uniform I leave at the office, and I wear one suit, is all. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. The whole year? Mr. PARK. Maybe two suits, I could not say for sure. Mr. PARK. Costs me $12 for my uniform. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. And your business suit? Mr. PARK. Business suit costs me $30. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Now, you have shoes and hats and shirts and neckties and collars. What does that cost you on an average? Mr. PARK. You mean per month? Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Yes, sir; on an average, or for a year, if you prefer it. Mr. PARK. I could not say to that, maybe $10 or $20. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. A year? Mr. PARK. A year. I don't buy but two pairs of shoes a year. Commissioner GARRETSON. That would be $5 a month for the three items, uniform, other clothing, and furnishings. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Now, you operate over on Angel Island, don't you? Mr. PARK. Yes, sir. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. You have car fare coming and going every day? Mr. PARK. Yes, sir. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. That is 10 cents a day. That is $2.50 a month for car fare? Mr. PARK. Yes, sir. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. You don't go home at noon for lunch? Mr. PARK. No, sir. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Where do you get your lunch? Mr. PARK. I don't eat any lunch. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Now, you have amusements in the course of the year? Mr. PARK. I don't go to any theater. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Your family never goes to a place of amusement? Mr. PARK. Yes, sir. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. What does it cost to keep that up, tires, and fuel and upkeep? Mr. PARK. I could not say that, how much it is going to be. All I have is gasoline and oil and tires. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. How many miles a month do you run with your machine? Mr. PARK. I only run every Sunday is all, and night time probably one night out of the week. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Will you average a thousand miles a month? Mr. PARK. No, sir. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Five hundred miles a month? Mr. PARK. No, sir. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. How many miles a month, about? Mr. PARK. About 300 miles a month at the most. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. How is your machine taken care of? Where do you keep it? Mr. PARK. I keep it across the way from me. Mr. PARK. Yes, sir. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. What do you have to pay for the garage a month? Mr. PARK. Two dollars and a half a month. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Well, it is estimated the cost for tires and fuel per mile is about 3 cents. That would be $9 a month for your tires and fuel and $2.50 a month for the garage; that is $11.50; and then you have to keep your machine in repair when it breaks down, and things of that sort. I suppose $15 would be very little. Commissioner GARRETSON. I would like to learn how to do that. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. So would I. Let us figure it conservatively. Then, according to your own figures we have $57.50 a month there. You said it cost you about $30 or $40. Mr. PARK. No, sir; about $30. Commissioner GARRETSON. On the question of upkeep of the machine, I have two machines almost exactly the same power as the two you drive. If you can run a six-cylinder machine of the Winton type, running, as you say, 300 miles a month Mr. PARK. At the most. Commissioner GARRETSON. At most? Mr. PARK. Yes, sir; and sometimes maybe I don't run 100 miles a month. Commissioner GARRETSON. Some other times you will do 200 miles on Sunday? Mr. PARK. Never run that much. Fifty miles is about the most. As far as I go is Haywardson. Commissioner GARRETSON. Do you get along without any upkeep repairs besides gasoline, oil, and tires? Mr. PARK. I had my carbon cleaned out. Commissioner GARRETSON, Adjuster and spark plugs? Mr. PARK. No, sir; never had changed. Commissioner GARRETSON. You have no cost of that kind? Commissioner GARRETSON. And for the Studebaker? Mr. PARK. Nothing to be paid on it; it is guaranteed for the year. Mr. PARK. So far there is no charges. Commissioner GARRETSON. How long have you had the Studebaker? Mr. PARK. About a month. Commissioner GARRETSON. How long have you had the Winton? Mr. PARK. A little over a year. Commissioner GARRETSON. It came to you as a second-hand machine without any guarantee on it? Mr. PARK. The Winton? Commissioner GARRETSON. Yes. What do you get per gallon of gasoline; how many miles? Mr. PARK. Between 8 and 10. Commissioner GARRETSON. Pretty good Winton if it will go above 8. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Do you have any help in your family? Mr. PARK. No, sir. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Your wife does all the work? Mr. PARK. Yes, sir. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. How old are the children? Mr. PARK. Three and five. Commissioner O'CONNELL. Do you have a bank account in any of the banks? Mr. PARK. No, sir. Commissioner O'CONNELL. You don't run any bank account at all? Mr. PARK. No, sir. Commissioner O'CONNELL. You have your money at home around the house? Mr. PARK. Yes, sir. Commissioner GARRETSON. Your reputation among the men you associate with is strictly in accord with the statement of expenditures on the monthly account; you are not classed as a good spender? Mr. PARK. No, sir; I never go out at night. There is no chance to spend any money anyway. Commissioner GARRETSON. You never acquired the habit of spending it in the daytime? Mr. PARK. No, sir; no chance during the daytime, either. Commissioner GARRETSON. Do you gamble? Mr. PARK. I could not say. I might buy a lottery ticket once in a while. Commissioner GARRETSON. Do you drink? Mr. PARK. Very little. Chairman WALSH. What do you drink when you do drink? Mr. PARK. Beer. Mr. BUSIEK. That is all. TESTIMONY OF MR. JOHN L. MCNAB. Mr. BUSIEK. You are ex-United States district attorney for this district, are you? Mr. MCNAB. Yes, sir. Mr. BUSIEK. And you are now counsel to the Chinese Six Companies? Mr. BUSIEK. Mr. McNab, you have gone over and discussed with your clients and made a study of a certain tentative bill, having in view the reregistration of Chinese and the deportation of those who fail to register. Will you just discuss with the commission your views of that bill? Mr. MCNAB. Is that the bill, Mr. Weinstock, that you were courteous enough to submit to me? Commissioner WEINSTOCK. I take it, Mr. McNab, that you got the latest corrected amendment, which provided, in contradistinction to the first draft, for the compulsory registration of laborers and the voluntary registration of the members of the privileged classes. Mr. MCNAB. I am not altogether sure whether I saw that, Mr. Weinstock, after it was revised, but I think I did. I think it was shown to me by some one who is working on it at your suggestion, Judge Harrington. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Judge Harrington. Mr. MCNAB. Yes, I believe I did. At any rate the essential principle of the bill, as I recall it, was that all Chinese in this country should be required within a given time to register. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Yes. Mr. MCNAB. And that in default of registration they should be subjected to deportation; and that after a given date any person not found to be in a certificate of registration was a subject of deportation. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Except the privileged classes. Mr. MCNAB. Except the privileged classes. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. That would only Mr. MCNAB. I think the amendment gave to the privileged classes the option of registration. That last amendment, to a certain extent, made it less vicious, if I may use the expression, than it was before, because I regard it as an absolutely vicious bill. It is vicious in this particular: There is no question in the world that Americans have an absolute right to insist that the Chinese coolie shall not flood this country and corrupt its labor. And I do not think that the Chinese Government or the Chinese people as a mass now insist that this or any other country shall receive its coolie labor, because it recognizes that they can labor under conditions which will prevent other countries from competing. As a matter of fact the Chinese-exclusion law as originally passed was passed in defiance of the treaty. However, it is now one of the accepted principles of American legislation, and nobody is quarreling with it except in its enforcement. The ordinary intelligent Chinese will meet you and will say that he has no quarrel particularly because America does not receive his coolie, but he insists that the privileged class be exempt, the merchant, the banker, and the journalist shall be received in this country as any other person who is permitted to come to this country should be received; instead of being received, however, at the immigration stations as a person who is entitled to come to America he is taken by the throat and treated as a criminal. The banker who comes here and who could assist in our commerce, who could invest his money, and who could develop trade with the Orient, is simply taken by the throat and sent to the immigration station and generally put in the quadrangle or cell and kept there like a criminal under suspicion. Just so long as that sort of administration is continued, just so long will the commerce between the Orient and this country remain as it is to-day-practically stationary. This bill requires them to register. I do not believe, as a matter of principle, any country has a right to require that of one country to the exclusion of another, but we have that Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Are you referring now to the amended proposal? Mr. MCNAB. Yes. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. I want to remind you that the amended tentative proposal exempts that class from registration. Mr. MCNAB. Yes, I understand it; that the amended proposal exempts all the merchants, bankers, journalists, and so on, and requires only the laborers to register. That is, coolies are presumed to have been in this country previous to the time that the Chinese exclusion act went into effect, or they have come here illicitly. That is the contention of the Government. I think it is impracticable to compel them to register, because it is going to create a practical revolution among their ranks; they resent that constant domination of one Government over another, which compels them to come here, and it doesn't make for peace. This country ought to be able to keep out the coolie, but this provision which compels these people to carry a registration certificate about him is not in my opinion a good provision. I think the United States Government is big enough and powerful enough to take care of that proposition. The Chinese exclusion law, as it is, is a very strict, rigid enactment. If it is enforced they can't come here, and the United States is big enough and powerful enough a Nation to see that they don't come here. If they do come here surreptitiously, as occasionally I suppose they do as they will come into any country where they have an opportunity to make a living, I think it is the duty of the Government by safe provision to keep them out, but I do not think the whole Nation ought to be humiliated by compelling them to stand up and register and to carry a registration certificate around with them. But the more vicious part of that is this: That if you do register them, the act practically provides, as I understand it, for what is called an arresting crew, or at least some trained person who will go around to see that these people all have their proper registration certificates. Now, laying aside any question of corruption among officers that exists to-day, take it as a plain question of human nature, an arresting crew is an element of graft in any service. They are dealing with ignorant people that are afraid of our laws; they are terror stricken; they have been exploited by their own people and they have been exploited by our people. And wherever you send out an arresting crew you are going to send out a band of men that sooner or later are going to subject them to all sort of petty trials and annoyances that eventually will do just exactly what a number of the immigration officers are doing throughout the country to-day, yield to the temptation to bribe. There is no use blinking the fact, that while here and there are immigration officials who are of the highest standard and caliber, who could not be corrupted by gold, there are men who will yield to that thing, and they do yield to it every day; otherwise we would not have Chinese being yanked out of their bunks on railroad trains, their doors broken open, their private residences invaded, their personal property stolen in ways that are reported every week all over the State, all over every corner of this State. If you have an arresting crew, you have a hostile crew. They feel that they have got to make good with the Government at Washington; that they are expected to make a record. They think if they don't report a number of arrests within a month that during that month they have been doing nothing, and that the Government at Washington will take the job. They think, on the other hand, that if they are making the arrest they are doing their duty and are making good with the Government at Washington, and the only way in which they can make good with the Government at Washington, they think, is simply to arrest, annoy, and harass. It is vicious in its principle, and it will be vicious in its practice, Mr. Weinstock, and there is not any way from it. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Let me ask you, Mr. McNab. We will assume that this law has prevailed and that reregistration takes place. Mr. MCNAB. Yes. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. What chance is there for a member of this arresting crew to graft on a Chinaman if he has a certificate? Mr. MCNAB. What chance is there to graft? Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Yes. That man has a certificate. Mr. MCNAB. The same opportunity that is exercised by him to-day. They now have the right to apply for a certificate of identity. I could produce to you in the course of time numerous instances in the southern district of California where they have arrested and rearrested men who have their certificates of identity, have taken those certificates of identity away from them, and have held them for an indefinite period of time. And they can do the same thing with the certificates of identity under this new act. Plenty of instances might be brought up-take Bakersfield-where an overzealous immigration official broke into a house and took away a certificate and said, "I will give you a receipt for this." He did not give a receipt for it, forwarded it to Washington, and all the diplomatic channels had to be appealed to to get it back. Why did he keep it during this time? On the ground, he said, possibly it was a fake registration certificate; that it did-although it did appear to be regular on its face, he was suspicious of it; did not believe that it was. Why couldn't you do the same thing with a new registration certificate? Commissioner WEINSTOCK. Well, if you put it upon the theory that an official will rob a Chinaman of his certificate, I can understand how the Chinaman may have trouble. There is a provision in here which enables the Chinaman, if he has lost his certificate, to get a duplicate very promptly. Mr. MCNAB. You have got the same provision now, but he can't get it, Mr. Weinstock. It is not that the law is at fault, but you know in the great big ponderous machinery such as we have in the Government there are many things in the great bureaucracy at Washington which cause the wheels to move very slowly, and it will work that way in this matter. Commissioner WEINSTOCK. It reads that if a person charged had previously secured a certificate of registration which has been lost or destroyed or stolen Mr. MCNAB. Yes, |