any rate, never took an active part in the enforcement of those laws, but left the conduct of the division almost entirely to the supervision of the chief thereof, and the provision of law constituting the division a separate bureau is welcomed as a wise adjustment of the public business.

DISTRIBUTION OF IMMIGRANTS.

With respect to the distribution of aliens, attention is directed to the report of the Chief of the Division of Information, printed as Appendix II hereof. This is a very important phase of the immigration problem. There can be no question but that many of the evils that grow out of our present excessive immigration would be remedied, or at least alleviated, if the congestion of aliens in our large centers of population could be broken up. Distribution of admitted aliens, therefore, even from this standpoint, is a thing much to be desired. Moreover, there are still certain sections of the United States that need accretions to their population, especially of laboring classes, more particularly of those who will work on the farms. If some detailed plan could be devised whereby aliens could be directed to those places without disturbing labor conditions elsewhere, a great good would be accomplished. Three chief difficulties exist, however, to the success of plans of this kind: (1) The labor required is to a considerable extent merely seasonal, and usually neither aliens no more than natives care to go to any great distance to accept temporary employment even though high wages are offered; (2) opportunities for using any plans having in view the distribution of foreign laborers are always more or less open to the objection that labor conditions, already uncertain in many ways, are disturbed by any action that involves artificial interference with the "natural operation" of the law of supply and demand; (3) in many sections of the country in need of immigration to aid development of agricultural and promote other industrial pursuits, the desire seems to be for settlers who will invest in lands and establish homes rather than for laborers.

It will be seen from the report of the Chief of the Division of Information that, along certain conservatively restricted lines, considerable has been accomplished, despite the aforementioned difficulties, toward placing admitted aliens advantageously to themselves and to others concerned.

JAPANESE IMMIGRATION.

The general provisions of the immigration law apply to Japanese in the same manner as to all other aliens. Separate statistics are kept of Japanese only so far as some special provisions of the law regarding alien laborers leaving their native countries with passports of a limited nature make the keeping of such statistics necessary and desirable. A proviso to section 1 of the immigration act authorized the President, whenever satisfied that passports issued by any foreign Government to its citizens to go to any country other than the United States are being used for the purpose of enabling the holders to come to the continental territory of the United States to the detriment of labor conditions therein, to refuse to permit such foreign laborers to enter the continental territory of the United

States. The President's proclamation on this subject was reissued, in slightly revised form, on February 24, 1913, and reads as follows: Whereas, by the act entitled "An act to regulate the immigration of aliens into the United States," approved February 20, 1907, whenever the President is satisfied that passports issued by any foreign Government to its citizens to go to any country other than the United States or to any insular possession of the United States or to the Canal Zone, are being used for the purpose of enabling the holders to come to the continental territory of the United States to the detriment of labor conditions therein, it is made the duty of the President to refuse to permit such citizens of the country issuing such passports to enter the continental territory of the United States from such country or from such insular possession or from the Canal Zone;

And whereas, upon sufficient evidence produced before me by the Department of Commerce and Labor, I am satisfied that passports issued by certain foreign Governments to their citizens or subjects who are laborers, skilled or unskilled, to proceed to countries or places other than the continental territory of the United States, are being used for the purpose of enabling the holders thereof to come to the continental territory of the United States to the detriment of labor conditions therein;

I hereby order that such alien laborers, skilled or unskilled, be refused permission to enter the continental territory of the United States.

It is further ordered that the Secretary of (Commerce and) Labor be, and he hereby is, directed to take, through the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, such measures and to make and enforce such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry this order into effect.

For purposes of easy comparison the plan followed in previous reports in presenting comment on the statistics regarding Japanese immigration is again adopted here:

Table A shows an increase in the number of Japanese admitted to both the continent and the Territory of Hawaii. However, the figures shown by said table should be compared also with those for 1908, the first year the system under the proclamation and Rule 11 of the Immigration Regulations and understanding with Japan became operative, in which year 9,544 Japanese were admitted to continental United States and 8,694 to Hawaii, with 643 debarred at the ports of the former and 60 at the ports of the latter. In 1911 the corresponding figures were 4,282, 2,159, 46, and 34; while those for 1912 were 5,358, 3,231, 103, and 63, respectively, and those for 1913 are 6,771, 4,901, 88, and 180. Therefore, the number of Japanese admitted to the mainland and Hawaii, respectively, in 1913 was about 71 and 56 per cent of the number for the year 1908, and about 26 and 52 per cent, respectively, more than the number shown for

1912.

Table B furnishes a means of comparing the immigration and emigration of Japanese in 1912 with that of the past year, by months.

Table C gives in some detail the occupations of Japanese who have entered and left the country during the year, divided roughly into professional, skilled, miscellaneous, which includes common laborers and those having no occupations (including women and children). The total number admitted to the mainland, for each of these classes, respectively, is 309, 301, 3,477, and 2,684; to Hawaii, 209, 126, 4,062, and 504.

A comparison of the records of Japanese immigration and emigration kept by the bureau with similar records compiled by the Japanese Government is given in Table D. The variation between this and other tables is partially explained by the fact that this table is compiled from records of embarkation and debarkation, whereas the others relate to entries and departures recorded at United States ports.

Table E shows that during the past year 6,859 Japanese applied for admission to continental United States, of whom 6,771 were admitted and 88 debarred. Of the total number applying, 6,715 were and 144 were not in possession of proper passports. Of the 6,715 holding proper passports, 6,673 were found on examination to belong to the classes entitled by the understanding to receive passports and the remaining 42 were found on examination not to fall within such classes. The 6,673 entitled to passports consisted of 2,837 former residents, 3,083 parents, wives, and children of residents, and 739 new arrivals, who were nonlaborers, together with 14 settled agriculturists. The 42 in possession of passports, although apparently not entitled thereto, were found to be laborers and not to be former residents, parents, wives, or children of residents, or settled agriculturists. Of the 6,859 applying for admission, 4,087 were males, and 2,772 were females. Of those applying for admission on the claim of relationship, 44 were "parents," 642 were "children," and 2,397 were "wives" of residents. Of the passports presented, 1,192 gave the holders' occupation as of a nonlaboring character, 184 gave such occupation as laboring, and 5,339 failed to state occupation. This table also furnishes other interesting pertinent details regarding the passports and the aliens presenting them, which it is not necessary to emphasize in the text.

Information similar to the above regarding the Territory of Hawaii is supplied by Table F. During the year 5,081 Japanese applied at Honolulu, 4,901 of whom were admitted and 180 debarred. All but 12 of the 5,081 applicants had passports. Of the 5,069 holding passports, 4,902 were entitled thereto under the definitions set forth in the table and 167 were found upon examination not to fall within such definitions. Of the 4,902 entitled to passports, 1,281 were former residents and 3,621 were parents, wives, or children of residents. The 167 not entitled to passports consisted of 20 laborers and 147 nonlaborers who were neither former residents nor parents, wives, or children of residents.

Of the total number of Japanese shown by Tables E and F to have been admitted to the country during the year (11,672), 6,237 were nonlaborers and 5,435 were laborers.

In connection with the statistics similar to the foregoing furnished in the last annual report, particular attention was directed to the fact that 4,328, or over 50 per cent, of the Japanese admitted during 1912 were females. During the past year 5,484, or 47 per cent, of those admitted were females. The following contained in the last annual report on this subject needs to be repeated and emphasized: Many of these were what are known as "proxy" or "photograph" brides, i. e., women who have been married, under a custom existing and recognized as legal in Japan, to men living in this country whom in many instances they have never seen, the marriage being arranged between the heads of the families of the bride and bridegroom. Of the aliens treated in hospital for dangerous contagious diseases, mentioned under a previous heading of this report (p. 7), 681 were Japanese females,1 the majority of whom were "proxy" or "photograph" brides. Passports are given these women on the ground that they are coming to continental United States to join a husband, the arrangement with Japan contemplating that where a Japanese laborer is migrating for the purpose of joining a member of his immediate family the passport may be issued. Most of the women, while they do join the husband, are farm laborers and immediately become colaborers with their husbands on the farms where

1 The figures for this year are 684.

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the latter are employed or which they are conducting. As these "proxy" or "photograph" marriages would not, of course, be recognized as valid in any of the States of this country, the men to whom these women are going are required to meet them at a seaport and go through a ceremony of marriage legal in the United States. But the bureau feels that two facts growing out of this situation should not be overlooked by those interested in the economic phases of the immigration problem: (1) The practice of furnishing the passport to these women and admitting them on the basis of the passport and a marriage performed at the port opens the way for the introduction into continental United States of large bodies of common laborers-females, it is true, but none the less competitors of the laborers of this country; and (2) this practice must necessarily result in constituting a large native-born Japanese population-persons who, because of their birth on American soil, will be regarded as American citizens, although their parents can not be naturalized, and who, nevertheless, will be considered (and will probably consider themselves) subjects of the Empire of Japan under the laws of that country, which holds that children born abroad of parents who are Japanese subjects are themselves subjects of the Japanese Empire.1

CHINESE EXCLUSION.

66

To understand and appreciate how inadequate are the so-called Chinese-exclusion laws to prevent the entry of Chinese laborers to the United States it is only necessary to examine and analyze the statistics on this subject furnished in Tables 1 to 8 (pp. 232-238). All possible under existing law is done to prevent the entry of Chinese not entitled to be in the United States; but despite these efforts Chinese laborers are constantly gaining admission, in the guise of "minor sons of merchants," "students," "natives," or 'sons of natives." There is no doubt that a considerable number of those shown by the tables to have entered under these designations were, as a matter of fact, not what they claimed to be, but laborers desirous of earning a livelihood here despite the prohibition of the law. When the laborer is old or ignorant, or otherwise unable fraudulently to assume a “lawful" status, smuggling across the land boundaries or from ships on which they are employed as "seamen" is resorted to. There seems to be no lack of money with which to carry out these schemes, however costly they may be. Under these circumstances, it can readily be seen that the enforcement of the law becomes a very difficult matter.

In Table 1 a comparison is made between the number of Chinese applying for admission during the years 1908 to 1913 inclusive. In the past year 5,662 Chinese were admitted, as compared with 5,374 in 1912, 5,107 in 1911, 5,950 in 1910, 6,395 in 1909, and 4,624 in 1908, the admissions for the past year being 5.3 per cent greater than for the preceding year, 11 per cent greater than for 1911, 4.8 per cent less than for 1910, 11 per cent less than for 1909, and 22 per cent greater than for 1908. In the past year 384 Chinese were deported, as against 400 in the preceding year, 692 in 1911, 969 in 1910, 564 in 1909, 364 in 1908, and 259 in 1907.

1The foregoing views of Commissioner General Keefe seem to the signer of this report especially significant, for they are the result of the retiring Commissioner General's experience in the enforcement of the law and are in exact accord with the writer's observations, both before and since his induction into office. The writer desires, however, to state that he does not agree with the notion that any such marriage is binding upon the United States in the administration of immigration laws; and also that there is no treaty with Japan, or other arrangement whatsoever, that provides for the recognition by the United States of the so-called marriage of a woman in Japan with a man who may be in the United States at the alleged date of the same. The doctrine of lex loci, in his judgment, is not applicable to cases of this kind for the above reason, as well as that such marriage is not consummated entirely and completely in the country permitting it, as it is apparent that a part of the so-called marriage is initiated in one jurisdiction or nation, and it is completed in another and entirely foreign jurisdiction or nation. Further comments on this, as well as other matters connected with Japanese immigration, is deferred owing to his brief incumbency.

In Table 2 will be found a statement of the disposition, preliminary and final, of every application of a Chinese for admission. New applications to the number of 6,250 were made during the year, and 242 were pending from the previous year, a total of 6,492. Of these 5,594 were admitted at the ports, 67 by the department on appeal, and 1 by the courts, a total of 5,662, while 384 were deported, 1 escaped, and 445 remain pending. The recapitulation by ports given at the bottom of Table 2 shows that 3,896 Chinese arrived at San Francisco, 1,286 at Seattle, 407 at Vancouver, and 797 at Honolulu, the balance being scattering cases at ports of less importance.

Of the section 6 exempt classes, 559 applied for admission, compared with 809 in the preceding year. Of these only 28 were deported. The applicants were composed of 122 merchants, 345 students, 33 teachers, and 19 travelers, together with 40 officials who are for convenience placed in this class. The number of "students" applying increased from 247 in 1911 to 477 in 1912, but in the past year dropped back to 345. No one would dispute the propriety and advisability of permitting young men of the Chinese race to obtain a higher education in this country, provided the privilege is so safeguarded as to prevent its abuse. But this claim of a student status, now adopted much more frequently than formerly, is often used as a mere cloak for the introduction into this country, in violation of the spirit of the law, of young Chinese laborers The difficulty is that many of these so-called students have actually been engaged in study in China, and it is really intended by them, and by the good but often misled people who take an interest in having them brought to this country, that they shall enter institutions of learning in the United States; indeed, they usually do take up a course of study after arrival here, but soon leave the institution in which placed and remove to distant localities, where they enter laboring pursuits or join relatives or clansmen who are engaged in conducting stores or restaurants, and live with them and attend the public day or night schools, working for their living during such time as they are not intermittently engaged in study. The law never intended that young Chinese laborers should come to this country for any such purpose as this, and the bureau is determined that, to the fullest extent possible, such evasions of the law shall be prevented.

It is shown by Table 2 that 1,011 domiciled merchants applied for readmission, 14 cases having been pending from the previous year, making a total of 1,025, of whom 986 were admitted, 13 deported, and 1 escaped, while 26 remain pending. Of those claiming to be 'minor sons of merchants," 583 entered and 86 were deported. Of "wives of merchants," 179 applied, 155 being admitted and 6 deported; while of "wives of natives," 158 applications were considered, in 126 of which admission was ordered and in 9 deportation effected.

Table 3 contains a special discussion of the "United States citizen" class, which falls into two general divisions-(1) those of native birth and (2) those born abroad of native-born parents. Of these there were admitted 2,048 (about 36 per cent of all Chinese entering), of whom 1,553 belong to the first, and 495 to the second. In 1912 the corresponding figures were 1,396 and 258, respectively. The 1,553 belonging to the first division are segregated further into 241 of whose claimed departure from this country there was no record (raw natives),

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