one point, to permit recruiting at another to meet emergency, to accept overtime of the willing ones and require it of those less so, and to at all times neglect all but the most pressing tasks. A satisfactory enforcement of the immigration and Chineseexclusion laws can not be had in this district without the assignment of immigration officers to every city having a population of 25,000 or over. Every center of population in this district has a large alien element, and every such element offers a constantly fruitful field of activity. With the temporary additions to the force made to meet the war emergency results were obtained which would otherwise have been totally impossible of accomplishment and of a value far in excess of the extra expense involved. It is safe to say that if sufficient officers were furnished this district, it could be made self-supporting through the increased collections of head tax alone. Many thousands of dollars are annually lost to the Government through failure to provide a sufficient force on the Mexican border to compel aliens to present themselves at regular ports of entry for examination. It is safe to predict that during the coming year, as a result of the reduction in the force and the reductions to follow, there will be a heavy decrease in collections and in the number of undesirable aliens excluded or expelled from the country. If the district is supplied with only a sufficient number of officers to man the ports of entry and no employees are provided to guard the border and thereby compel aliens to apply for admission at the proper places, the purposes of the law not only fail of accomplishment but the work performed at ports of entry is nullified In other words, those aliens who do seek admission at ports of entry and are debarred will simply pass in at other places. Obviously, without officers to compel aliens to present themselves at regular points, undesirable aliens can and will cross the frontier where and when they please. It should be borne in mind that the act of February 5, 1918, increases at least fourfold the work incident to the inspection of aliens as compared with the act of February 20, 1907. Heretofore, the vast majority of aliens coming to this border were admissible as nonimmigrant, nonstatistical. Under existing law, the question of head tax immediately presents itself, requiring a further and more detailed examination. Examinations to determine the good faith or falsity of claims to exemption from the head tax and illiteracy provisions of the new law are the rule rather than the exception. Officers on the border, unlike those at seaports, are compelled to prepare manifests in respect of all arrivals. The failure of proper inducements of a financial nature has brought about a dearth of efficient eligibles. Brains are at a premium and the Government does not pay the premium. The business world keeps pace with the progress of the times; the Government lags behind in the race. The difficulty is met by accepting lower standards of efficiency. The inefficient employee does from one-half to one-third (or even less) the work performed by the efficient and does that fraction poorly and often in a manner calculated to bring the service into disrepute. On April 30, 1917, there were 194 employees in this district; the annual pay was $259,051.20, and average of $1,335.31. On July 1 of this year there were 255 employees receiving an annual aggregate compensation of $343,160, or an average of $1,345.72. It will be noted from these figures that since April 30, 1917, the average compensation of the employees in this district has been increased $10.41 per annum. This, however, does not include the bonus which has been provided by Congress to partially offset the high cost of living. When the fact is considered that the Government itself has urged industrial employers to increase the compensation of their employees from 60 to 80 per cent, it is obvious that it can not expect efficient persons to enter the service under the standards of pay obtaining. Were it not for a relatively small number of efficient employees who remain in the service largely from a sense of duty, it would be impossible to maintain any semblance of an organization worthy of the name. The present minimum needs of the district are 323 employees, and this office stands prepared to show conclusively that with this number it will be possible to fill only the fixed stations leaving no provision for sick or annual leaves of absence or necessary details of officers in the field away from their official stations. When consideration is had of the fact that there are 44 stations in this district, 20 of which are regular ports of entry and that there is a frontier of 2,000 or more miles to be covered, extended discussion seems hardly necessary to demonstrate that with 151 inspectors upon whom the bulk of the work must necessarily fall, they will have their hands full. To sum up the situation, the writer wishes to say that unless an adequate number of employees is supplied this district and their compensation increased sufficiently to offset the already extremely high and steadily advancing cost of living, demoralization is inevitable. PASSPORT-PERMIT WORK. During the period from September 15, 1918, to June 30, 1919, the officers of this service in district No. 23 granted 25,605 alien permits to depart from the country through ports in this district, and denied 197 applications for such permits. In addition, 2,028 applications were received here for permits to depart through ports in other districts. Border permits, for limited travel on both sides of the boundary line, were granted to 12,917 alien residents of the United States and to 22,693 aliens resident in Mexico. Such permits were refused to 206 of the former class, and to 126 of the latter, while 162 permits held by American residents and 315 by Mexican residents, respectively, were canceled. There were examined under the passport regulations 47, 789 aliens entering from Mexico who did not hold border permits, or their equivalent. Aliens numbering 819 departed whose applications for permits had been filed before. officers of other Government services acting as passport agents in this district, and 1,009 departed on permits issued in other immigration districts. A total of 7,625 transient aliens entered for departure at ports in this district, and 744 for departure at ports in other districts; 4,748 departed who had entered at Mexican border ports, and 967 departed after entry at other ports. In addition to the above, identity cards, Form L, were issued to 844 alien seamen, making a total of 128,317 aliens handled under the passport regulations. Regarding the application of the passport law to United States citizens, 15,413 citizens resident in the United States were granted identity cards for border travel, 105 were denied, and 293 such cards were canceled after issue. Similar identity cards were issued to 362 American citizens residing in Mexico, 3 applications for such cards were denied, and 2 cards canceled. Of citizens who held United States passports or their equivalent, 6,663 entered and 7,526 departed. Identity cards to the number of 137 were issued to citizen seamen, 124 applications for citizens' identity cards for insular travel were received and forwarded to ports of intended departure for final action, and tourist border passes, good for one trip only, were issued to 14,130 American citizens, making the total number of citizens' cases of all classes handled 44,463. The grand total of citizens and aliens handled under the travel regulations was, therefore, 172,780. During the fiscal year 616 persons were arrested for violations of the passport act, and 137 convictions were had, involving penal sentences aggregating 33 years, 8 months and 23 days, and fines amounting to $2,410. Appearance bonds in the sum of $1,250 were also forfeited. In the beginning complaints were filed against all known violators of the passport act and proclamation, with the result that for a time the courts were overwhelmed with petty cases to the exclusion of more important matters. Many of the complaints were dismissed after the offenders had been in jail for a few days awaiting preliminary hearing and the trial courts, where indictments were returned, either quashed the same or imposed nominal sentences. In order to avoid what might appear to be a farcical enforcement of the law and to relieve the congestion of work in the courts and confronting prosecuting officials, the policy was adopted of instituting criminal proceedings only where the violation of law involved some aggravated feature. This policy was attended by satisfactory results, as the severer sentences imposed in the selected cases served better as a warning to the public than the milder measures theretofore employed when all offenders were proceeded against. Of the 361 cases not presented to grand juries, 317 were those wherein complaints were filed in accordance with interdepartmental agreement and dismissed after the defendants had been confined in jails for periods varying from one to 15 days. Since the funds allotted for the enforcement in this district of the passport law, proclamation and regulations are exhausted at the close of the fiscal year, it becomes necessary to dispense with the services of a number of employees who had been engaged during the emergency to assist in passport work. SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CHIEF, CHILDREN'S BUREAU. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, CHILDREN'S BUREAU, Washington, September 15, 1919. SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith the seventh annual report of the Children's Bureau for the fiscal year July 1, 1918, to June 30, 1919. GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE YEAR'S WORK. The work of the Children's Bureau during the past fiscal year has been done on the congressional appropriation of $268,160 with the addition of $229,000 appropriated by the President from his war emergency fund for Children's Year activities and for the administration of the child-labor clause in war contracts. It has been possible for the Children's Bureau to accomplish the work of Children's Year because of the special allotment for that purpose of $150,000 from the President's fund. During the progress of the year and in the follow-up work since last April there has been an increasing demand upon the bureau for investigations of various types, surveys, children's health conferences, and other demonstrations-all work of a constructive character and in the highest degree important. The appropriation available for the current year compels the bureau to leave this work untouched for the greater part. According to a moderate plan of reorganization based upon the experiences of last year a total appropriation of $473,220 is requested. This is a minimum estimate for efficient work on lines already undertaken; it must be augmented to develop new lines of investigation. The following publications were issued during the year 1918-19: REPORTS. Administration of Child Labor Laws, Part III. Employment Certificate Sys- Infant Mortality: Results of a field study in Saginaw, Mich., based on births in one year, by Nila F. Allen. Maternity and Infant Care in Two Rural Counties in Wisconsin, by Florence Brown Sherborn, M. D., and Elizabeth Moore. Maternity Benefit Systems in Certain Foreign Countries, by Henry J. Harris. Maternity Care and the Welfare of Young Children in a Homesteading County in Montana, by Viola I. Paradise. Mental Defect in a Rural County: A medico-psychological and social study of mentally defective children in Sussex County, Del., by Walter L. Treadway, M. D., passed assistant surgeon, United States Public Health Service, and Emma O. Lundberg, Children's Bureau. Proceedings of the Children's Bureau Conference-Conference Series No. 1. Rural Children in Selected Counties of North Carolina, by Frances Sage Bradley, M. D., and Margaretta Williamson. Sixth Annual Report. |