I shall not try to tell you how such a serious situation may be avoided, but I have not exaggerated the conditions, and can only repeat the hope that you will alter these sections in such a manner that it will be possible for the steamship companies to obey the laws, for self-respecting aliens to visit the United States, and for the immigration officers to administer the law without elaborate interpretations. The eastbound figures, given further on, will also throw light on this subject.

Section 3. This section provides for the exclusion, in addition to the clases named in section 2, of "all persons" (I suppose "all aliens" is what is meant) over 15 years of age and physically capable of reading who can not read some language. There are modifications regarding the wives, the children under 18 years of age, and the parents and grandparents over 50 years of age of admissible aliens, or of aliens already here.

As in my remarks on sections 13, 14, 15, and 16, it is not our purpose to tell you that we desire or do not desire you to enact this section into law. But we desire to place before you, if you will kindly extend your patience a little longer, some thoughts and figures which I have not seen set forth in any of the discussions of this subject, although this may only be because I have not followed these discussions as closely as you have.

The following statistics will aid you to appreciate my remarks, and as some of these figures are given out for the first time, I think you will find them interesting.

The west-bound figures are taken from the annual report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration for the year ending June 30, 1901, and are shown on page 28, Table X, which shows the total number of aliens who have entered the United States from Europe either as steerage or cabin passengers (so far as was known of the cabin) during each year from 1893 to 1901, inclusive.

Opposite these west-bound arrivals I have placed the number of eastbound passengers who have embarked for Europe in the steerage. I quite appreciate that the comparison is not perfect. The west-bound figures are given for the fiscal year, and the east-bound for the calendar year, and if the comparison was made for only one or even two years the comparison might prove very inaccurate, but where nine years are given the result can not be greatly affected for the entire period.

No record has been kept of the number of United States citizens who have gone abroad in the steerage, but from the very small number of United States citizens that travel west bound in the steerage I am sure this will not materially alter the results. The figures are as follows:

The total west-bound and east bound figures from 1895 to 1901, inclusive, calendar years, of first and second cabin passengers are taken from the steamship companies' records, and are as follows:

There is another element of uncertainty in regard to these figures. It is not known how many European aliens have entered or departed via Canada.

I can not vouch for the accuracy of the following figures, but they are the best I can get, and are supposed to be fairly correct. They show the east and west bound steerage passengers carried by the Canadian lines between Canada and Europe during the calendar years from 1895 to 1901, inclusive, and are as follows:

The total west and east bound first and second cabin passengers carried by the Canadian lines during the same period are as follows:

There are two general classes of advocates of an educational restriction of immigration:

First. Those who on principle believe that the admission of such aliens as would fall under the restriction are an injury to the people of the United States morally and mentally; and

Second. Those who use this only as a means to secure an actual restriction of the number of aliens who may enter the United States. The latter claim that this educational test would shut out somewhere about 40 per cent of the total immigration, would raise the wages of the laboring classes, and make fewer people to care for in times of depression.

There are a great variety of arguments used in opposing these educational tests, but I shall only refer to two classes of opponents, and these arrive at their conclusions from almost opposite standpoints.

One class believes that immigration to the United States is not the result of sentiment as its chief factor, but is the result of the prosperity of this country, the demand for labor, and the wonderful opportunities here for bettering one's condition. These are the great factors that cause aliens to come here. They claim that if you will examine the west-bound figures you will find that they vary with the good and bad seasons here, and that in some years the numbers are twice as large as in others; as, for instance, in 1896 the immigration was 329,067, and the next year it was 216,397, and in 1901 it was 469,237.

It is argued from this that if the demand for labor was great enough to give employment to twice the number who came in 1901, and the conditions in Europe at the same time justified it, there would be twice as many people come to the United States as came last year.

In other words, they believe that the supply of labor in Europe is not by any means exhausted, and will be able to fill two or three times the present demand for labor.

If the above premises are true, the educational test would not, for a long time at least, have the effect of actually restricting the number of aliens who would come here. The place of the illiterates would be immediately taken by those who could read.

The other class of advocates believe that this section would actually cut off immigration to the extent its friends believe; that it would greatly disturb and frighten both capital and labor, and would injure both instead of benefiting either.

It is claimed for this theory that the east-bound figures show only what has been well known to the employers of labor, viz, that the west-bound figures do not represent the actual number of aliens who remain as wage-earners; that every year there are large percentages of these aliens who go to Europe; that in times of industrial depression here these numbers are larger than in good times; that the educational test would compel a change in the nationality and character of certain kinds of labor without adding to its effectiveness; as, for instance, in almost all railroad construction work the labor is done by Italians.

If one-half of this supply is cut off, other nationalities will have to be employed or the work will be suspended. The same thing will occur in the mines, and new work and enterprises can not be started until it is known whether a sufficient amount of labor can be secured to carry it on. The progress of the industrial enterprises of the country will be checked if labor can not readily be secured, or if wages are advanced to a point that will make such enterprises unprofitable, and the results will react upon the laborers already here, and upon all other industries. At present the laborers, as we have seen, leave the United States in times of depression, and thus lessen the number of people who must be supported in idleness, or who are competing for the work that remains. If any such restriction is placed upon their return they will not leave, but remain in the country to still further congest the labor market.

These advocates claim that the only qualities sought for in ordinary laborers are health, strength, and a willingness to obey instructions. In times of labor troubles there seems to be no difference between those who can read and those who can not, as to their willingness to strike; so that question is immaterial.

Both of these classes of opponents, however, agree on one point, and that is, that while an educational qualification would undoubtedly be wise and rational if applied to applicants for naturalization, it does not seem to be either wise or reasonable to tell any man that if he can not read he can not better his condition nor earn his living wherever he can find work.

To these thoughts and figures I would only add that since the present strike in the anthracite coal regions, say for the thirty days from May 8, 19,747 steerage passengers have embarked from the United States for Europe, and the stream is still running. Under the educational test much of this would not have gone, and the miners would have a heavier burden to carry in their contest.

Section 34. In my opinion this section is the most important one in the entire bill; in fact, if this section alone was passed, with the slight amendment I shall suggest, and no other immigration legislation had, an immense advance would have been made in securing the real object of the immigration laws, viz, the absolute exclusion from the United States of the prohibited classes of aliens.

For years the immigration laws have been enforced with all possible severity and with all the power of the Government at the seaports of the United States, but until last September no real or determined effort has been made to prevent the entrance into the United States via Canada or Mexico of the excluded classes of aliens. Immigrants who have been rejected by the surgeons of the steamship companies at foreign ports of embarkation, and large numbers of those who have been rejected and deported by the Commissioners of Immigration at United States ports, have afterwards returned by way of Canada, and have easily found access to the United States. As a proof of this statement, one line has kept a record of rejected passengers at a European port with the following results:

"Of the 196 passengers rejected on account of diseases during 1900, 105 were positively traced as having been booked via Canada, 28 were traced to their homes, and 63 disappeared, destination unknown. But from the fact that usually the steamship company would be called upon to assist them in reaching their homes had they gone there, and that such demand was not made upon the steamship line; and, further, that the Canadian steamship companies' agents were constantly on the watch for such passengers, it is confidently believed that a large majority of these people were booked via Canada.

"In 1901, of 258 passengers rejected, 107 were traced as having been booked to Canada, 70 were sent to their homes, and 81 disappeared under the same circumstances as the 63 in 1900, with every evidence that the most, if not all of them, were booked to Canada."

These are statistics of one line, for one port, and there is no reason to doubt that it is the experience of most of the other ports, and in some of them the figures are doubtless much larger.

In regard to passengers who have been debarred from landing at United States ports, and have afterwards returned to the United States via Canada, I will refer to the following cases, which are only a few of those that have occurred at the port of Philadelphia, where comparatively few aliens enter. There are many such cases of which we have no record:

(1) Chane Ciwies and family (two adults and five children), and

Louis Ciwies (one adult), arrived on steamship Waesland, October 15, 1899. Four of these children were declared to have favus, and the entire party was returned to Liverpool on steamship Waesland, October 21, 1899. They all afterwards arrived in Philadelphia via Canada, about January 10, 1900.

(2) Jente Schmatze (or Nadelman) and family (two adults and two children) arrived on steamship Belgenland, October 30, 1899. One child had favus, and the mother and this child were returned to Liverpool on steamship Waesland, November 25, 1899. The same passengers arrived here via Canada about December 20, 1899.

(3) Mordche Glicks and son, 11 years of age, arrived on steamship Pennland, December 19, 1899. They were debarred on account of favus, and were deported on steamship Rhynland, December 30, 1899. They afterwards arrived in Philadelphia via Canada about February 5, 1900.

(4) Wolf Grusitzki arrived on steamship Pennland, June 19, 1899, was debarred on account of trachoma, and returned on steamship Pennland, June 24, 1899. He returned to Philadelphia via Canada about September 1, 1899.

(5) Mrs. Kani and two children arrived on steamship Pennland, September 25, 1900. One of the children was declared to have favus, and the woman and two children were returned on steamship Pennland, September 29, 1900. The woman and two children returned to the United States via Canada, arriving here about December 25, 1900, and the husband entered suit against the International Navigation Company for $50,000 damages for the forcible and unlawful carrying away of his wife and children.

In further confirmation of the fact of such passengers arriving via Canada, I refer to the report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration for the year ending June 30, 1899 (see pages 31 and 32), in which he states as follows:

"The Commissioner of Immigration at the port of New York reports as a frequent occurrence the recognition of aliens on the streets of that city by the officials who had assisted at their deportation. Repeated instances have occurred of deportation of aliens, who, after rejection at a port of this country, had secured entrance by returning through Canada, and becoming public charges after such entrance, have been returned to their own country at the expense of the immigrant fund.' These are only a few sample cases of the many that are constantly occurring.

Since last September the Treasury Department has seriously tried to stop this back-door entrance for prohibited aliens, and has succeeded in turning back into Canada such large numbers of diseased aliens that the Canadian Government has become somewhat alarmed, and has passed a bill which is appended hereto.

During the discussion of immigration matters in the Canadian House of Commons in April of this year, the Hon. Uriah Wilson read a letter which he had received from Mr. Robert Watchorn, the United States special immigrant inspector for the Canadian border. I would like to give you the entire letter, but as I understand Mr. Watchorn is to appear before your committee, I presume you will learn from him all that you may think necessary. Yet one or two points are interesting just here, and I will quote:

"It transpired that very large numbers of immigrants intending to