yet adopted sufficient machinery to put it into operation, and hence they keep coming. As it stands now, Senator, I get hold of a dozen or twenty of these men who are diseased. I write a letter to the commissioner of immigration for Canada, and I call his attention to their act and tell him there are 20 people now in the vicinity of my office suffering from loathsome or contagious diseases. Then he sends an officer, who comes and takes them away and puts them on a ship and sends them out.

The CHAIRMAN. Would the Canadian law be effective if there was machinery to execute it?

Mr. WATCHORN. Yes; it would, because it would keep this class of people out.

The CHAIRMAN. Are its provisions modeled on the same features as ours as to those ineligible to be admitted?

Mr. WATCHORN. Only so far as pertains to disease. They will not keep out paupers. They want immigrants too badly for that. Here is the certificate [exhibiting] as it is issued by our force at the port of arrival in Canada.

Senator MCLAURIN, of Mississippi. Is that the same certificate printed in your report?

Mr. WATCHORN. Yes, sir. There is a place, you will observe, provided at the bottom for the signature of the inspector who takes up the card and the date on which he takes it up. I think it attests amply the efficiency of the border force when I tell you that out of 26,000 certificates of that kind issued last year we picked up 25,980 of them.

Now, the use to which we have put these certificates has brought about another state of affairs. The steamship companies or the railroad companies agree not to sell a ticket under any circumstances to a European alien to the United States without our consent or without such a certificate as this; and they carry it to such an extreme that a great number of people who look like immigrants but who in reality are not are refused tickets.

They in like manner come to our office and get a certificate of permission to enter the States, and that has driven us to adopt another certificate, on which we print the words "No head tax." With a view

of showing you to what extent this is carried on I will state that we have issued 2,500 such certificates since the 1st day of July.

The CHAIRMAN. I think it would be a good plan to put the form of those certificates in your statement.

Senator MASON. I think so.

The CHAIRMAN. Can you lend us these?

Mr. WATCHORN. Certainly.

The certificates referred to are as follows:

[Ticket issued No. 82-96, No. 1117. Ext. 601. 44.]

U. S. IMMIGRATION SERVICE.

OFFICE OF U. S. IMMIGRATION SERVICE,

Montreal, Canada, October 22, 1902.

The bearer, Jeannè Lame, native of France, age, 25; height, 5.2; color of hair, brown; color of eyes, blue; has been duly examined, and is entitled to admission to the United States.

Good for one person only.

ROBERT WATCHORN, Special Immigrant Inspector.

(Stamped on face of ticket: "No head tax card.")

(Indorsed:) Surrendered at Detroit, Mich., to Immigration Inspector Cameron Miller, October 23, 1902.

[Form No. 1524. No. 17312.]

IMMIGRANT CERTIFICATE, UNITED STATES IMMIGRATION SERVICE, HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA.

This is to certify that Gibel Spekton, a native of Russia, who arrived at the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, per steamship Assyria, on October 24, 1902, has been duly inspected and registered, and will be admitted into the United States upon presentation, proper identification, and surrender of this certificate to any immigration officer at the frontier. The description of the holder is as follows: Age, 26; height, 4.10; weight, 90; color of hair, brown; color of eyes, brown.

Remarks: Indicating special features, such as blemishes, deformities, destination, etc.

To Kansas City, accompanied by Schoben Spekton, an infant aged 6 months.

JOHN THOMAS,

U. S. Commissioner of Immigration.

Surrendered at Detroit, Mich., to Inspector William H. Dean, October 25, 1902.

Mr. WATCHORN. I should like to point out just one or two subterfuges that are resorted to to evade this law. A great number of them come into Canada and get in the hands of these guides and smugglers, who dress them up, wash them, and make them look as if they had been in Canada for a long time. Then they buy them a ticket from Montreal to Genoa. They pay just $5 on this ticket, and they are willing to sacrifice it. That is the agent's commission. But there is no intention whatsoever to use that ticket. It is a fake from beginning to end.

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The alien goes and presents it at the border. He says: You have no right to examine me. I am just on my way to Italy." We say to him: "We will first see whether you are suffering from any contagious disease or not, and if we find you are we will ask you to go to Italy by way of the Canadian route." We take them and examine them, and nine times out of ten the people holding these fake certificates or ocean tickets are diseased and have been given this means of getting out of Canada into the States.

The CHAIRMAN. They say they are going to Italy by way of New York?

Mr. WATCHORN. They are going down to New York to take ship, so they allege. They are not going there at all. It is cheaper for them to pay $5 on a ticket and forfeit it than it is to pay $50 to a smuggler. The professional smugglers charge $50 a head; and when we catch them they get ten days in jail, and they come out and go into the business again.

There is another trick they resort to. They will buy a return ticket from Montreal to Albany and say they are just going down on some business and will come right back. Of course, at first glance, it is a proper thing to accept the return ticket and allow them to proceed; but an examination reveals the fact that of all people they are the ones who should not be permitted to enter the United States, and we very promptly confiscate the ticket and send to the railroad company and ask them to report the amount due. We have now in jail some three or four people in Vermont who have tried that round-trip dodge.

Here is another trick they resort to: They take this certificate which I have just shown you, and somewhere between the ship's side and the border, where the train stops for either coal or water or something of

that kind, smugglers will put on a woman, for instance, who is suffering from disease, and some man of her race on the train who has a certificate will write in "Accompanied by sister" or "Accompanied by sister-in-law." We have a means of notifying our officers at the border just how many people there are on that train from the ship going to the States, so that when the number is increased he is sure to find it out, and those people are taken off and put in jail.

The hardest class of people I have to deal with are those who come and are given peddlers' packs. They peddle along the border towns, and when they catch the inspector off his beat they walk through and get down into New York towns. They all imagine that our inspectors are on the immediate border line, but I have moved them all back some 30 or 40 miles, and they walk right into the hands of the inspectors.. That is how we manage to catch the greater percentage of those who ought not to come in.

But to go back to my original statement, gentlemen, if the same penalties do not apply to the railroad companies and to the steamship companies coming into Canada which apply to those coming into the United States, I tell you all the force you put on at United States ports will not keep back this tide of pauperism and disease and crime from Europe. It is an utter impossibility.

Senator MCLAURIN, of Mississippi. Then you would simply add the exception as to railroad companies?

Mr. WATCHORN. Certainly. I would strike out everything pertaining to Canada except section 33.

Senator MCLAURIN, of Mississippi. Can you point out the section in which that is found?

Mr. WATCHORN. It is section 10, Senator.

Senator MCLAURIN, of Mississippi. You would strike out the words "other than railway lines?"

Mr. WATCHORN. I would strike out the whole section.
Senator FAIRBANKS. You would strike out all of section 10?

Mr. CAMPBELL. Oh, no.

Mr. WATCHORN. That is right. I would strike out the lines I have underscored, "other than railway lines entering the United States from foreign contiguous territory."

Senator FAIRBANKS. What means have the railroad companies of protecting themselves against imposition?

Mr. WATCHORN. Well, as it stands now we are getting excellent support from the railroad companies. They will not sell a ticket under any circumstances to an alien coming to this country unless we give permission. But remove this penalty and what will they care for us? They help us because they know they are going to pay a penalty if they do not. Exempt them from the penalties of the law and they will tell us to go to Halifax.

Senator FAIRBANKS. Is there any provision like this in the present law imposing such penalties upon the railroad companies for a violation of it?

Mr. WATCHORN. Under their own agreement they accept all the obligations which apply to the steamship companies doing business in United States ports. The present law does not exempt them from any of the penalties.

Senator FAIRBANKS. Could you provide under section 33 for the exclusion of the diseased?

Mr. WATCHORN. They shall not bring in over the Canadian border anybody who would be rejected at New York, under the terms of that

section, and that is ample. But they have never run the slightest risk of having a fine applied to them since we commenced this vigorous enforcement of the law, and they are the very best of auxiliaries to us. Senator FAIRBANKS. Do you think the words "other than railway lines entering the United States from foreign contiguous territory" in section 10 would prohibit you from restricting them under section 33? Mr. WATCHORN. I think so.

Senator FAIRBANKS. I am getting at your opinion.

Mr. WATCHORN. I think so, because they would say, under this section 10, "Why should we care whether we sell this ticket or not? The United States immigrant inspector says, 'do not sell a ticket to this man,' but why should we pay any attention to that? There is no penalty attached to our act in selling the ticket." And of course we would be unable to enforce the law if they are to be exempt from the fine.

Senator MCLAURIN, of Mississippi. Let me call your attention again, so that I may be perfectly sure of your opinion about it, to page 32. I do not call for any argument on it, but it is your judgment, I understand, that all of section 26, after line 17, on page 22, should be stricken out. Is that correct?

Mr. WATCHORN. Yes, sir; all after line 17, because if you make it obligatory on the Secretary of the Treasury to make an agreement with them they will feel that one has to be made. It is forced arbitration, and we are the ones to agree to it.

The CHAIRMAN. How long has the Government been paying this attention to the Canadian border?

Mr. WATCHORN. I have been in charge since the 1st day of September, 1901.

The CHAIRMAN. Prior to that time was there no inspection?

Mr. WATCHORN. There were inspectors stationed at different important places along the border, and all those places the immigrants avoided, of course.

The CHAIRMAN. Will you have anyone here to speak about the condition on the Mexican border, or do you expect to refer to that? Mr. WATCHORN. The Commissioner-General is now here.

Senator MASON. How many different railroads run from Canada into the United States?

Mr. WATCHORN. Oh, a great number. I could not give you the number, but I should say, broadly speaking, it is more than thirty.

Senator MASON. You have a force at each one now?

Mr. WATCHORN. Yes; we have every point covered by one or more

men.

Senator MASON. Then you take the border between those lines and you have some force there?

Mr. WATCHORN. We have men whom we detail to run between the points. In order not to stop the trains or to delay traffic in any way whatsoever, all my inspectors must go up into Canada from 15 to 50 miles, according to the schedule of the trains. The inspector does his work between that point and the border. When any persons who are alien immigrants get off at the first station before reaching the border he immediately notifies those who are cooperating with him who got off there. Then all places crossing the streams and crossing the roads are watched, and I think we get about 90 per cent of all of them who come down. Then we examine them, in the first place, and get their names and addresses and the full address of the destination, and if they afterwards elude us, and we learn that they have done so, we send that fact, together with the name and address, to the Commis

sioner-General, who sends an officer to the address, wherever that may be, in the United States, and he takes them out, sends them to New York, and sends them home.

The CHAIRMAN. How do you detect exconvicts and anarchists?

Mr. WATCHORN. We detect them by a process of questioning that we have. I think our work is considered about as thorough as it could possibly be, and I could not mention anything that would more clearly prove that than the fact of the two young murderers in St. John, New Brunswick, who committed about as foul a crime as it is possible for boys to commit. They escaped all the Canadian officers and were hidden on the train, and they would have been in the United States now and at large if it had not been for our inspectors making a very thorough examination of the train. But they caught them and handed them over to the Canadian authorities, and they have been tried and found guilty and sentenced to execution.

The CHAIRMAN. I should think to keep exconvicts and anarchists out inspection on the other side would be necessary?

Mr. WATCHORN. That is essential, and that isone elimination from this bill which I have been unable to understand, because the information which has been of real value to us on the border has been by reason of the Commissioner General being able to send persons to the other side to become thoroughly acquainted with their methods. Now, I understand that provision was eliminated in the Senate, and the CommissionerGeneral is not to be privileged to send anybody out of the country for such a purpose.

Mr. CAMPBELL. The House committee reported such a provision, but it was stricken out in the House.

Senator MCLAURIN, of Mississippi. Would it not be to the interest. of the transportation lines to unite with any person sent by the commissioner across the border in preventing the coming of these exconvicts and others?

Mr. WATCHORN. I think it would. I think they could work together very well.

The CHAIRMAN. I should like to ask General Shattuc why that provision was not put in the bill in the House?

Representative SHATTUC. We made that concession in the House in order to pass the bill, there were so many opposed to it.

Senator MASON. Were they opposed to having our own consuls examine them there?

Representative SHATTUC. I suppose a great many in the House thought it would be economy to leave it out. They were going to make a big howl about it and the committee authorized me to leave out that provision in order to quiet them. We were very anxious to get some sort of a bill passed, so as to help out these gentlemen in the administration of the law.

Senator MASON. If we should put it back in the Senate, it could be agreed upon in conference, I suppose?

Representative SHATTUC. Undoubtedly.

The CHAIRMAN. There was an amendment to the bill to that effect. Mr. CAMPBELL. I think General Shattuc did not very clearly understand Senator Mason's question. The provision which was omitted had no relation to an examination by our consuls.

Representative SHATTUC. Not at all.

Mr. CAMPBELL. But the examination was to be made by officers of the immigration service who were under the control of the CommissionerGeneral, who were competent, and who were to be commissioned to go across because of their peculiar fitness for this work.