TESTIMONY TAKEN BY THE COMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION REPORTED TO THE HOUSE BY MR. OWEN, OF INDIANA, WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 1891. 51ST CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 2d Session. S REPORT IMMIGRATION INVESTIGATION. JANUARY 14, 1891.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. OWEN, of Indiana, from the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, submitted the following REPORT: [To accompany H. R. 13175.] The following concurrent resolution of the Senate and House of Rep resentatives was passed March 12, 1890: Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That the Senate Comittee on Inimigration and the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization e, and hereby are, authorized jointly to investigate the workings of the various .ws of the United States and of the several States relative to immigration from forign countries to the United States, especially the law of Congress "to regulate imMigration," approved August 3, 1882; and also to investigate the workings of the contracts made by the Secretary of the Treasury under said law of August 3, with the various State commissions, boards, and officers; and also to investigate the effect on immigration, and incidentally on American workingmen, which is likely to follow the purchase of American industries by foreign capital; and also to report to Congress the official correspondence on the proposal to make Bedloe's [ Liberty ] Island, in the harbor of New York, an immigrant depot, what title the Government has to ich island, what buildings, if any, are intended to be built on said island, and what ncers and employés it is designed to employ thereon in connection with such immigration, and whether, in the opinion of the committee, after investigation, such -land is the best and most suitable place for such immigrant depot; the investigaon to be conducted at such times and places as said committees may deem proper. And the committees are hereby authorized jointly, as full committees or through abcommittees thereof, to send for and examine persons, books, and papers, and to Iminister oaths to witnesses. In accordance with that portion of the concurrent resolution relating to the proposal to make Bedloe's Island, in the harbor of New York, an immigrant depot, Secretary Windom, on the 13th of March, appeared before the joint committee and made a statement. On March 21 the joint committee met in New York City, and at 7.30 p. m. gave a hearing at the Fifth Avenue hotel to all comers, concerning the desirability of adopting Castle Garden, Bedloe's Island, Ellis Island, Oyster Island, or Governor's Island as a location for an immigrant station. On March 22 and 24 the committee visited the places named, and made a careful investigation as to their relative merits. On Monday, March 31, 1890, the joint resolution (S. R. 46) which had been introduced by Senator McPherson, and reported favorably from the Committee on Naval Affairs, authorizing the removal of the naval magazine from Ellis Island, and the amendment thereto offered by Senator Hiscock, appropriating $75,000 to improve Ellis Island for immigration purposes, both of which had passed the Senate on March 26, were approved by the joint committee, and their passage by the House of Representatives recommended. The resolution as amended became a law April 11. 1890. PURPOSE OF THE IMMIGRATION LAWS. The intent of our immigration laws is not to restrict immigration, but to sift it, to separate the desirable from the undesirable immigrants, and to permit only those to land on our shores who have certain physical and moral qualities. The inadequacy of the laws and amended laws on this subject is confessed, but your committee believe that the testimony taken in this investigation, and herewith submitted, contains suggestions which put in operation will cure the defects in existing laws, and that with added amendments the statute will furnish regulations that will be just to the immigrant and beneficial to the country. One or more of the political parties in twenty-three of our States this year in their State platforms demanded additional regulation of immigration. The great organized labor societies have made such request, and the present alien contract-labor law was formulated by the Knights of Labor. The time is far in the future when we will suffer from an overcrowded population. The territory of the United States will support seven times our present inhabitants. It will be fifty years before statesmanship need apprehend a burden from the influx of desirable aliens, but the time now is, and always will be, when the undesirable should be prohibited a landing in our country. The immigrant comes to the United States to better his condition, or to improve the chances of his children in the struggle for existence. In the cities of the Old World, and with the congested population throughout Europe, there was little hope for a man who loved liberty, or asked an opportunity, and from this class we have mainly received our foreignborn citizens. By their morals, thrift, and economy they have helped to build up for themselves and their new home a nation such as only that kind of citizens could create. But some fifteen years ago societies were organized throughout Europe to assist emigration; many municipal corporations, and even national Governments provided money annually to deport their poor and to furnish a landing sum with which to begin life in the New World. These people were deported for their countries' good, for no Government will assist the emigration of its desirable citizens. The effect of this emigration was soon manifested by the increased number of convicts, paupers, and other unfortunates among our foreignborn population. The immigrant law of 1882 was passed because of the bad features of this involuntary immigration. This law forbade the landing on American soil of four classes of persons—the convict, idiot, lunatic, and pauper. THE INSPECTION. Acting under the resolution to investigate the workings of the law, the committee held sessions in New York, Boston, Detroit, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Chicago. A great many witnesses were on the stand and a large amount of testimony was taken. As a large proportion of the immigrants are landed at New York the workings of the law were more particularly examined at this point than elsewhere. When a vessel containing them has been moored to her dock, the immigrants are transferred to barges and are taken to Castle Garden, but since the Secretary of the Treasury has taken Federal control they are now landed at the barge office. There they disembark and pass in single file through narrow passages separated from each other by wooden railings. In about the center of these passageways there is a desk, at |