record, attested by the signature and seal of the custodian thereof, would substitute for the oral testimony of professional witnesses written evidence of an entirely reliable character.

NEW LEGISLATION.

In addition to the new legislation recommended under the next preceding title, I have to suggest that Congress be urged to strike out from section 1 of the act approved March 3, 1903, the words which exempt transportation companies from the payment of the head tax for aliens brought by them, respectively, who profess to be merely transits to foreign territory. It is believed that that provision was retained in the act through a clerical error, and its elimination is recommended because of the embarrassments, both to the transportation lines and to the Bureau, in its enforcement. The amount saved to the passenger carriers is too trivial to justify the labor and delay involved in ascertaining who are actually transits, and under the law not properly subject to the head tax, and who are merely professing

to be such.

The new law referred to above has not been in operation long enough to enable the Bureau to point out specific defects, other than that one just cited; but it was so carefully drawn and so aptly embodies the results of the Bureau's experience in the ten years of the latter's existence, that the best results are anticipated.

Irrespective of the effect in diminishing the number of alien arrivals, now approximating 1,000,000 annually, I am impressed with the importance of still further measures to improve the quality of those admitted. Such measures would be merely additional steps in the same direction already taken in dealing with the question of immigration to this country. They would involve no new departure from a policy which has been pursued for years, and which therefore may now be assumed to be a fixed principle of the United States in dealing with this subject. From this point of view it seems not unjust to require of aliens seeking admission to this country at least so much mental training as is evidenced by the ability to read and write. This requirement, whatever arguments or illustrations may be used to establish the contrary position, will furnish alien residents of a character less likely to become burdens on public or private charity. Otherwise it must follow that rudimentary education is a handicap in the struggle for existence, a proposition that few would attempt to maintain. It would also, in a measure, relieve the American people of the burden. now sustained by them of educating in the free schools the ignorant of other countries.

There should also be some requirement as to the moral character of such persons. The present law excludes convicts. This only partially accomplishes the purpose of establishing a moral standard for admission to this country. Without attempting in the restricted limits of this report to indicate the method of devising such legislation, it is sufficient to point to the criminal record in this country of many aliens as a justification for this recommendation. Before the close of the next fiscal year the Bureau will be in possession of interesting and suggestive data in relation to this subject.

For the purpose of distributing arriving aliens in accordance with the plan already outlined, it is recommended that suitable legislation

be enacted for the establishment, in connection with the various immigration stations, more particularly the Ellis Island station, of commodious quarters, properly officered, where information may be given to the new arrivals. In such quarters should be displayed maps of the different States, with descriptive matter as to the resources and products of each State, the prices of land, the routes of travel thereto and cost of transportation, the opportunities for employment in the various skilled and unskilled occupations, the rates of wages paid, the cost of living, and all other information that would enlighten such persons as to the inducements to settlement therein offered respectively by the various sections of the United States. I believe that such a plan is entirely practicable and that its adoption offers at once the easiest and most efficient solution of the serious problems presented by the enormous additions of alien population to our great cities and the resultant evils both to the people of this country and to the immigrants.

For the purpose of forming an approximately accurate estimate of the actual annual increase of the population of the United States by the in.migration of aliens, it is recommended that measures be taken to obtain information of the number of aliens departing annually. These figures will be valuable to students of the subject as presenting both sides of the case, and will correct the extravagant estimates that may be made from reports of arrivals only as to the actual size of our alien population.

IMMIGRATION STATIONS.

During the year I have made repeated visits to the various immigrant stations with a view to ascertaining, from personal observation, the needs at each station for an efficient administration of the law and a humane provision for the comfort of aliens detained there, pending a decision as to their admissibility. The personnel of the service I have found generally to be satisfactory, the officers in some instances being men of high character and intelligence, fully qualified both by experience and natural endowments for the discharge of their respective duties. It would be an act of injustice to omit appreciative reference to the industry, patience, and fidelity of the officers who have been assigned to service under me, as well as to their loyalty to the service and their prompt and cheerful obedience. With such agents to aid in administering the law I am sanguine of achieving the best practical results.

As regards the difficulties to be surmounted, it was found that the inspection along the land boundaries is far more of a problem than at the seaports. As was recited in the last report, and as is confirmed by the report of the commissioner of immigration at Montreal, the Bureau has succeeded, by virtue of an agreement with the transportation lines of that country, in establishing a highly satisfactory inspection along the northern boundary from Canada. Aliens of the inadmissible classes now find it quite as difficult to gain access to this country through Canada, which was formerly an open door to them, as at a seaport of the United States. As one of the results it may be reasonably anticipated that the next means to be resorted to by such aliens will be the Mexican boundary-a point of weakness in our defense from undesirable immigration that has already been discovered and utilized by the most resourceful of alien peoples-the Chinese. To

strengthen this line will be one of the immediate necessities, involving the assignment of active, young, and intelligent officers, under a capable and experienced general control, to guard the long stretch from the Pacific coast to the Gulf of Mexico.

At the port of Honolulu, where the accommodations for the detention of aliens pending inspection were wholly inadequate, suitably located ground has been selected and plans obtained for the erection of a commodious building with hospital quarters, officers' rooms, board room, etc. During the ensuing year it is believed that this building will be completed and paid for with the special appropriation therefor, and that it will thereafter be possible to enforce the laws as satisfactorily and care for the detained aliens as humanely there as at any continental seaport of this country.

At San Francisco there is no immigrant building. Chinese aliens have been temporarily landed from vessels, by permission, and placed in detention quarters furnished by the transportation lines. These quarters were so disgraceful-cramped in dimensions, lacking in every facility for cleanliness and decency-that it was necessary to insist upon an immediate remodeling thereof. As a temporary expedient, the result of my protest to the steamship lines has been the reconstruction of a better, cleanlier, and more commodious building, but it does not obviate the pressing demand for a structure to accommodate all alien arrivals. This is the principal port of arrival for Japanese and Chinese aliens, and provision of the nature indicated should be made at the earliest practicable moment.

It is therefore recommended urgently that the sum of $200,000 be appropriated for the erection of an immigrant station at said port, and that to prevent the difficulties which arise from attempts to communicate with the detained aliens the said building be located on land belonging to the Government in the harbor. This isolation from the mainland is deemed of special importance in view of the fact, appearing elsewhere in this report, that the communicable diseases, which it is one of the express purposes of the law to exclude, are peculiarly prevalent among aliens from oriental countries.

The recently established examination of Chinese aliens by physicians has shown the importance, from a sanitary point of view, of taking every possible precaution to prevent the introduction of disease through this class of immigration.

Pending provision for a suitable public building at Boston to be used as an immigrant station, the Bureau, and the transportation lines having terminals at said port, have effected improvements in the landing facilities there by which more commodious and wholesome quarters are provided for aliens pending examination, and separate apartments are supplied for the use of the boards of special inquiry and the inspection officers. This arrangement, however, is merely temporary and provisional, each transportation company having supplied individually such accommodation upon their respective properties, thus occasioning much delay in administering the laws by the necessity for continual shifting of officers from one point to another.

All of the reasons urged in the last annual report for appropriation to construct an immigrant station have acquired additional force during the past year of heavy immigration. Not alone humanitarian considerations, but the requirements of an efficient administration, involving the least amount of expense and movement from one place