brought, and the vessel by which brought shall not be granted clearance until such expenses are paid or their payment satisfactorily guaranteed.

"(c) If it is found that such alien is subject to exclusion under subdivision (f) of section 17 hereof, the inspector shall order the master to hold such alien on board pending the receipt of further instructions.

"(d) If it is found that, although a bona fide seaman, such alien is afflicted with any of the disabilities or diseases specified in section 35 of the immigration act of 1917, disposition shall be made of his case in accordance with the provisions of the act approved December, 1920, entitled 'An act to provide for the treatment in hospital of diseased alien seamen.'

"SEC. 17. (a) Upon the arrival-after the expiration of four months after the enactment of this act-of any vessel in the United States, it shall be the duty of the owner, agent, charterer, consignee, or master thereof to deliver to the immigration officer in charge at the port of arrival, in respect of each alien seaman employed on such vessel, a landing card in duplicate, containing such seaman's name, age, nationality, personal description, and the capacity in which employed, and having permanently attached thereto a photograph of such

seaman.

"(b) If such alien employee is found upon examination not to be subject to detention or exclusion under any of the provisions of section 16 hereof, he shall be permitted' temporarily to land during the stay of the vessel in port or for the purpose of reshipping on board any other vessel bound to a place outside the United States, and the immigration officer shall cause a fingerprint of the alien to be placed upon each copy of the landing card. Thereupon one copy of the landing card shall be delivered to said seaman, and the other copy shall be filed in the archives of the immigration office at the port of arrival and properly indexed for future reference.

"(c) If such a temporarily landed alien seaman remains in the United States without reshipping foreign for a period in excess of 60 days, such circumstance shall constitute prima facie evidence of abandonment of calling and becoming an immigrant, and such alien shall thereupon be taken into custody by immigration officials and examined as though he were an immigrant applying for admission; and unless such alien shows either that he has not abandoned his calling but is still a bona fide seaman, or that he is in all respects admissible under this act and the immigration laws, such alien shall be deported in the manner prescribed by sections 19 and 20 of the immigration act of 1917.

"(d) Landing cards shall be printed on distinctive safety paper prepared and issued, under regulations prescribed under this act, at the expense of the owner, agent, consignee, charterer, or master of the vessel. The Secretary of Labor, with the cooperation of the Secretary of State, shall provide a means of obtaining blank landing cards outside the United States.

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(e) All vessels entering ports of the United States manned with crews engaged and taken on at foreign ports shall when departing from the United States ports carry a crew of at least equal number, and any such vessel which fails to comply with this requirement shall be refused clearance.

"(f) No vessel shall enter a port of the United States, except in distress, having on board as a member of the crew any alien who if he were applying for admission to the United States as an immigrant laborer would be subject to exclusion under the Chinese exclusion laws, or under the sixth proviso to section 3 of the immigration act of 1917 and rule 7 of the immigration rules of February 1, 1924, or under the clause of section 3 of the immigration act of 1917 excluding by territorial limitations certain natives of Asia and of islands adjacent thereto; except that any ship of the merchant marine of any one of the countries, islands, dependencies, or colonies immigrant laborers coming from which are excluded by the said provisions of law shall be permitted to enter ports of the United States having on board in their crews aliens of said description who are natives of the particular country, island, dependency, or colony to the merchant marine of which such vessel belongs. Any alien seaman brought into a port of the United States in violation of this provision shall be excluded from admission or temporary landing and shall be deported either to the place of shipment or to the country of his nativity, as a passenger, on a vessel other than that on which brought, at the expense of the vessel by which brought, and the vessel by which brought shall not be granted clearance until such expenses are paid or their payment satisfactorily guaranteed.

"(g) The owner, agent, consignee, charterer, or master of the vessel who violates any of the provisions of this section shall pay to the collector of customs for the customs district in which the port of arrival is located the sum of $1,000 for each alien in respect of whom the violation occurs; and no vessel shall be granted clearance pending the determination of the liability to the payment of such fine, or while the fine remains unpaid, except that clearance may be granted prior to the determination of such question upon the deposit of a sum sufficient to cover such fine."

COMPARATIVE PRINT, SHOWING PROVISIONS OF IMMIGRATION ACT OF 1917 AND HOUSE BILL 7995, RELATING TO ALIEN SEAMEN

IMMIGRA- ALIEN SEAMEN PROVISIONS OF H. R. 7995, AS INTRODUCED

The following letter was submitted to Hon. Albert Johnson, chairman of the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization of the House and one of the conferees on House Resolution 7995, and considered by the conference, namely:

Hon. ALBERT JOHNSON,

Chairman Committee on Immigration,

House Office Building, Washington, D. C.

APRIL 28, 1924.

DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: In dealing with the question of immigration no one could fail to note an effort on the part of the Department of Labor to acquire a right to hold alien seamen on board of the merchant vessels in our harbors in order to prevent the vessels from being the means of violations of the immigration and exclusion laws.

The early drafts of all the bills contained provisions under which the masters of vessels were to hold the seamen on board of the vessels and be penalized if they failed.

It evidently did not occur to the draftsmen that such legislation would be either cruel or unconstitutional. Unconstitutional for two reasons. First, because those men would be held to involuntary servitude within the jurisdiction of the United States. Second, because the vessels would be private prisons, and as such incompatible with the sovereignty of the United States. As it became apparent to the membership of the committees that any legislation to hold the seamen on the vessels against their will might be declared void, it was thought that it might be accomplished in some indirect manner, as in the House bill (line 25 on page 31, and lines 19, 20, 21, and 22 on page 33, conference committee print No. 1), or that it might be better to permit the coming of aliens as seamen, as in the Senate bill.

When, during the hearings on the bill, your attention was called to the real situation, you stated that to deal with the question of seamen in the effective way suggested by me might defeat the proposed legislation.

To that suggestion I answered by stating that if such was the case it would be better to leave the seamen as they are. While the seamen question is of importance the seamen will stand aside, and I would do nothing which might endanger the bill. I have kept that promise. The situation is now altered.

There is not now any danger to the legislation, except to its effectiveness by leaving a side door open through which excluded laborers may come in as great numbers as might be desired by either the steel corporation or the steamship companies.

The census year to be used, the percentage to be admitted legally, and the Japanese exclusion are in the same language in the House and the Senate bills. The majority with which the bills passed the separate Houses is such as to make any danger from any source practically unthinkable.

There is, however, nothing in either bill that will prevent vessels of any nation from bringing excluded aliens into our ports, where they can not be kept on board for reasons given above.

There is nothing in either bill to prevent vessels from coming here with 50 or even 100 per cent of men added to their crews, to drop the extra men here as illegal immigrants and then go away with just such men as they might retain on board.

That vessels will do this, when they can collect not only immigrant fares but in some instances $1,000 per person landed in the United States, will not be denied by any man with the ordinary amount of candor and respect for the truth.

That our supply of Chinese is kept up and added to in this manner, you will not question. That immigrants are coming from Europe in this way, you have been told in such manner that you can not doubt it. Here is a side door through which the law is to be violated, and to much greater extent than in the past. You can close this door if you so desire. There are to treaties to forbid. The Bureau of Immigration has withdrawn its objections and now has notified the conferees that it now looks upon the amendments offered by Senator King as the one effective way proposed for the real enforcement of the law. The only known parties that are now opposed are the steamship

companies. Are they going to be permitted to stand in the way until in some dim and distant future you can pass the separate bill, of which you spoke. but the reason for which has now passed away?

Most respectfully yours,

ANDREW FURUSETH.

The following letter by Mr. Furuseth was presented to Senator Reed, a conferee on H. R. 7995 on the part of the Senate, and used by the conferees, which letter and memorandum are in words following:

Hon. DAVID A. REED,

WASHINGTON, D. C., May 5, 1924

United States Senator, Senate Office Building,

Washington, D. C.

MY DEAR SENATOR: From information which I have obtained it seems that the conferees on the immigration bill have tentatively agreed to sections 18, 19, and 20 of the House bill, which sections deal with the question of alien seamen in relation to immigration, without adding thereto subsections (e) and (f), as found in the amendment submitted by Senator King.

I do most sincerely hope that no such agreement will be finally arrived at. It is a fact, not now disputed by anybody, that vessels are leaving our ports with a much smaller crew of seamen than they had on arrival. If subsection (e) is not made a part of the law, there will be nothing either in the maritime law or in the immigration law which would justify any protests on the part of our immigration authorities if a vessel coming here was to double her normal crew and leave one-half of that double crew behind her when she departs. That vessels will do this is as certain as the fact that men will do things that they are permitted to do if it is to their economic advantage.

About 165,000 immigrants will be admitted regularly. There is no reason anywhere in the law why that number can not be doubled and 330,000 brought here in violation of the spirit, but not of the letter, of the immigration law. Nothing can be more certain than that men will pay their passage, be placed on the articles of the ship, and do some work on the way over in order to ostensibly prove that they are seamen.

If subsection (f) is not adopted, there will be nothing in the law to prevent vessels coming from any foreign port or place bringing to the United States persons that are racially or territorially excluded from the United States and bringing them in such numbers as to make it worth while even to wealthy corporations. It is not now disputed by anybody that Chinese are paying $1,000 to be landed in the United States. That the same will henceforth apply to other orientals can not reasonably be questioned. The provisions for fines, as found in section 20, will have no force or effect, because the Government will have to prove collusion, and that can not be proved except in very rare instances, if at all.

But, bad as this is, it is not the worst. While the side door is left wide open to bring in all kinds of excluded people, the honest legitimate seaman is to be photographed and fingerprinted, like any convicted criminal, and the vessels are to be annoyed, subjected to delay, trouble, and expense by obtaining from the consul special papers for every alien on board and to cause him to be photographed. They are to be punished by fines for violating this provision. It will be the honest seaman that will be fingerprinted; the crook will refuse on the plea that he is not going ashore at all, and when night comes he will slip from the side and vanish. If the photographing and the fingerprinting were general, of course the seaman could not properly complain; but when the seaman is selected and put in the class with convicted crooks simply because he is a seaman and unfortunate enough to come within the jurisdiction of the United States, it is a dishonor put upon the seaman which will certainly not help the United States in getting efficient, self-respecting men or boys to serve at sea, whether they be of American or foreign parentage.

If the conferees could adopt (e) and (f), there would be no necessity for any landing card, because those specifically excluded would be picked up on the arrival of the vessel and deported. This would certainly be less annoyance to any vessel than to furnish photographs on special paper for every member of the crew, running from 20 to 700 men and women. If it be stated that it would be a hardship on the vessel to be prohibited from departing unless she had as many men in her crew as she had on arrival, I respectfully submit that that is the law dealing with American vessels, and you will find that in section 4463 of Revised Statutes, as finally amended in 1913.