Speech #590088921

(reading from page 4 of the bill). "All the proceedings required in this condition to be performed in the court shall be recorder by the clerk thereof. and the said applicant at the time of- making his application as aforesaid shall file with the clerk of the court. to be made part of the proceedings required herein. a certificate from the collector of the port at which said alien arrived.. or from the commissioner of immigration of said port. as the case may be. showing his age. date of arrival. port of entry. the steamer by which he arrived. and a physical description of the applicant. which shall be countersigned by the said applicant in the presence of the officer who issues the same. who shall attest the same." Now. gentlemen. that Is this bill. Of course. this bill is practically the old law as It stands. with this addition. which cures all of the defects we have found. The other parts of the bill simply carry out this one general Idea. Now. the idea of that is this: First. every immigrant has his record at Ellis Island when he lands. Of course that record as it stands now Is In a jumbled condition. When we wish to trace it back. as we do in these prosecutions. if a man tells us he arrived on a certain date by a certain steamer. we can get the manifest of that steamer . but if he tells us a lie by one day. or gives us incorrectly the name of the steamer. we never can find It out. because there Is no Index and nothing by which we can prosecute our search. Now. you can see how different it would be if. before the applicant can get his first papers. his declaration of intention. he must produce his certificate of landing from the Commissioner of Immigrationa fee for which is provided here. so as to reimburse the Commissioner for having an additional clerk to assist in this work. We do not provide for the additional clerk in this bill. because we were ignorant of the exact method of providing for new officers under these bills. That is something that we have had no experience with. but there i a fee provided for issuing this certificate.