Speech #630132086

It also gives the inspectors power to require the attendance of witnesses. They are not allowed to issue subponas or exercise proceedings for contempt. but if the witnesses refuse to come in response to request they can apply to the courts of the country for process to secure the attendance of witnesses. We provide more effectively for the deportation of those who are excluded. and put a higher penalty upon the steamship companies for refusing to deport them after this Government has ordered that it shall be done. Another very wise provision is for interior immigrant stations. The Secretary of Labor at his discretion may establish other interior immigrant stations andprovide an inspector to accompany aliens arriving at the ports of this country to the interior stations. That amendment was made because we found in many cases ignorant aliens and alien girls coming here from abroad and starting on a long journey into the interior would fall into improper hands and have trouble on the way. We found that those who got in from the borders to reach interior stations were often abused or defrauded. and by this amendI ment the Government protects them in a way that they could not have under the law as it now exists. We have also several sections providing for vessels furnishing lists of alien seamen and for the deportation of deserting teamen. It was found and so held by our court that when alien seamen were employed on ships and came to this country in the ships tl ey could go ashore and desert those ships and get in without any kind of inspection and escape restrictions in that way. Hence. in order to meet that trouble we provide that the steamships must furnish a list of the members of the crew and that they shall furnish a list of those who go ashore and lists of those that have departed. and if anyone has deserted the ship within their knowledge they are required to furnish a statement thereof. We found that some of the smaller steamship lines were engaged in traffic of that kind. employing men on the other side in menial positions. allowing them to come to this country as a part of the crew of the ship. and when they got here. perhaps paying a consideration to get here. they were people that would have been deported. but coming -in in the way they did and deserting. mingling with the masses of our people. in that way escaped detection and were let in. Those are the principal changes that we have made in the bill outside of the literacy test. Now I desire to read and briefly comment upon the literacy test. It is: All aliens over 16 years of age. physically capable of reading. who can not read the English language. or some other language or dialect. including Hebrew or Yiddish: Provided. That any admissible alien or any alien heretofore or hereafter legally admitted. or any citizen of the United States. may bring In or send for his father or grandfather over 55 years of age. his wife. his mother. his grandmother. or his unmarried or widowed daughter. if otherwise admissible. whether such relative can read or not. and such relative shall be permitted to enter. That for the purpose of ascertaining whether aliens can read the Immigrant inspectors shall be furnished with slips. of uniform size. prepared under the direction of the Secretary of Labor. each containing not less than P0 nor more than 40 words in ordinary use. printed in plainly legible type in the various languages and dialects of Immigrants. Each alien may designate the particular language or dialect In which he desires the examination to be made. and shall be required to read the vords printed on the r!ip In such language 6r dialect. No two aliens coming in the same vessel or other vehicle of carriage or transportatlon shall be tested with the same slip. That the following classes of persons shall be exempt from the operation of the illiteracy test. to wit: All aliens who shall prove to the satisfaction of the proper immigration officer or to the Secretary of Labor that they are seeking admission to the United States solely for the purpose of escaping from religious persecution. all aliens In transit through the United States all aliens who have been lawfully admitted to the United States and who later shall go In transit from one part of the United States to another through foreign continguous territory : Provided. That nothing in this act shall exclude. it otherwise admissible. persons convicted of an offense purely political. not involving moral turpitude. Mr.