Mr. BEVINGTON. They are sufficient for that particular purpose now and always have been. There is a surplus that amounts to several millions of dollars standing to our credit in the Treasury. The CHAIRMAN. But we can not get at it in that way. The Secretary of Labor now wants the fees heavier all along the line than they are made in this particular bill. Of course, these fees have not been discussed or adopted and are in here as tentative figures only, representing the judgment of those who prepared the bill. Mr. SABATH. The old fees were sufficient to increase the number of examiners. Mr. RAKER. The fees ought to be increased a reasonable amount and they ought to have more examiners, and we can get it if we go at it right. We have never appeared before the Committee on Appropriations and there never has been a presentation made. The CHAIRMAN. Some of us have. Mr. RAKER. That has not been done on the floor of the House. The CHAIRMAN. Let me explain that a little. Until the budget system was passed in Congress and the Appropriations Committee enlarged to 35 members, which emasculated the 8 or 10 appropriating committees, the naturalization and immigration service has never had a special appropriating committeethat is, this committee was not an appropriations committee—although it should have been. Mr. SABATH. It was up until 1910. The CHAIRMAN. I presume the reason it was not continued was that the department at one time was the Department of Commerce and Labor, and then was cut in two and one became the Department of Labor. Therefore there has been no committee to examine in detail the necessities of immigration and naturalization. When I came to Congress I had a sort of notion that lumpsum appropriations were the thing and that a Secretary should be given a lump sum and be able to distribute it, but my studies here of immigration leads me to think that the lump sum is wrong. Immigration is run under a lump-sum appropriation, and from the day I came to have any knowledge of the affairs of the Immigration Committee, which is now fully nine years, there has never been enough money for anything. Just how it is spattered away nobody knows. Mr. BEVINGTON. These lump sums, Mr. Chairman, disappear in this way. There is so much work to be done, and there is so little money with which to do it, that they are forced to appoint as many men as they can get at the lowest possible salaries, as a result of which they have it scattered over a large number of underpaid individuals who are soon discontented and who only stay long enough to get a better job somewhere else, and therefore the work is not properly done, and there is not the morale or anything else that there should be and that situation should be corrected. The CHAIRMAN. I would like to take the time now to pay a little compliment to yourself and to all the other chief examiners, the committee having come in contact with all of them, as men of the highest efficiency, and they are to be complimented especially upon the fact that they have remained in the service all these years at this small pay and have become experts, without hope of future reward, and this applies also to the district examiners, so far as I have met them here and there. This service, together with the Public Health Service, are, in my opinion, the big protective services of the United States and are the most poorly paid. Mr. BEVINGTON. Mr. Chairman, may I add a word right there in view of the fact that Mr. Crist is present. He was our personal officer for many years, and I know that his attitude was that of liberality; that is, he wanted to pay the highest possible wages he could with the little money he had at his command, and it is to him we owe this present rate of pay. We did not get that until very recent years, and with that thought in view I would like to refer to the very last section of this bill, which provides for the transfer, if created, of the naturalization field service to the bureau of citizenship. At the present time the naturalization service is under civil service. When this provision of law goes through, it is questionable whether it remains under civil service or not. During the war there was a period when, on the ground we could not get people to enter the employ of this service at the salaries we paid through competitive examinations, and that requirement was waived by the Civil Service Commission, and we might be said to have been out of the civil service. In other words, those who were appointed during the war for ༄ཀ vers to ta' 'ory * ****. Some pace of the constiricion, are to be a let thes to be without objection, both as tars ixel for bearings none but for sewing. to the court room to .8 * identified or substitution approved, and an peritioner or witness is allowe in the court room unless his card bears the O. K. of my office. Fifty petiVitesses appear at my office before going as theeked after the witnesses have been are After been The the tioners and their witnesses are admitted to the court room at a time. the oath to "true answers make required to verify the statutory requirements, and the examiner informs the court that the preliminary examination conducted by this service has satisfactory and that there is no objection to the petitioner's admission. oath of allegience is then administered to the petitioners, after which witnesses are directed to leave the building and the admitted petitioners are sent to the clerk's office to sign the certificates. Fifty more petitioners and has been administer the witnesses their witnesses are then admitted to the court room and the same process continued until the hearing is completed. ORDON. Under an order of the court signed by both judges, no petitioner called for final hearing who was deficient in knowledge of the Governn the date of filing his petition, until he has satisfied my office that he quired such knowledge of the Constitution as will warrant his petition alendared for hearing. If an adverse report is made by my office to the after the examination or reexamination of the petitioner as to his knowlof the Constitution, the same shall be good grounds for the further conace of the petition. The court has agreed to give such additional time for sposition of petitions having objectionable features as may be necessary ble this office to keep the condition of the work in this court as current ssible. → CHAIRMAN. The questions are asked the candidates for naturalization oc? . GORDON. The witnesses are asked the questions en bloc. e CHAIRMAN. They all say yes? r. GORDON. Yes, sir. e CHAIRMAN. There has never been any exception? r. GORDON. Not since July 1, 1921, except at the hearing of petitions having ctionable features. I am frank to say that ever since I have been in the ladelphia district, which has been practically 10 years, I have always night that the judges of this court should make their requirements stricter, this appears to have been impossible, due to the large number of petitions d and to be heard. I have one court at Wilmington, Del., that will take six seven hours to hear 75 petitions. They make every Hebrew swear on the e Books of Moses with his hat on, believing that that is the only oath that can take. He is asked every question required to be established in his petin. He is given a thorough questioning on the Government and the Constition and his knowledge of them. The school authorities sit at a desk in the urt room and if an applicant has not sufficient knowledge, the judge says, You walk over to that desk and register with Miss Burnett, and when you Ive her certificate that you have passed the required course in the Americaniition class come back and we will naturalize you." Every man who becomes citizen in that court becomes a citizen in a solemn and proper way. He nows that he has gone through the proceedings with some sanctity and solemity when he is made a citizen. At Wilmington those admitted to citizenship ome back in the evening and there is a spread prepared by the ladies connected vith the Delaware Americanization Committee. The new citizens hear a talk ›n Americanism and citizenship by the court and perhaps by other gentlemen. That is done at every hearing. Mr. RAKER. What is that judge's name? I want his name to go into the record. Mr. GORDON. Judge Hugh M. Morris. The CHAIRMAN. This work by the school authorities and the ladies' committee is volunteer work? Mr. GORDON. No, sir; in Delaware the State appropriates $50,000 for two years for the education of aliens, or $25,000 for each year, the sessions of the legislature being two years apart. The city of Wilmington, having the entire alien population gets that appropriation. The State has obtained expert teachers who are in charge of this work, and Miss Burnett is the supervisor. A trouble department, with an office in the heart of the city, has been established where every alien can go and talk over his troubles and the situation of his family back in the old country. This department does his correspondence and looks after the passports for the family if they are coming to the United States. There is such cooperation between that committee and the court that Delaware is going to have the best citizenship of any State in the United States as a result. The classes contain from 1,200 to 1,500 members. When the State' legislature almost failed to make an appropriation this year the aliens themselves invited 30 members of the legislature to Wilmington, where they gave them a banquet at the Du Pont Hotel and an entertainment, with all the nationalities represented, numbering from 1,200 to 1,500. The exercises consisted. of speeches by the aliens in English, demonstrating what had been accomplished. These people said to the legislators, "You have done this for us in the past, and we do not want these advantages taken away from our brothers who desire to become Americans." As a result the legislators went back and increased the appropriation by $20,000. duty at that time were appointed without regard to the civil service rules or requirements. Now, you are going to enact a law here that will restrict naturalization to candidates of the highest integrity and character. Is it not equally as important that we have as high a type of naturalization examiners as we have of naturalization candidates? I say this advisedly, for experience has demonstrated that the naturalization field service can not survive without the protection of the civil service. The wonderful leadership that we have thus far had, coupled with the protection of the civil service and the hope that such leadership and protection would ultimately make the naturalization service a career for an ambitious lawyer, have alone been responsible for holding the naturalization service together to date. To recur to the war period referred to, and which has given us our experience in these matters. Many totally unfit men were then appointed in my district, and from what has been told me by my colleagues, other districts were subjected to a like state of affairs. These war appointees all but broke down the field service, and one man at least, terribly disgraced the same. I refer now to an appointee under me who was found to have been in the workhouse only a short time before his elevation to the position of naturalization examiner; and I may say, too, that he was serving time in such workhouse on a shocking charge of immorality. To state this matter in another way, he had been tried by a court of competent jurisdiction, and found to have violated the laws of my State regarding immorality, and had been sentenced to the workhouse as a result of this. So notorious was this man's case that he was exposed by the public press, with great- embarrassment to the naturalization service, as he was in such expose described as one of our employees. Now, without a definitely prescribed standard of fitness, and without assurance of adequate salaries, without the protection that has thus far been given us by the civil service, you can not keep the unfit out of employment in positions such as that of naturalization examiner. And only a few unfit appointments will be necessary to totally discredt this service in the eyes of the public. The naturalization field service is an arm of the court. Its integrity must be as unimpeachable as that of the court itself. Otherwise justice is to be brought into disgrace. Can we, with such a state of affairs facing us, afford to take any chances? Can we afford to leave the present provisions of law stand as it is, subject to construal later that it takes the field naturalization service out of the civil service? I would urge this committee to amend this provision of law so that it will specifically recite not only that the naturalization service shall remain within the civil service but that in addition, with respect to subsequent appointments, the qualifications of a naturalization examiner are fixed as follows: That he shall be a graduate of a reputable school of law having a course of at least threeyears, leading to the degree of Bachelor of Laws, and that he shall be a member of the bar, and a man of integrity and standing in the community in which he resides. Then I would further provide that he should be in the classified civil service. Then, by paying fit salaries, I think you will have a wonderful service. We have a wonderful service now, but men come into this service full of hope and ambition, just like Mr. Crist said yesterday, and they are imbued with the highest ideals and are hopeful of making this work a life career. Then after years, no adequate recognition having come to them in the way of living wage, they find that they have made a mistake and they resign and go elsewhere. I have lost three senior examinations in the last few weeks. My senior examiner after 14 years service was getting just $2,400 a year, and if I could have gotten him just a little more money, he would have stayed. But we lost all of that valuable training and experience that a fit wage would have retained. I lost another examiner who had been for 12 years connected with the Federal court of St. Louis and who is probably one of the best lawyers, so far as Federal practice and procedure is concerned, in St. Louis for his years. He was getting, I think, $2,100 a year and resigned to go elsewhere, where he got $2,750 to begin with, and I was told the other day that he would be getting $3,000 within a few days. I had one man who was drawing $1,850 a year who would have been perfectly willing to have remained for a few hundred dollars more, but could not get it. He went out at $5,000 a year, and within a few months was promoted to $8,000. That is the character of men we have been getting under the civil service, but they have been deliberately starved out, and I want to urge the committee, if it can do so, to do something for this field service. I think that is just as important as it is to have good laws. The CHAIRMAN. Perhaps after we get through with the Shipping Board and all its paraphernalia and employees, we will be able to do something for this field service. Mr. Box. Is not that postponing it a long time, Mr. Chairman? Mr. FREE. Mr, Bevington, you started in to discuss registration and then you were sidetracked. I am interested in that subject and would like to hear your suggestions. Mr. BEVINGTON. I have no suggestions other than this: I would like to inquire whether or not the committee has considered the matter of having, for instance, the Federal Bureau of Census make this registration. It is the only Federal bureau that has the machinery to make it right now, and is the one bureau that could make it most satisfactorily. The CHAIRMAN. What registration do you refer to? Mr. BEVINGTON. The registration of aliens throughout the United States. Mr. BEVINGTON. Yes; it is, the voluntary registration of aliens, this being a preliminary step to naturalization. Mr. FREE. Should not that be compulsory? Mr. RAKER. That is what we are all striving for, Mr. Free. The CHAIRMAN. We have other witnesses here, and I thought that the matter of compulsory registration should follow a statement by Secretary Davis, whom we will have up here the minute he gets the present railroad troubles off his hands. In the meantime I am going to ask Mr. Cable and Mr. Vaile to make a little study of the constitutionality of the proposed registration of aliens. Mr. CABLE. We ought to have Judge Raker on that committee. The CHAIRMAN. That is just a tentative study to be made for us and I would ask incidentally that you see Secretary Davis. Mr. BEVINGTON. If that registration goes through and becomes effective here, there should be some method of providing that these yearly registration certificates shall be made a part of the naturalization application at the time of filing, otherwise it will be impossible to make proof of registration, and it seems to me that the petition form might very well provide that "Attached to and made a part of this petition," in addition to the declaration of intention, "Is my annual registration certificate required by law." The CHAIRMAN. That is contemplated in the plan. Mr. BEVINGTON. It is not in the bill. The CHAIRMAN. Annual registration is a part of the process. Mr. BEVINGTON. But there is no provision made there for giving a man his certificate, which he should retain and should make a part of his petition when he makes his application. The CHAIRMAN. It was left out on purpose to be developed later. At one time the plan proposed a form of examination annually, so that the man made a record, but we saw that we were building a pretty cumbersome machinery, so that was eliminated to be developed later. Now, what else have you to suggest? Mr. BEVINGTON. I was going to suggest in connection with this registration that for 16 years you have educated the alien to go to one place in every community for his naturalization, and if any alien has any desire to become a citizen he is going to go to that place, and if he could also register there instead of having to go somewhere else, I think it would simplify the procedure very much. The CHAIRMAN. He could go to the naturalization office. Mr. BEVINGTON. Yes; but the naturalization office now has ten times more work than it can do anyhow. The CHAIRMAN. Where does he go to register-to the clerk of the naturalization court? Mr. BEVINGTON. He is supposed to go to the school authorities or such other person as may be designated. If he goes to the clerk of the naturalization court, where all the aliens have gone for 15 years, he would at least be able to find the place. Mr. RAKER. And that is a place that all of them know about, so that they would know exactly where to go, and in that way you would get everybody and would have a record of it. Mr. BEVINGTON. Yes. Mr. RAKER. And that would be a place from which the school superintendent could get the record if he wanted it. Mr. BEVINGTON. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. That is a good suggestion. Have you anything further? |