We can bring hundreds of witnesses here to verify what this witness is telling

us.

Mr. CABLE. I deny that. The aliens are given a good examination. If a man comes here and says what Doctor Dawes did, he ought to substantiate it or withdraw it.

The CHAIRMAN. The immigration officers have complained that the time allowed is not sufficient to make a proper examination. Doctor Dawes began this morning with a statement in regard to the examination of alien seamen. That is the subject immediately before the committee. The question of a faulty or incomplete examination of the general run of immigrants is another matter. That has been before the committee several times. There is not time now to proceed with a general and detailed inquiry of that subject; but we are interested in the matter of examining alien seamen, and especially in Doctor Dawes's statement that the time within which an alien seamen may be deported should be longer than three years after landing.

Alien seamen are examined by immigrant inspectors in all cases, are they not? Doctor DAWES. I think not. I hesitate to make a statement; but, no, they are not in all cases. In many cases the statement of the captain of the vessel concerned that he has nobody aboard who belongs to the prohibited classes is taken as sufficient.

If I may qualify what I said about the United States Public Health Service: I have no criticism of the United States Public Health Service as such. I think that they do, and want to do, the very best they can, but they have not enough people to tighten up according to law.

The fault does not rest with the Public Health Service. It is in the Congress that does not provide them with enough people.

The CHAIRMAN. This committee is not responsible for it. This committee has nothing to do with appropriations.

Mr. CABLE. I would not have said a word if the gentlemen had not cast a reflection upon the Public Health Service.

Mr. RAKER. I want to reiterate what I have said. Two full hearings were had on this matter. Doctor Cumming appeared and stated he did not have the money or the men. He did not make any charges against them. Here [indicating] is the report of the Secretary of Labor, going into the matter in detail. He says there are only two places in the United States where they can make a proper examination.

The CHAIRMAN. I admit that; but the matter before the committee now is the admission of alien seamen. Doctor Dawes is speaking, I believe, as a member of the New York State Hospital Commission. Are you a member of the commission?

Doctor DAWES. No, sir; I am the medical examiner who has charge of everything relating to the citizenship and the legal settlement of all the committed insane in the State of New York.

The CHAIRMAN. So that your interest, by the very nature of your work, is centered on the distress of New York through the finding of these defectives in the institutions, and among those you find alien seamen. You are not, I presume, familiar with the practice by which alien seamen leave their ships under the La Follette Act?

Doctor DAWES. I am not.

Mr. SIEGEL. Have you been aboard ships when they came in on quarantine?
Doctor DAWES. No; excepting when I came as a passenger.

Mr. SIEGEL. Does any physical examination of the alien seamen take place?
Doctor DAWES. I think not.

Mr. SIEGEL. Who would be familiar with that; Doctor Heinsman?

Doctor DAWES. No; he does not know.

Mr. SIEGEL. He would know the number of sailors sent to the various hospitals, would he not?

Doctor DAWES. It varies from day to day and from week to week.

Mr. SIEGEL. The sailors are committed to what institution or institutions?
Doctor DAWES. We have 14 of them.

Mr. SIEGEL. Including the whole of Long Island?

Doctor DAWES. Yes.

Mr. SIEGEL. They would not be sent outside?

Doctor DAWES. No; not at first.

Mr. SIEGEL. They might be transferred?
Doctor DAWES. Yes.

Mr. SIEGEL. Would your statistics not show the number of alien sailors, by vocations, committed to the institutions?

Doctor DAWES. Yes; but I do not think they have ever been segregated as to that. I could find out from the statistician at Albany.

Mr. SIEGEL. You think they have some report like that at Albany?

Doctor DAWES. Yes.

Mr. SIEGEL. When a commitment is made, does it not show the vocation of the individual concerned?

Doctor DAWES. Yes.

Mr. SIEGEL. In that case then it would be a matter of statistics?
Doctor DAWES. Yes.

Mr. SIEGEL. How often have you been over to Ellis Island since last summer?
Doctor DAWES. I presume not more than half a dozen times since last

summer.

Mr. SIEGEL. And, naturally, you have gone to the hospital there? Doctor DAWES. No; I rarely go the hospital. I have no authority there. Mr. SIEGEL. I know you have no authority there. We are trying to get facts.

Doctor DAWES. When I go to Ellis Island to get official information I go to Mr. Tod, or Mr. Landis, of the board of appeals, or to Mr. Ewell, or to the law division. And I go down there at any time to hearings. Where effort is being made to hold up the deportation of some alien, and I am called. I go down and testify to the mental condition of the alien, because I have probably signed a certificate that the person is a deportable alien.

Mr. SIEGEL. Do you examine each one of these aliens taken from a State institution?

Doctor DAWES. Yes; or my deputy, Mr. Barton, does it.

Mr. SIEGEL. How many persons have you personally examined during the past six months?

Doctor DAWES. We examined altogether in the last fiscal year ended June 30, 1922, 286; we certified for deportation 283; 172 were deported.

Mr. SIEGEL. Do you mean to say that you and your assistant, Doctor Barton. examined that number?

Doctor DAWES. Yes.

Mr. SIEGEL. Does the United States Public Health at any time call on you or Doctor Barton for assistance in examining arriving immigrants?

Doctor DAWES. No.

Mr. SIEGEL. Who examines aliens to determine their mental condition?
Doctor DAWES. The United States Public Health Service.

Mr. SIEGEL. Has the Public Health Service any experts in mental diseases?
Doctor DAWES. They are supposed to have.

Mr. SIEGEL. Do you know of your own knowledge whether they have or not?

Doctor DAWES. I do not think I should answer that. I am not in a position to make answer to that.

Mr. CABLE. They give mental tests to every doubtful immigrant; do they not? Doctor DAWES. Perhaps I would better not try to answer that question. Mr. CABLE. The United States Public Health Service has been handicapped by lack of appropriation necessary to get the proper medical officers; has it not? Doctor DAWES. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. At some future time we hope to go into the subject of deportations, and deal with the inability of the various States to have contact with the Federal Government. That is another matter.

Mr. Box. How many of the 286 you certified as being deportable were deported?

Doctor DAWES. Of the 283 certified for deportation 172 were deported. Mr. SABATH. What are the causes of these increasing numbers-is one of them the high living in New York?

Doctor DAWES. That is an undetermined question.

Mr. SABATH. Have you ever paid any attention to that?

Doctor DAWES. We all are paying attention to it.

Mr. SABATH. Seriously, what is the cause of the terrific increase of insanity in New York?

Doctor DAWES. There are several causes.

Mr. SABATH. How does it compare with the American-born rate of insanity?

Doctor DAWES. As to nativity I can tell you that New York State of its hospital population a little more than 46 per cent are foreign born and more than 68 per cent have both parents foreign born; 73 per cent have at least one parent foreign born. Nine and nine-tenths per cent of the white population of the United States is in New York.

Mr. SABATH. I mean the alien population in comparison with the American born in the State of New York. How large a percentage of foreign born have you in New York?

Mr. SIEGEL. As far as New York City is concerned commitments are made more quickly than they are made in the rural sections-if a person shows any mental deficiency, he is looked after immediately?

Doctor DAWES. I believe that is true.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you anything further to tell us.

Doctor DAWES. Yes; the State of New York is vitally concerned, more in fact by reason of its geographical location and the character of its population, in immigration problems than is any other State. New York feels there are many matters other than the few to be touched on to-day which it will undertake to discuss at another time and under more appropriate conditions.

I have been greatly surprised, not to say concerned, to note that the honorable Secretary of Labor and many civic organizations are urging a change in the immigration law which would provide for an examination of the emigrant at the port of embarkation by a physician or some other person in the service of the United States Government.

It is hardly necessary for me to point out to you the impracticability, the unwisdom of such a proceeding. Indeed, if I am not in error, a joint committee of the Senate and the House some years ago reported that the European Governments would not permit it. Even were it allowed, under whose supervision, under what direct authority would these physicians act-the State or Treasury Department, the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, or the Secretary of Labor? Under what provision of the Constitution would they exercise their authority on foreign territory? Assuming. however, for the sake of argument, the legality and practicability of the procedure, if it were carried out, it would defeat the very objects which it was intended to accomplish. Section 19 of the act of February 5. 1917, provided among other things for the deportation of certain classes and section 9 of the same act reads: And that the existence of such disease or disability might have been detected by means of a competent medical examination at such time" (referring, of course, to. examination before embarkation) and fining the transportation company responsible for the entry of the alien. How, may I ask you, could the Federal Government enforce the sections referred to, either the deportation or the fine, if its own officials had made the examination and passed the emigrant as fit to enter the United States? There is, however, a method advocated by me since 1914 which would, I believe, accomplish the desired end legally, and without the obstacles just mentioned.

66

It is that there shall be provided as a prerequisite to the granting of a visé to the emigrant, he shall present a medical certificate on a blank provided by the Commissioner General of Immigration, embodying family and personal history, and certifying that the emigrant is not of the excluded classes, and made by a physician in employ of the transportation company which would bring him to the United States; providing a fine based on the cost of transportation, not less than three times such cost and leaving in the law the provisions of sections 9 and 19 referred to before. This would place the responsibility directly where it belongs, and would in no way interfere with deportation proceedings as carried out at present.

The law-section 19-should specifically provide that deportation may be had at any time where deportation proceedings have been commenced within five years after entry and it should be stated that for the purposes of the act, the verification of landing by the Department of Labor at the request of a State official should constitute the commencing of proceedings. As the law now is interpreted by the Federal courts, the alien can be deported only within five years after entry and as a result the State of New York is supporting as public charges hundreds of aliens whom it had certified for deportation within the legal limits but who were not deported within five years after entry, either because of the Great War or because the Congress failed to provide the immigration officials with sufficient funds to carry out the provisions of the law.

Section 34 of the act of 1917 is most unfair in that seamen are given privi leges accorded to no other classes. They are deportable only within three years, instead of five years, and the section provides for a board of special inquiry before deportation proceedings are instituted. In actual practice the Federal courts compel this board of special inquiry to be covered before the service of a warrant. It can be readily seen that it is necessary for three inspectors to go to a State hospital, some times more than a day's journey from Ellis Island, to hold the inquiry, a most impracticable proceeding even were there a sufficient number of inspectors for the ordinary work, and I am in a position to say there are not. It also provides that they shall be deported at Federal expense. The sailor is actually a greater potential source of danger than the average immigrant for he is not examined in the same way.

The law should be changed so that the sailor is examined and deported as are other aliens and the time should be five years instead of three.

I desire to call attention to the desirability for more liberal appropriations for the use of the Commissioner of Immigration at Ellis Island. So greatly is he hampered by lack of help that warrants can not be promptly served, nor investigations made, and the card index of immigrants, a vital necessity in the verification of landings, has not been written up for more than three years. The act of 1917 provides in section 16 for the examination, not inspection, of the immigrant by not less than two medical officers. This provision is not, as I have said, being enforced.

I feel that the provision that the alien must be a public charge should be struck out of the law in so far as it relates to mental cases-there is no reason, eugenically, why a rich alien who is insane, an idiot, an epileptic, or constitutionally inferior should be allowed to remain and a poor person deported. All we should have to prove is that he is an alien and is insane. I will here insert a table showing conditions in New York State under the present law. It shows aliens removed from the United States and certificates issued by my office:

The larger number in 1921 is accounted for by reason of vigorous protests on the part of the State of New York that many old cases of deports under warrants were being held in our hospitals unreasonably long, at great neonveniences and much expense to the State. Most of those repatriated at the expense of the State had been certified and should have been deported by the Federal Government.

As an example of ill-considered legislation, may I refer to the joint resolution of October 19, 1918? I am not aware of who is responsible for its provis ons and may therefore be absolved from implying any personal criticism.

This resolution is intended to be humane and generous and really is, but at whose expense, may I ask? It provides for the reentry of certain classes of al ens otherwise excludable as likely to become public charges, but makes no provision for their care and maintenance after they arrive. It says that any idiotic, imbecile, feeble-minded, epileptic, or insane person, or one afflicted with const tutional psychopathic inferiority or mental defect acquired while serving in the Great War may be admitted. If idiocy, imbecility, feeble-mindedness, or constitutional psychopathic inferiority could have been thus acquired, all present-day medical opinion is wrong.

I addressed several communications to the Commissioner General of Immigation asking him what provisions had been made for the care of these impending public charges enumerated in this jo'nt resolution, and finally and after several weeks was told none had been made. It is plain to be seen that most of these cases will enter the port of New York, and that that already overburdened State will "hold the bag," will pay the bill incurred by reason of the generosity of the Federal Government.

I have also asked the Commissioner General to issue instructions that no returning alien who is an idiot, an imbecile, epileptic, feeble-minded, or afflicted

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with constitutional psythopathic infer ority be admitted because of the joint resolution, but as yet have had no reply.

I desire to testify in no uncertain terms to the efficiency of the officials at Ellis Island and particularly to the hearty cooperation and fairmindedness of Commissioner Robert E. Tod at that port, who spares no legitimate effort in all matters coming legally under his jurisdiction.

Mr. SABATH. I would like to request that Doctor Dawes put in the record the percentage of foreign born in New York and the percentage of American born. There is a tremendous number of aliens, but when you take into consideration that New York City has 55 per cent foreign born, you will see that the percentage of aliens in the hospitals is smaller than the percentage of American born.

Mr. SIEGEL. We ought to get the percentage of the fellows-sailors and others who came from other States to New York.

Mr. Box. The Carnegie report showed that the next generation of foreign born developed a higher rate of insanity.

The CHAIRMAN. I have in my hand an article taken from a recent issue of the New York Tribune headed "Alien insane burden State; cost millions." I ask that it may be made a part of the record.

Mr. SABATH. I object. If that article goes in, I am going to ask that members of the committee be allowed to insert in the record anything-any article they please from newspapers on the subject.

The CHAIRMAN. The article shows how much the people there pay in taxes for the support of alien insane.

Mr. VAILE. I move that the article in question be inserted in the record.
Mr. Box. I second the motion.

The CHAIRMAN. Let us have a vote on the question.
(The vote is in the affirmative.)

ALIEN INSANE BURDEN STATE; COST MILLIONS.

$4,386,621 LAST YEAR, ONE-QUARTER OF TOTAL APPROPRIATION IN SECOND LARGEST ITEM IN BUDGET-EXPENSE UNJUST, AUTHORITIES SAY-FAULTY FEDERAL LEGISLATION AND CARELESS ENFORCEMENT OF LAWS BLAMED,

[By Robert Cresswell.]

More than one-quarter of the money spent by the State of New York for the care of the insane-the second largest item in its budget-is issued to provide for thousands of alien patients, the majority of whom have never contributed a cent, before or after their detention, toward defraying the expenses incurred in their behalf, and many of whom should never have been admitted to the country.

Just what this means to the taxpayers of New York is seen when it is pointed out that last year, according to the State Hospital Commission's figures, $4,386,621 was spent by the lowest estimate, for aliens in civil hospitals. out of $17,270,162 for all the insane, and that during the last three years a total of about $13,000,000 was expended for the same purpose. No other State has had to carry so great a share as this burden.

That it is unjust and unnecessary is asserted by the State authorities, and they add that faulty Federal legislation, coupled with merely half-hearted enforcement of such laws as exist, is responsible for the condition.

"New York State is being made to hold the bag' for the rest of the country in the matter of the alien insane. While it happens to contain the largest port of immigrant entry and is the place where, by no desire of its people, the largest single group of immigrants remain, yet it is not permitted by the United States Government to exercise the slightest discretion as to who shall be admitted within its borders, nor the slightest power of removing immigrants who become public charges," was the way the case was stated at the hospital commission's offices in Albany.

ONE-SIXTH OF COUNTRY'S INSANE.

The State contains but 9.9 per cent of the total population of the United States, yet its insane patients are 16.7 per cent of all the insane in the country. If, however, the State's alien insane could be disposed of, New York would have only 12.5 per cent of the total.

32893-23-SER 6-C-2