nS POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



I found that in this section of the country Chinese gain admission into the 

 United States by smuggling, by applying openly through the regular channels 

 as members of the exempt classes, or by surrendering themselves a short distance 

 from the border for arrest and trial, as a rule, under the guise of being natives 

 of the United States. As to the first-mentioned class, the number is being reduced, 

 owing to the constant vigilance of our officers on both sides of the border. As 

 to the second class, the inspector in charge of the Brooklyn district, as well as 

 the one in charge of the Boston district, I found to be good, efficient officers, and 

 cases are submitted to a thorough investigation. It is the third class — that 

 of the so-called ' natives ' — that calls especially for correction. There are sev- 

 eral points near the Canadian border, such as Malone, Ogdensburg, Plattsburg 

 and Rouse Point, where Chinese of the class last mentioned are taken for trial. 

 This class comprises Chinese who have come from China and have camped at 

 Montreal, until such time as the members of the ring engaged in working up 

 their defense could secure witnesses to testify to their alleged nativity. 



I attended the trial of several such Chinese, on whose behalf the claim of 

 being natives of the United States was made, which, I was creditably informed, 

 fairly illustrated the usual method of trying this kind of cases. At the time 

 set the case of Ah Sing or some other Ah would be called, and with the 

 defendant absent from court throughout the whole session one other Chinese 

 would be put upon the stand to testify to the defendant's having been born in 

 the United States — most likely in the Chinatown of San Francisco, the alleged 

 birthplace of tens of thousands of others that have made the claim at various 

 times and at various places before him. Upon the uncorroborated testimony 

 of this one Chinaman the other Chinaman, awaiting the issue in jail, would be 

 declared a native of the United States. This goes on week after week and month 

 after month, and has been going on for years. One of the Federal judges 

 estimated that if the story told in the courts were true, every Chinese woman 

 who was in the United States twenty-five years ago must have had at least 500 

 children. (Report of Proceedings of Chinese- Exclusion Convention, held at 

 San Francisco, November 21 and 22, 1901, p. 51.) By this method thousands 

 of Chinese — upon the admission of the Chinese themselves — have been allowed 

 not only to enter and remain in the United States, but declared to be native- 

 born citizens thereof, each with a vote and qualified to participate in the political 

 affairs of this country. 



How far-reaching the effect of such a method is can be appreciated only when 

 it is borne in mind that not only the Chinese who may be thus admitted are 

 made citizens, but also their alleged children, though born in China. 



That Japanese are naturalized illegally is shown by the report of 

 special examiner C. V. C. Van Deusen, published in the ' Eeport of 

 the Attorney General of the IT. S./ 1903. Mr. Van Deusen says: 



Notwithstanding the fact that the Federal statutes exclude from the rights 

 of citizenship all persons except free white persons and those of African nativity 

 and descent, courts have admitted to citizenship persons not belonging to either 

 of those two races. This is particularly true of courts on the Pacific coast, 

 which have naturalized many natives of Japan, and the clerks of which still 

 continue to accept from such persons declarations of intention to become citizens. 

 As several of these clerks have admitted to me the fact that they know that the 

 naturalization laws exclude Japanese, their demand for an acceptance from 

 these people of the naturalization fees brings them dangerously close to the penal 

 provisions of statutes bearing upon unlawful practises. 



