and get a $900 or $1,200 clerk instead. Beyond that, in some places, there is some objection to combining the offices: an objection on the part of the business community and not on account of any officer of the Government. The objection is raised to locating the commissioner in the customhouse, because, you know, in a general way the type of man who is a sailor, and men and women in business do not always like to have them around the customhouse.

Mr. BYRNS. Has the department in times recommended that any of these places be abolished and the work taken over under the law? Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. I have dropped, since I have been here, as many as seven or eight.

Mr. BYRNS. I refer particularly to any included in this estimate. Mr. BURLESON. Suppose we dropped out five, which five would you suggest that we drop?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. That is an arbitrary number?

Mr. BURLESON. Yes, sir.

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. Of course, I know how the Pascagoula people are interested, but on the score of important service

Mr. BURLESON (interposing). Pascagoula would head the list? Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. I think so.

Mr. BURLESON. What would be the next one?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. Honolulu, for administrative reasons. There is one difficulty about the Honolulu situation. The work at the subports and other islands of the Hawaiian Archipelago would, of course, have to be done by the collector of customs and his deputies. The deputies have to do it now. I do not see how there could be any particular increase or decrease in the expenditure there. I should say, drop out Honolulu, although two or three years hence, when the Panama Canal is open. I would certainly think that office should be established, but that is not here now.

Mr. BURLESON. That is two.

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. Mobile, Ala., because

Mr. BURLESON (interposing). That is three.

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN (continuing). I will not give the reason. There would be no economy in doing it at New Bedford.

Mr. BURLESON. Although only 280 were discharged there, as compared with 534 at Honolulu.

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. But the number shipped was 955. The total at New Bedford was 1,235, as against 1,343 at Honolulu, and, as I said, for administrative reasons, at Honolulu, because we have the subports, it could be better done under the direction of the collector. I should not be in favor of dropping out the New Bedford man. Of course, as a maritime port, New Bedford is not of the importance that it was years ago. There is more or less whaling there and some coast wise business. The commissioner himself was a whaler and is a man of 70 years of age, a very fine man; in fact, he was the mate of the vessel that took John Boyle O'Reilly out of Australia when he escaped, you remember. He is the man who did that. I am not going to stand here and ask to have him put out; you may be very sure of that. Beyond that, he is a very capable man. He is elderly and getting along.

Mr. BURLESON. What is the matter with Bath?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. Bath, of course, is declining. If it were imperative to take five

Mr. BURLESON (interposing). I thought, maybe, after you named five I would ask you to name a couple more.

CLERK HIRE FOR SHIPPING COMMISSIONERS.

Mr. JOHNSON. In the next item you ask for clerk hire for the shipping commissioners. Does each commissioner have a clerk?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. No, sir. If you will look at page 87 of the report, you will find a statement of the clerks.

Mr. JOHNSON. Their salary is fixed by the department, subject to the limitation that it shall not exceed $1,500? Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. Exactly.

Mr. GILLETT. Was that put on last year?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. That reduction was made last year. I do not know why the reduction was made. We did not ask for any considerable increase, an increase in round numbers of perhaps $200 or $300, perhaps; no specific increase was intended, but for some reason the existing total was cut down by $4,000 and that necessitated general scaling down of salaries. We reduced the salary of one man at Boston $40, at New Orleans $60, five at New York $48, another at New York $20, another at New York $20, one at Philadelphia $132, and when a vacancy arose at Port Townsend we did not fill it, but told the men they must work at night or else have a decrease in salary, and the same thing was true at San Francisco.

Mr. JOHNSON. Do these shipping commissioners receive any fees whatever?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. No, sir. Formerly the shipping commissioners were paid by fees; so much a man shipped or discharged by the master of the vessel. In 1886 Congress abolished all those fees and provided that the pay of the shipping commissioner should be on the fee basis, but that he would get his money out of the Treasury instead of out of the private owner. Then two years ago the salary system was substituted.

Mr. JOHNSON. Let me ask you this question: I see that at Baltimore the shipping commissioner received $2,363.37?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. That includes his clerk as well as the commissioner.

Mr. JOHNSON. I knew it could not be any salary fixed by law at that figure.

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. No, sir.

CONTINGENT EXPENSES.

Mr. JOHNSON. In the next item, for contingent expenses, I notice you ask to be allowed to rent quarters in New York not to exceed $3,150.

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. We have those quarters now.

Mr. JOHNSON. That was what led me to ask in regard to the number of clerks. How are these clerks distributed? Now, there is a commissioner in New York, and he has 11 clerks, and that makes 12 people. Is not $3,150 pretty expensive rent for that small force of people?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. Well, that included a part of the cost of fitting up his office. The shipping commissioner at New York is located in what is known as the barge-office annex. Congress has provided for the reconstruction of the building, but for the time being he has to be out of it, last year and the coming year, until the new building is completed-I do not know how soon that will be. The rent he pays is $2,700. We could only get it for one year. Of course he has to be on the water front. He is now occupying a part of Pier No. 4, East River, owned by the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Co., for which temporarily they had no use, but I do not know whether he will be able to keep it another year. They would not make a lease except for one year. For that part of the city $2,700 is a pretty moderate rent. It is right down on the water front of lower New York.

There is one item, before you turn the page. I do trust, whatever this committee may do, that it will correct one injustice for which I feel myself responsible-the reduction of the janitor provision. from $840 to $750. That man was paid $840 right straight along until last year. We sent in the estimate-I do not know how it happened-but just by a mistake it was put in at $750.

Mr. BURLESON. And he quit at once?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. No; but a man with a family has a mighty hard time to get along on $750 in New York.

SHIPPING COMMISSIONERS.

[See also p. 740.]

Mr. BURLESON. Going back to the shipping commissioners for just one minute, I notice that at Bath there were 270 discharged and 1,098 shipped and reshipped; a total amount of salaries paid, $1,038.35; average cost per man, 76 cents; Gloucester, 626 discharged, 1,124 shipped and reshipped; total amount of salaries paid, $1.108.35; average cost per man, 63 cents. What work is involved in shipping men?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. That varies at different places and at different times in this way. In some cases a crew will be

Mr. BURLESON (interposing). I want an average case; what is the process?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. Allow me to take the two extreme cases and then indicate the average.

Mr. BURLESON. That may be grossly misleading.

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. There are absolutely two processes; that is the reason. I will try to be fair.

Mr. BURLESON. Proceed.

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. In the case of a large steamer it is not at all unlikely that you will have 30 or 40 men assembled on the deck, and all the shipping commissioner does is to go there and see that they are there or that they get their money-are paid off. That is one extreme. Another extreme is the case of a schooner that wants three or four men, where the shipping commissioner may have to hunt all over the town, may take all day and perhaps two days trying to find the men.

Mr. GILLETT. Is he not a sort of guardian of the sailor?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. Yes, sir.

Mr. GILLETT. That is his main function?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. Yes, sir; and the settlement of disputes is another of his main functions.

TOOLS, APPLIANCES, AND INSTRUMENTS.

Mr. JOHNSON. In the next item in the bill there is no change. I suppose that these tools, appliances, and instruments have to be replaced from time to time?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. There are 167 surveyors and collectors of customs, and that only allows us about $6 apiece.

Mr. JOHNSON. The next item is "Enforcement of shipping laws," and there is no change?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. No, sir.

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION.

Mr. JOHNSON. The next item is "Wireless communication." Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. We asked for $10,000 last year, and the estimate was cut down to $7,000.

Mr. JOHNSON. What do you do with that money?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. We have 3 wireless inspectors, and we desire 4-1 for New York, 1 for the Pacific coast, 1 for the Gulf ports, and 1 for the rest of the Atlantic coast, leaving out New York. As a matter of fact, we have had to make one man cover all the territory from Philadelphia to Galveston, and that is too much territory for one man to undertake to cover and really do any work. Mr. JOHNSON. What do these inspectors do?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. They usually go on the vessels immediately before they sail and see that the apparatus is in working order: that the operator is where he can be summoned. If you will turn to page 263 of my report and the following pages you will get a fairly clear idea of the line of work they have to follow.

Mr. TAYLOR. What volume do you refer to?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. The report of the Bureau of Navigation.

Mr. JOHNSON. With the appropriation of $7,000, you are only able to get three men?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. Yes, sir; and, of course, they have to travel. We have to borrow the instruments, two of them, from the Bureau of Standards.

BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION.

STATEMENTS OF MR. DANIEL J. KEEFE, COMMISSIONER GENERAL OF IMMIGRATION, AND MR. RICHARD K. CAMPBELL, CHIEF DIVISION OF NATURALIZATION.

Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. Commissioner, what is the work of your bureau? Mr. KEEFE. The work of the bureau proper consists of the preparation of appeal cases, issuing of warrants, correspondence, and all matters that may have to do with a field force of about 1,600 employees. The Division of Naturalization is separate and apart.

Mr. JOHNSON. How many employees have you in the office here in Washington?

Mr. KEEFE. The work in the office at Washington has to do with the outside service. The total number in the clerical force here is 45. Mr. JOHNSON. Are they all up to a fair standard of efficiency? Mr. KEEFE. Exceptionally so.

Mr. JOHNSON. Do you enforce section 3 of the legislative act? Mr. KEEFE. We enforce all the acts and regulations that have to do with our work.

Mr. JOHNSON. Section 3 of the legislative act provides that you shall not apply any of your appropriation to the payment of persons who are disabled or otherwise incapacitated.

Mr. KEEFE. No, sir; we do not do so.

Mr. TAYLOR. You enforce the provisions of the act?

Mr. KEEFE. Yes, indeed.

Mr. JOHNSON. Do your clerks take sick leave-how many days on the average?

Mr. KEEFE. They do when necessary, but I presume they do not take more than 10 per cent. I do not believe there is 10 per cent, on an average, taken throughout the entire bureau.

Mr. JOHNSON. Is the work of your office current?

Mr. KEEFE. By working overtime; yes, sir.

Mr. JOHNSON. Do the employees of your bureau work overtime cheerfully?

Mr. KEEFE. They do; very cheerfully.

Mr. JOHNSON. Is the work of your office of such a character that any labor-saving device could be introduced to reduce the force? Mr. KEEFE. Wherever they can be used they are now in operation. Mr. JOHNSON. The only change I see in the bill is that you are asking for an increase of $1,000 in your own salary. I suppose you prefer to let the Secretary speak for that?

Mr. KEEFE. It is rather an embarrassing proposition to discuss. I can only say this: I presume the Secretary has recognized that the bureau is one of the most important in his department and that the changes that have been brought about-the reorganization of the force would readily warrant that increase.

Mr. JOHNSON. I do not remember just what the Secretary said, but I think he did make a statement about it.

I notice there is a change-that you are asking for two assistant messengers, instead of one?

Mr. KEEFE. An increase of one?

Mr. JOHNSON. I say two instead of one.

Mr. KEEFE. You are quite right.

Mr. JOHNSON. Why do you need two?

Mr. KEEFE. Because one is not sufficient. We have four messengers. Mr. JOHNSON. How many rooms do you and your force occupy? Mr. KEEFE. We occupy a part of five floors-from the first to the eighth floor.

Mr. JOHNSON. You must have some other appropriation, beside what we have given you, to operate on?

Mr. KEEFE. We have not all of those floors-only a part of the five mentioned.

Mr. TAYLOR. They are scattered?

Mr. KEEFE. Yes, sir.