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 several 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.

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.