e been rendered valueless by adverse
and unfounded claims.

The act of July 9, 1888, provided for the incorporation and management
of a reform school for girls in the District of Columbia; but it has
remained inoperative for the reason that no appropriation has been made
for construction or maintenance. The need of such an institution is very
urgent. Many girls could be saved from depraved lives by the wholesome
influences and restraints of such a school. I recommend that the
necessary appropriation be made for a site and for construction.

The enforcement by the Treasury Department of the law prohibiting the
coming of Chinese to the United States has been effective as to such as
seek to land from vessels entering our ports. The result has been to
divert the travel to vessels entering the ports of British Columbia,
whence passage into the United States at obscure points along the
Dominion boundary is easy. A very considerable number of Chinese
laborers have during the past year entered the United States from
Canada and Mexico.

The officers of the Treasury Department and of the Department of Justice
have used every means at their command to intercept this immigration;
but the impossibility of perfectly guarding our extended frontier is
apparent. The Dominion government collects a head tax of $50 from every
Chinaman entering Canada, and thus derives a considerable revenue from
those who only use its ports to reach a position of advantage to evade
our exclusion laws. There seems to be satisfactory evidence that the
business of passing Chinamen through Canada to the United States is
organized and quite active. The Department of Justice has construed the
laws to require the return of any Chinaman found to be unlawfully in
this country to China as the country from which he came, notwithstanding
the fact that he came by way of Canada; but several of the district
courts have in cases brought before them overruled this view of the
law and decided that such persons must be returned to Canada. This
construction robs the law of all effectiveness, even if the decrees
could be executed, for the men returned can the next day recross our
border. But the only appropriation made is for sending them back to
China, and the Canadian officials refuse to allow them to reenter
Canada without the payment of the fifty-dollar head tax. I recommend
such legislation as will remedy these defects in the law.

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