administer oaths in matters pertaining to the administration of the quarantine laws and regulations of the United States. The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to lease, or R. S., 4806. to sell at public auction, to the highest and best bidder, for cash, after due notice in the public newspapers, such marine-hospital buildings and lands appertaining thereto as he may deem it advisable to sell, and to make, execute, and deliver all needful conveyances to the lessees or purchasers thereof respectively; and the proceeds of such leases and sales are hereby appropriated for the marinehospital establishment. But the hospitals at Cleveland in Ohio, and Portland in Maine, shall not be sold or leased. And this section shall not be construed to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to lease or sell any such hospital where the relief furnished to sick mariners shall show an extent of relief equal to twenty cases a day on an average for the last preceding four years, or where no other suitable and sufficient hospital accommodations can be procured upon reasonable terms for the comfort and convenience of the patients. Sec. 4. The Secretary of the Treasury may rent or lease such Mar. 3, 1875. marine-hospital buildings, and the lands appertaining thereto, as he may deem advisable in the interests of the public health and marine-hospital service; and the proceeds of such rents or leases are hereby appropriated for the said service. Feb. 15, 1893. Sec. 4. It shall be the duty of the Surgeon-General of the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, to perform all the duties July 1, 1902. in respect to quarantine and quarantine regulations which are provided for by this act, and to obtain information of the sanitary condition of foreign ports and places from which contagious and infectious diseases are or may be imported into the United States, and to this end the consular officer of the United States at such ports and places as shall be designated by the Secretary of the Treasury shall make to the Secretary of the Treasury weekly reports of the sanitary condition of the ports and places at which they are respectively stationed, according to such forms as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe; and the Secretary of the Treasury shall also obtain, through all sources accessible, including State and municipal sanitary authorities throughout the United States, weekly reports of the sanitary condition of ports and places within the United States, and shall prepare, publish, and transmit to collectors of customs and to State and municipal health officers and other sanitarians weekly abstracts of the consular sanitary reports and other pertinent information received by him, and shall also, as far as he may be able, by means of the voluntary coöperation of State and municipal authorities, of public associations, and private persons, procure information relating to the climatic and other conditions Feb. 15, 1893. Mar. 3, 1891. Feb. 14, 1903. June 6, 1900. affecting the public health, and shall make an annual report of his operations to Congress, with such recommendations as he may deem important to the public interests. Whenever the proper authorities of a State shall surrender to the United States the use of the buildings and disinfecting apparatus at a State quarantine station, the Secretary of the Treasury shall be authorized to receive them and to pay a reasonable compensation to the State for their use, if in his opinion they are necessary to the United States. 449. Immigration Bureau. The office of commissioner-general of immigration is hereby created and established, and the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, is authorized and directed to appoint such officer, whose salary shall be four thousand dollars per annum, payable monthly. The commissioner-general of immigration shall be an officer in the Department of Commerce and Labor, under the control and supervision of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, to whom he shall make annual reports in writing of the transactions of his office, together with such special reports, in writing, as the Secretary of Commerce and Labor shall require, and in addition to his other duties, shall have charge under the Secretary of Commerce and Labor of the administration of the alien-contract labor laws. The Secretary shall provide the commissioner-general with a suitably furnished office in the city of Washington, and with such books of record and facilities for the discharge of the duties of his office as may be necessary. He shall have a chief clerk at a salary of two thousand dollars per annum and two first class clerks. Hereafter the Commissioner-General of Immigration, in addition to his other duties, shall have charge of the administration of the Chinese exclusion law and of the various Acts regulating immigration into the United States, its Feb. 14, 1903. Territories, and the District of Columbia, under the supervision and direction of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. Secs. 4, 7. Mar. 3, 1903. Feb. 14, 1903. The Commissioner-General of Immigration, in addition to such other duties as may by law be assigned to him, shall, under the direction of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, have charge of the administration of all laws relating to the immigration of aliens into the United States, and shall have the control, direction, and supervision of all officers, clerks, and employees appointed thereunder. He shall establish such rules and regulations, prescribe such forms of bonds, reports, entries, and other papers, and shall issue from time to time such instructions, not inconsistent with law, as he shall deem best calculated for carrying out the provisions of this Act and for protecting the United States and aliens migrating thereto from fraud and loss, and shall have authority to enter into contracts for the support and relief of such aliens as may fall into distress or need public aid; all under the direction or with the approval of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. And it shall be the duty of the Commissioner-General of Immigration to detail officers of the immigration service from time to time as may be necessary, in his judgment, to secure information as to the number of aliens detained in the penal, reformatory, and charitable institutions (public and private) of the several States and Territories, the District of Columbia, and other territory of the United States, and to inform the officers of such institutions of the provisions of law in relation to the deportation of aliens who have become public charges: Provided, That the Commissioner-General of Immigration may, with the approval of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, whenever in his judgment such action may be necessary to accomplish the purposes of this Act, detail immigration officers for temporary service in foreign countries. The commissioners of immigration at the several ports Aug. 18, 1894. shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to hold their offices for the term of four years, unless sooner removed, and until their successors are appointed. The duties of the commissioners of immigration shall be of an administrative character, to be prescribed in detail by regulations prepared, under the direction or with the approval of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. Immigrant inspectors and other immigration officers, clerks, and employees shall hereafter be appointed, and their compensation fixed and raised or decreased from time to time, by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, upon the recommendation of the Commissioner-General of Immigration and in accordance with the provisions of the civil-service Act of January sixteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-three: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to alter the mode of appointing commissioners of immigration at the several ports of the United States as provided by the sundry civil appropriation Act approved August eighteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, or the official status of such commissioners heretofore appointed. Immigration officers shall have power to administer oaths and to take and consider testimony touching the right of any alien to enter the United States, and, where such action may be necessary, to make a written record of such testimony, and any person to whom such an oath has been administered under the provisions of this Act who shall knowingly or willfully give false testimony or swear to any false statement in any way affecting or in relation to the right of an alien to admission to the United States shall be deemed guilty of perjury and be punished as provided by section fifty-three hundred and ninety-two, United States Revised Statutes. The decision of any such officer, if favorable to the admission of any alien, shall be subject to challenge by any Mar. 3, 1903. Se.. Feb. 14, 1903. Mar. 3, 1903. Feb. 14, 1903. sees. 4,7. Mar. 3, 1903. Secs. 4, 7. other immigration officer, and such challenge shall operate to take the alien whose right to land is so challenged be fore a board of special inquiry for its investigation. Every alien who may not appear to the examining immigrant inspector at the port of arrival to be clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to land shall be detained for examination in relation thereto by a board of special inquiry. Such boards of special inquiry shall be appointed by the commissioners of immigration at the various ports of arrival as may be necessary for the prompt determination of all cases of aliens detained at such ports under the provisions of law. Such boards shall consist of three members, who shall be selected from such of the immigrant officials in the service as the Commissioner-General of ImFeb. 14, 1903. migration, with the approval of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, shall from time to time designate as qualified to serve on such boards: Provided, That at ports where there are fewer than three immigrant inspectors, the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, upon recommendation of the Commissioner General of Immigration, may designate other United States officials for service on such boards of special inquiry. Such boards shall have authority to determine whether an alien who has been duly held shall be allowed to land or be deported. All hearings before boards shall be separate and apart from the public, but the said boards shall keep complete permanent records of their proceedings and of all such testimony as may be produced before them; and the decision of any two members of a board shall prevail and be final, but either the alien or any dissenting member of said board may appeal, through the commissioner of immigration at the port of arrival and the Commissioner-General of Immigration, to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, whose decision shall then be final; and the taking of such appeal shall operate to stay any action in regard to the final disposal of the alien whose case is so appealed until the receipt by the commissioner of immigration at the port of arrival of such decision. Aug. 18, 1894. In every case where an alien is excluded from admission into the United States under any law or treaty now existing or hereafter made, the decision of the appropriate immigration officers, if adverse to the admission of such Feb. 14, 1903. alien, shall be final, unless reversed on appeal to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. Sees. 4, 7. June 18, 1878. 450. Life-Saving Service. The President of the United States may, by and with the consent of the Senate, appoint a suitable person, who shall be familiar with the various means employed in the Life-Saving Service for the saving of life and property from shipwrecked vessels, as general superintendent of the Life-Saving Service, who shall, under the immediate direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, have general charge of the service and of all administrative matters connected therewith, and whose compensation shall be at the rate of four thousand dollars per annum; and the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to appoint an assistant to the general superintendent, whose compensation shall be two thousand five hundred dollars per annum. It shall be the duty of the general superintendent to Sec. 7. supervise the organization and government of the employees of the service; to prepare and revise regulations therefor as may be necessary; to fix the number and compensation of surfmen to be employed at the several stations within the provisions of law; to supervise the expenditure of all appropriations made for the support and maintenance of the Life-Saving-Service; to examine the accounts of disbursements of the district superintendents, and to certify the same to the accounting-officers of the Treasury Department; to examine the property returns of the keepers of the several stations, and see that all public property thereto belonging is properly accounted for; to acquaint himself, as far as practicable, with all means employed in foreign countries which may seem to advantageously affect the interests of the service, and to cause to be properly investigated all plans, devices, and inventions for the improvement of life-saving apparatus for use at the stations, which may appear to be meritorious and available; to exercise supervision over the selection of sites for new stations the establishment of which may be authorized by law, or for old ones the removal of which may be made necessary by the encroachment of the sea or by other causes; to prepare and submit to the Secretary of the Treasury estimates for the support of the service; to collect and compile the statistics of marine disasters contemplated by the act of June twentieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four; and to submit to the Secretary of the Treasury, for transmission to Congress, an annual report of the expenditures of the moneys appropriated for the maintenance of the LifeSaving Service, and of the operations of said service during the year. The Secretary of the Treasury may detail such officer or officers of the Revenue Cutter Service as may be necessary, to act as inspector and assistant inspectors of stations, who shall perform such duties in connection with the conduct. of the service as may be required of them by the general superintendent. See. 8. Hereafter the compensation of the keepers of life-saving July 22, 1892. stations shall be at the rate of nine hundred dollars per annum, each, except that of keepers of stations known as houses of refuge, which shall be at the rate of six hundred dollars per annum, each, and the compensation of the members of the crews of the stations, during the time the stations are manned, shall be at the rate of sixty-five dollars per month, each. |