No one, of course, is more competent to speak on a subject such as this than the Mayor of Chicago, because that city, like our own, has been the scene of a great deal of disorder and general criminality.

My personal experience in this city as a military intelligence officer, may enable me to speak with some authority respecting the activities of aliens during the war. Of course, we all recognize that in general aliens were loyal, but there was a vast division among the varieties of aliens. Some were equally hostile as ourselves to the enemy powers, but in spite of that fact there was a great tendency among many of them to disturbance and disloyalty and antagonism to the government.

Only recently, the gentleman is probably aware, a society in this country endeavored to align the alien population of one particular group against two of the candidates on the ground that the Republican Party and the Democratic Party had been unsympathetic toward their particular group during the war.

This body was very greatly shocked, not so many years ago, through the fact that a very prominent citizen of this city was closed up in a wine cellar, and that it was by mere chance that he escaped death. This was done by two or three foreigners, with a record of crime abroad, who never should have been admitted to this country. But once the man has passed the gates at Ellis Island, or through any other port of entry of the United States, there is no means whatsoever of ever checking up upon his activities unless he happens to fall within the clutches of the civil authorities of some city throughout the country.

The enactment of more restrictive legislation respecting immigration has resulted in many people, undesirables of all kinds, flocking to the neighboring states and islands for the purpose of getting into this country. It will be virtually impossible, unless we have some method of keeping track of the aliens who are here legitimately and who are entitled to protection, to prevent them from possibly being taken under deportation proceedings. They should have some means of identifying themselves as having entered the country in a perfectly legitimate and proper way. It is a protection to the alien and in no sense an attack upon any person who is legitimately within our borders. I cannot see any reason why we should have a sentimentality toward an element who are seeking to come to this country for their own purposes. They have not been invited here and they are for the most part leaving countries where the most rigid laws are imposed respecting registration and general identification.

On the floor of Congress during the last session a representative stated that he knew for a fact that two hundred aliens had been sentenced to prison for crime in a state in southeastern Europe, and an opportunity was given to these two hundred people to come to our country, and suspended sentences were

granted on condition that they would go to America. That was a flagrant case, but it is by no means isolated. It has happened many times, in various parts of Europe. I know of cases in Norway and many other places.

There is no reason in this world why we should not protect this country against an influx of undesirables of any kind. Legislation is necessary if we are ever to settle the criminal conditions in this city and in other great centers of population, and this Chamber should go on record in support of adequate legislation. (Applause)

WILLIAM H. WILLIAMS.-Mr. President, I wish to refer to the statement as to creating class distinctions. Registration in this country does not seem to me to be any different than the registration of ourselves when in France or in England. We are aliens as a class while we are over there; but we are not offended because we are asked to register as aliens. It would amount to practically the same thing here. We would not create a class. We would simply require that if they are citizens of another country they must register as from that country while in the United States.

WILLIAM MCCARROLL.-Mr. President, I wish to call the attention of yourself and the members of the Chamber to the fact that Mr. HENRY, the gentleman who spoke a few moments ago, seems to be under a misapprehension. He spoke of this matter as having had hasty consideration by the Executive Committee. On the contrary, it should be noted that in the resolution itself attention is called to action by the Chamber two years ago, at which time this matter was carefully considered by a committee and a report dealing with the merits of the question at issue was unanimously approved by the Chamber.

There also seems to be some confusion in the remarks of the gentleman as to the difference between aliens and foreign-born citizens. These citizens are registered as are all before and when we go to vote. We have no registration, as Captain TREVOR has said, of aliens, or any record of them. I do not see any valid objection whatever that any alien can make to a registration, if he is an honest man, of his destination and purposes in coming to this country. I think it would be a measure of protection to the nation and community where he domiciles and it certainly is necessary. (Applause)

ELON H. HOOKER.-Mr. President, this Chamber has always taken the forward point of view in regard to immigration legislation, and we have always been recorded for the type of legislation which has eventually come through in the public interest. I want to remind you again that in connection with the recent

immigration legislation, at Washington, this Chamber had long been on record as favoring exactly the legislation which eventually went through.

In this present matter it seems to me we are just taking a step a little further along the same line and entirely in harmony with the traditions of this Chamber.

I do not know why an alien coming to this country should be entitled to less embarrassment, if you want to call it such, than I am obliged to go through in registering myself as a citizen. Mr. MCCARROLL has spoken of that; another gentlemen has spoken of it; we are certainly asking the aliens to do nothing more than we do ourselves, and there is infinitely more reason for calling upon them to do it than for calling upon us. heartily favor these resolutions. (Applause)

I

LIONEL SUTRO.-Mr. President, the reason for my speaking is that I made an intensive study of this subject of alien registration in Germany before the war. I hope the gentleman who spoke against this, will not prevent the resolution from being unanimously carried. Registration is beneficial to the alien, as it was explained to me abroad. I resented very much, when I lived in Germany for about a month, the fact that I had to go to headquarters to register, and when I got through discussing it with the authorities, they convinced me that it was for my benefit. They could keep track of me. If anything happened, they knew where I was, who I was, where I came from; they knew all my affiliations and they could take very good care of me, knowing where they could reach my friends in my own country, and so forth.

It is a benefit. It is not a detriment. And I think every decent alien should be delighted if the vote for alien registration were made unanimous by the Chamber of Commerce, and I hope it will be made unanimous. (Applause)

THE PRESIDENT.-This discussion is enlightening and we welcome it. If there is no further discussion, are you ready for the question?

(Calls for question)

Report on Alien Registration Adopted

The motion to adopt the preamble and resolutions in favor of Alien Registration was then voted upon and unanimously carried.

CHAMBER'S SYSTEM OF COMMERCIAL ARBITRATION TO BE MADE PERMANENT

Mr. DE BOST.-Mr. President, at the last meeting of our Executive Committee considerable time was given to the consideration of the plan for making the Chamber's system of commercial arbitration permanent. As this is a very important question, I am asking permission to read in full the report from the Executive Committee:

To the Chamber of Commerce:

It may not be generally known to the members of the Chamber that the Chairman of the Arbitration Committee, Mr. CHARLES L. BERNHEIMER, not only gives a large portion of his valuable time to the work of that Committee, but also generously provides, out of his own pocket, several thousand dollars each year for necessary expenses.

The Chamber has more than once taken an opportunity to express to Mr. BERNHEIMER its hearty appreciation of the invaluable and devoted service which Mr. BERNHEIMER has thus rendered, and it now gladly reaffirms its appreciation.

It has seemed to some members of the Chamber that if the Chamber should be deprived of these manifold services of Mr. BERNHEIMER, it might not be able to find a Chairman who could afford to render such service as he has so devotedly given, and that, therefore, some provision should be made for at least a partial endowment of this work.

An unofficial Committee, therefore, of the Chamber has been quietly at work seeking to put into effect a plan for this purpose, and the following report is submitted for the information and approval of the Chamber:

Whereas, Several interested members of the Chamber, believing in the practicability and value of commercial arbitration, some system of which has been in effect in the Chamber during all the 156 years of its existence, have promoted an undertaking whereby insurance has been placed upon the life of the Chairman of the Chamber's Committee on Arbitration, under a plan extending over a period of ten years, which will provide at the end of such time, or at an earlier date in event of the death of the insured, a sum payable to the Community Trust of New York, the income of which would be sufficient to maintain the Chamber's plan of arbitration indefinitely; and

Whereas, This unofficial Committee of the Chamber's members has succeeded in securing funds sufficient to pay the premiums for the first year, with every likelihood that similar amounts can be secured for the remaining nine years or less; therefore be it

Resolved, That the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York extends to the unofficial Committee, composed of Messrs. IRVING T. BUSH, FREDERICK H. ECKER, CLARENCE H. KELSEY, ALVIN W. KRECH, WILLIAM MCCARROLL, FRANK C. MUNSON, JAMES H. POST, and PAUL M. WARBURG, the hearty thanks and appreciation of the Chamber for the splendid work which it has already accomplished, and also extends its hearty thanks to the members who have so generously contributed funds; that the Chamber officially sanctions the plan which provides for raising the necessary funds to provide the annual premium for the remaining nine years or less, and that the Executive Committee of the Chamber is empowered to take such action and assume such responsibility in the collection of the yearly instalments and thereafter in the administration of the fund as it may in its judgment deem best.

Mr. DE BOST.-I would like to add that at the next meeting of the Chamber a list of those who contributed to this fund during 1924 will be presented. And, Mr. President, on behalf of the Executive Committee, it is my very great privilege to move the adoption of this report and resolution.

The motion was seconded and adopted unanimously.

COMMERCIAL EXAMINATIONS OF THE CHAMBER

FREDERICK COY KENDALL.-Mr. President, in the absence of Dr. FINLEY, the Chairman of your Committee on Commercial Education, I desire to present the report of the committee in respect to the Chamber's commercial examinations:

To the Chamber of Commerce:

The Committee on Commercial Education of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York was appointed in accordance with the terms of a resolution adopted by the Chamber on November 2, 1911, as follows:

"Resolved, That the President of the Chamber appoint a permanent Committee on Commercial Education, to be composed of fifteen members, with authority to invite from members of the Chamber and from other sources, subscriptions to a Commercial Scholarship Fund, and with authority to carry out the other recommendations of the special Committee, contained in its report; such permanent Committee to report to the Chamber, from time to time, the progress and details of its work."

In consequence of the labors of this Committee and of subsequent action by the Chamber, the attempt was made to create a