The morning call., 1893-04-09
Mysterious Flop by the Treasury De-
partment-Prospects for Boom
ing Certificate Brokerage.

Sucn publicity 10 THIS change as you can.
JOHN W. MASON,
Commissioner Of Internal Revenue.
Washington, ID. e.
This remarkable action of the admins
tration is said by friends of the Geary law
to amount to an abandonment of the re-
CURRENT nt of the Identification of the Chi
nese who may register.
1t. of course. has no direct bearing on the
question of the constitutionaiity of the law,
or the problem of deportation, but it is
taken as an indication of The attitude of
the administration toward the law, and this
gives 1t a further significance.
The dispatch was received by Collector
Quinn at l 80 p. NJ. yesterday.
The news was known in Chinatown even
before that hour, which shows how closely
the leading Chinese here are in touch with
those who are fighting their battles in the
East.
half hour after Mr.. Quinn had re-
celyed the order an intelligent Chinese
stamped into his office who knew all
about it.
While the order directly emanates from
the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, it
is Issued by order of Secretary Carlisle, as
that official is required by the law 10 pre-
scribe the regulations.
The effect of this modification of the re-
Quirements for Identification is that in case
the law is declared to be constitutional
and the Government goes about It's enforce
ment the Chinese whom it is attempted
10 gather in for deportation will be found
as slippery as cells that one may try to catch
IN mud, and Chinese artifice and perjury
VIII find the greatest opportunities that they
have ever reveed In.
An even greater danger is stated to be that
after May the barriers against Struggled
Chinese will be opened wide, for when a
suspected Chinese is caught one foot this
side of the boundary he may produce a
certificate OF registration made to ft him
loosely or which he has been made TO fit,
and 1t will be hard matter to prove mega
lively that the loosely written description
in the certificate does not properly apply to
him.
The Geary act, approved May 5, 1892. pro-
vded that all Chinese laborers and others
not privileged to remain, should apply TO
the Collector of Internal Revenue in their
respective districts, for certificate Of res
dence."
Section of the law reads.
That Immediately after the passage of this act
the Secretary OF the Treasury shak make such
rules and regulations may be necessary for
the efficient execution OF this act and shall
prescribe The necessary forms aud furnish the
necessary blanks to enable collectors of internal
revenue to issue the certificates required
hereby, ana make such provisions that certt6.
Gates may be procured In localities convenient 10
the applicants. Such certificates shall be Issued
without charge to The applicant, and shall con-
tain the name, age, local residence and occupa.
ton Of the applicant, and such other descrip-
tion Of the applicant as shall be prescribed by
g.F
thereof shall be filed In The Office of the Collector
of Internal Revenue for the district within
which such Chinamau makes application.
1t was in accordance with this provision
that the Secretary of the Treasury under
the last administration proceeded to carry
out the law in both its letter and spirit ty
imposing rules for the Identification of all
registered Chinese, which would make
fraud practically impossible and give the
officers of the law chance to beat Chinese
cunning.
The most important OF these requirements
was the photograph. for though to many all
Chinese may look much aliks it would be
next TO impossible TO deceive an expert with
an official seal across the photograph pasted
on the certificate and a duplicate photograph
on an official register.
Another Drecautiou was that tie affidavits
OF two credible witnesses should also bs filed.
the collector being the judge of The credf-
bility.
Now that the photographs are done away
with and the path further smoothed by
requiring but one witness the only identifi-
cation that remains is the written deserip-
ton, consisting of age, height, color, marks,
etc.
Men Of experience in dealing with Chi
nese said yesterday that now Identification
would count for but little. II a Chinese
should register and secure a certificate
that in May, 1898. he was so high, so dark,
and had a mole on his left cheek that
certificate could be used by many another
Chinese who could get across the border
any time in the future with it in his posses.
sion.
If the Chinese went to China it would be
as valuable as the old certificates that Billy
Boyd found so profitable
II the Chinese wanted to stay his certif-
cate would be worth money to certificate
brokers and smuGglers and If he, by chance,
were arrested for having no certificate he
might plead that he had lost 1t and provision
is made in the law for allowing proof of
such misfortune.
1T will not be surprising TO me-" said
one gentleman last evening. ''if there is a
rush for certificates now Of Chinese sent to
register by those who want to go Inso the
certificate business. II looks to me as
though the prospects are good for Chinese
crooked work running riot in the future"
Collector Quinn declined to discuss the
matter last night, ana merely said that as
the Government had now removed the two
features which the Chinese protested against
IN ost vigorously, there should be no further
delay in their com plying with the law.
Other officials were not so reticent.
This dispatch is a paralyzer," said an
expert in dealing with the slippery Mongo-
lans.
"The greatest safeguards against Chinese
repetition in obtaining certificates rested
upon this condition of photographs. A
written description is necessarily vague.
and at pinch could. by means of Chinese
powers of imitation. be made to fit almost
any man; butithe sun will not lie
1.-THE two photographs previously de-
manded by the law were almost absolute
guarantees that the Chinaman they repre-
scented was safely registered and could be
accounted for Now we shall be back in the
old slough of bewilderment at the mercy of
Chinese craft.
"a certificate may describe man with
high cheek bones, a scar on his forehead
and a mole on his chin. But II there was
party of Cinnamon to be Struggled ashore
that same certificate could. by little man.
ipulation. be made to fit one-half of them.
''Given photographs, however, and ex-
peris TO handle them, doubling up or sub
stituton would be impossible.
'rhe Chinese knew that. and this Is the
reason that they have been working silently
against the photograph"
sMhat Is the nniIqa of tina srrdfen