Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-04-03
ID CRUSH ANARCHY,
Oscar 'Straus Urges Co-opera-
 ton of Cities and States.
LOCAL VIGILANCE IMPORTANT
Deportation of Criminal Aliens Not Au- thorized by Federal Statutes, Says Secretary of Commerce-Law Needed to Deal With Bomb Throwers.

tnorlzeo py Federal statutes, says
 Secretary of Commerce-Law Needed
 to Deal With Bomb Throwers.
 Oscar Straus, secretary of the de-
 pertinent of commerce and labor, who
 would wipe out anarchy and suppress crimes of foreign born criminals, has stated his views as follows in the New
 York World. In view of the recent anarchistic outrage in New York city they are of more than timely interest.
 He says:
 Each added crime and outbreak on the part of the foreign born criminals and revolutionary -ralcontents enforces the necessity for strong, clean cut and withal sanely considered move ment to stamp out this ferment of crime and violence fastening itself on our social structure.
 Interested persons and the public press continue to call upon the federal government single handed to work a complete reform, thereby showing a |, vagueness of conception of the govern ment's powers and jurisdiction. want to say at the outset that 1 am doing everything possible to be done under the present system prescribed by law to exclude criminals and anarchists and to deport such as have evaded de- lection at the time of their entry into the country and can subsequently be shown to come under the deporting provisions of the law.
 No law, however carefully and strictly made, can secure absolute ex- clusion of the alien criminal and an archistic element, as the most danger ous criminals are certain to be the cleverest and to possess an amount of cunning and intelligence, abetted by foreign experience under rigorous po- lice systems, which will permit them to evade. the vigilance of my examin- ing ohcers. When a criminal is suffi- ciently clever to pursue his vocation in Europe among detectives familiar with him and his ways it Is hardly to be expected that when he comes to the United States and meets the ex- amining officer the officer can look him in the eye and pronounce him sus- pect to be held and investigated.
 It has been suggested that the law be so amended that every alien de- manding admission be compelled to produce passport issued to him by his home officials, as those countries sending us the greater number of crim- inals require that the bearers criminal and civil record be denoted fin such passports. These passports would then be regarded as guarantees of the char acter of the alien.
 This method is in high demand among those well meaning persons who are justly exercised over the continued evasion of our vigilance by incoming alien criminals. Cursorily considered, 1t appears to afford a remedy, but it has It's hidden flaws and dangers which make 1t unwise and impracticable.
 We have found In the administration of the law for the exclusion of the Chinese and fin separate investigations of individual cases of European aliens bearing passports that the falsifca- tion of passports and the securing of the passports of aliens who have no criminal records by those who have are matters of such ease and frequency that to impose passport regulation would be merely to build up flourish ing traffic in passports abroad.
 Then, again, we would be infringing on the right of asylum. which is one of the fundamental principles of the republic. From our colonial days we have been a haven of political refuge. In all of our treaties with other na- tions is embodied the political refuge clause maintaining a principle in com mon with Great Britain, Holland and Switzerland.
 If We were to make a passport regu- lation, we would prevent all citizens of foreign countries who have come into political disfavor from exercising this right of asylum, because they would be unable to obtain the passports from their government. or. as We have al- ready found by experience in the i'm migration department, their political enemies would continue to trump up charges involving moral turpitude. l. which would throw them back into the l. from which they seek to es- cape.
 My recent circular was meant to in- l spire police and state officials to a greater activity in dealing with alien ] criminals and revolutionary agitators 1 and to be informative as to just what were the powers and the limitations of the department under the law. There gre daily evidences in my office of the 1 failure of officials to support the work I of the immigration department because they do not understand what they can do and what they cannot do.
 We are constantly called upon to act 1. In matters in which our jurisdiction 1 has lapsed years before. and in a gen 1 aral way the government Is blamed by an uuinformed public for failure to re- strain aiSn crime when the major DOT | lion of t is entirely beyond our reach . under the law. In the matter of the . Deportation Of criminals the power of . Inc Immigration law extends for a pe- . riod of three years subsequent to the I arrival of the alien criminal and only l 'or crimes committed prior to landing If which the alien has been convicted 1r of which the alien makes confession. As to the anarchists and those of Rim