Evening star., 1935-04-28
BY COLEMAN e. JONES.
A N INVESTIGATION originally

~
y, aimed at a totally different
~ objective is credited with I'M
4 a covering the 10-year trail of
graft, fraud and racketeering
which figures in the series of i'm
migration and naturalization cases to
be prosecuted in New Yorl: under the
direction of Samuel H kaufman es
special assistant to Attorney Gen.
eral Homer S. Cummings.
Mr. Kaufman, law partner of Rep
resentative Emanuel Celler of Brook
Ign, was appointed for this task at
t<@ request of the Department of
Lasor on the basis of findings point
ing to criminal prosecutions in IS
cases involving 80 or 35 persons and
citizenship cancellation proceedings
in 200 cases, In addition to AZ de-
portation actions and an unan-
nounced number of dismiSSals from
the service.
The gathering Of this evidence was
q sequel to an investigation Of per-
sonnel records undertaken by Daniel
w. MacCormack, commissioner gen.
eral of immigration and naturaliza-
ton, when. in August, 1893. he un-
dertook the job of combining and
recognizing the hitherto separate
immigration and naturalization Serv-
ices of the department.
Began Wedding Out Process.
The combination of the two bu-
teaus, in accordance with the OBJ
jectives of the economy act. left
places for only about 80 per cent of
the personnel affected. The new
commissioner, who was born in Scot
land and brought to the United
States, had served as a lieutenant
colonel in the Army Transportation
Corps in the World War. later aided
the Persian government in fiscal af-
fairs and subsequently entered the
banking field in New York and was
rather new to Government service.
AS he explains his approach to his
new personnel problem he sought alb
solute fairness in the necessary weed
ing-out process.
Striving to eliminate prejudices
favoritism and politics from the selec-
ton of those to remain, he set up Is
boards. each comprising members OF
the technical Staffs of the old bureaus;
q representative of the Civil Service
Commission, and, as spokesman for
the public, member of the American
Arbitration Association. With the
new bureau directed to take over the
combined task on August IL, 1888
all employees of the two old bureaus
we're dismissed as of August 10. They
were classified by the selection boards
on the basis of their records in four
groups: Excellent, good, fair and poor
Those rated poor were not reappointed
Those adjudged fair we're given an
opportunity to prove their worth with
temporary six-month appointments
The good and the excellent were given
unconditional reappointments.
Found Suspicious Circumstances.
The stricteSt rule established by Col
Mccormack for his selection boards
was that no one should be retained
unless an affirmative showing of per-
sonal integrity could be made.
The record of the wedding -out in
vestigation disclosed so many suspi-
ciouS circumstances, Centering largely
in New York that he was not salts
fed he had really cleaned house" He
found that two previous investiga-
tions had resulted in the indictment
of some small fry and the dismissal
of several service employees, but he
thought that there must have been
people of some importance involved
or there could not have been so much
graft"
With that idea in mind he assigned
an investigator to the problem and
then sent out others. Each reported
enough Leads" to convice him that
his previous suspicious were we'll
founded. so he sent W. F. Watkins,
the bureaus supervisor of investiga-
tions, to New York to direct COM
prehensive inquiry.
Subordinates Suspected.
That was late in 1888, and soon,
with the assistance of Charles P.
Muller, assistant district director of
immigration and naturalization, Mr..
Watkins had dug out evidence which
led Col. MacCormack to believe that
very serious situation existed, re-
f1ecting on some persons already out
of the service and others still in the
service. with traces of highly Or
ganiZed group of criminal racketeerS"
operating in the immigration and
naturalization field, and of two or
three murders linked with the previous
Investigations Mr.. Watkins and Mr..
Muller reported indications that some
such gangs were still in existence. If
not active, and that subordinate Off
cials and employees had participated
-, of rr-I,i iaI1
estimated to have involved at least
$1,000,000, and possibly two or three
times that amount.
A laborious checking of records be-
came necessary as the investigation
developed. In the 10-year period
covered, about 100000 aliens had
entered the United States and 10000
had applied for citizenship. 1t was
necessary to examine in detail the
documents, witnesses and other data
bearing on each case. including the
records of arrivals and their descrip-
tions in 5000 volumes of ships mani
tests.
Manifest Records Faxed.
Some of the manifest records we're
found to have been faxed, altered or,
in the terminology of the service,
matched" Under an act which be-
came effective in 1924, it had become
necessary for an alien seeking nat
uralization to produce certificate of
arrival at the port of entry. Most of
the fraud and graft and racketeering
centered on the need of aliens, who
could not produce evidence of legal
entry, to find some means of present.
ing an acceptable substitute.
The least conspicuous method of
providing such evidence was to find
q name In the manifests closely re-
sembling that OF the aler seeking a
record In some cases it was possible
to match" his record with that of an
alien who had entered legally by
having an initial added to a name