In this section: PICTURE BRIDES. (1) International aspect as affects recognition of marriages consummated in accordance with customs of other nations. (2) Explanation by United States Commissioner General of Immigration as to practice followed in acceptance of passports held by incoming "picture brides." (3) Recommendations by Commissioner General. (4) Full description of so-called picture marriage prepared by the California Farmers Cooperative Association, which is a Japanese organization. (This presents the Japanese viewpoint and includes written announcements by the Japanese Consul General in San Francisco.) (5) Correspondence explanatory of the Gentlemen's Agreement and the admission of "picture brides" by the United States Government, which correspondence is between Senator Phelan and Acting Secretary of State Wm. Phillips. (6) Code sections of the Civil Code of Japan covering marriage and adoption. (7) "Picture bride" practice ordered discontinued by Japanese government, but rules of adoption still remain as before, permitting same results to be accomplished through adoption. (8) Letter of United States Government Inspector in the Immigration Service explaining procedure in admitting immigrants, especially adopted persons, (9) Number of "picture brides" arriving at the port of San Francisco from July 1, 1911, to February 29, 1920. (10) List of vessels arriving at the port of San Francisco during the calendar year 1918, showing number of "picture brides" and recorded births after arrival. (11) Detailed list of "picture brides" taken from ships' manifests, arriving at the port of San Francisco during the calendar year 1918, address of husbands to whom destined, and dates of births after arrival. PICTURE BRIDES. The long established rule among civilized nations that each country recognize as valid, marriages consummated in any other country in accordance with the customs or laws prevailing therein, does not apply to the so-called "picture bride" marriages as most recently practiced by the Japanese. Prior to the passage by the United States Congress of the 1917 immigration act requiring a literacy test for immigrants, marriages upon American docks immediately upon arrival of the immigrant and before admission by the United States was practiced generally by immigrants of all nations. This was the practice then followed by the Japanese, but, although now alluded to frequently as a "picture bride" marriage, it differs very materially from the more recent practice. When both parties appeared on the dock and were married, they were both within the jurisdiction of the United States and consummated marriage in compliance with the laws of the state in which the marriage took place. There can be no valid objection to the legality of such marriage provided the parties are competent. Doubtless many of these marriages were initiated by the exchange of photographs between the parties, and doubtless this applies to nationalities other than Japanese. But unless the marriage consummated on the dock be considered a mere idle act, the exchange of photographs and the registration formality observed in a foreign country can not be construed as having effected marriage. Mr. Daniel J. Keefe, United States Commissioner General of Immigration, in his report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1912, states: "Passports are given these women on the ground that they are coming to continental United States to join a husband, the arrangement with Japan contemplating that where a Japanese laborer is migrating for the purpose of joining a member of his immediate family the passport may be issued. Most of the women, while they do join the husband, are farm laborers, and immediately become colaborers with their husbands on the farms where the latter are employed or which they are conducting. As these "proxy" or "photograph" marriages would not, of course, be recognized as valid in any of the states of this country, the men to whom these women are going are required to meet them at a seaport and go through a ceremony of marriage legal in the United States. But the bureau feels that two facts growing out of this situation should not be overlooked by those interested in the economic phases of the immigration problem: (1) The practice of furnishing the passport to these women and admitting them on the basis of the passport and a marriage performed at the port opens the way for the introduction into continental United States of large bodies of common laborers-females, it is true, but none the less competitors of the laborers of this country; and (2) this practice must necessarily result in constituting a large native-born Japanese population-persons who, because of their birth on American soil, will be regarded as American citizens, although their parents can not be naturalized, and who, nevertheless, will be considered (and will probably consider themselves) subjects of the Empire of Japan under the laws of that country, which holds that children born abroad of parents who are Japanese subjects are themselves subjects of the Japanese Empire." |