Sec. 23. The duties of the commissioners of immigration shall Feb. 20, 1907. be of an administrative character, to be prescribed in detail by regulations prepared, under the direction or with the approval of the Secretary of Labor. Sec. 24. Immigrant inspectors and other immigration officers, Feb. 20, 1907. clerks, and employees shall hereafter be appointed and their compensation fixed and raised or decreased from time to time by the Secretary of Labor, upon the recommendation of the Commissioner-General of Immigration and in accordance with the provisions of the civil-service Act of January sixteenth, eighteen hundred and eightythree: Provided, That said Secretary, in the enforcement of that portion of this Act which excludes contract laborers, may employ, without reference to the provisions of the said civil service Act, or to the various Acts relative to the compilation of the official register, such persons as he may deem advisable and from time to time fix, raise, or decrease their compensation: Provided further, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to alter the mode of appointing commissioners of immigration at the several ports of the United States as provided by the sundry civil appropriation Act approved August eighteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, or the official status of such commissioners heretofore appointed. Immigration officers shall have power to administer oaths and to take and consider evidence touching the right of any alien to enter the United States, and, where such action may be necessary, to make a written record of such evidence; and any person to whom such an oath has been administered under the provisions of this Act who shall knowingly or wilfully give false evidence or swear to any false statement in any way affecting or in relation to the right of any alien to admission to the United States shall be deemed guilty of perjury and be punished as provided by section fifty-three hundred and ninety-two, United States Revised Statutes. The decision of any such officer, if favorable to the admission of any alien, shall be subject to challenge by any other immigration officer, and such challenge shall operate to take the alien whose right to land is so challenged before a board of special inquiry for its investigation. Every alien who may not appear to the examining immigrant inspector at the port of arrival to be clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to land shall be detained for examination in relation thereto by a board of special inquiry. Sec. 25. Such boards of special inquiry shall be appointed by Feb. 20, 1907. the commissioner of immigration at the various ports of arrival as may be necessary for the prompt determination of all cases of immigrants detained at such ports under the provisions of law. Each board shall consist of three members, who shall be selected from such of the immigrant officials in the service as the Commissioner-General of Immigration, with the approval of the Secretary of Labor, shall from time to time designate as qualified to Jan. 28, 1915. serve on such boards: Provided, That at ports where there are fewer than three immigrant inspectors, the Secretary of Labor, upon the recommendation of the Commissioner-General of Immigration, may designate other United States officials for service on such boards of special inquiry. Such boards shall have authority to determine whether an alien who has been duly held shall be allowed to land or shall be deported. All hearings before boards shall be separate and apart from the public, but the said boards shall keep a complete permanent record of their proceedings and of all such testimony as may be produced before them; and the decision of any two members of a board shall prevail, but either the alien or any dissenting member of the said board may appeal through the commissioner of immigration at the port of arrival and the Commissioner-General of Immigration to the Secretary of Labor, and the taking of such appeal shall operate to stay any action in regard to the final disposal of any alien whose case is so appealed until the receipt by the commissioner of immigration at the port of arrival of such decision which shall be rendered solely upon the evidence adduced before the board of special inquiry: Provided, That in every case where an alien is excluded from admission into the United States, under any law or treaty now existing or hereafter made, the decision of the appropriate immigration officers, if adverse to the admission of such alien, shall be final, unless reversed on appeal to the Secretary of Labor; but nothing in this section shall be construed to admit of any appeal in the case of an alien rejected as provided for in section ten of this Act. [NOTE.-The Division of Naturalization of the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization was made the Bureau of Naturalization by the act of March 4, 1913.] 468. Coast Guard. There shall be established in lieu of the existing Revenue-Cutter Service and the Life-Saving Service, to be composed of those two existing organizations, with the existing offices and positions and the incumbent officers and men of those two services, the Coast Guard, which shall constitute a part of the military forces of the United States and which shall operate under the Treasury Department in time of peace and operate as a part of the Navy, subject to the orders of the Secretary of the Navy, in time of war or when the President shall so direct. When subject to the Secretary of the Navy in time of war the expense of the Coast Guard shall be paid by the Navy Department: Provided, That no provision of this Act shall be construed as giving any officer of either the Coast Guard or the Navy, military or other control at any time over any vessel, officer, or man of the other service except by direction of the President. In the Coast Guard there shall be a captain con- Sec. 2. mandant, senior captains, captains, first lieutenants, second lieutenants, third lieutenants, engineer in chief, captains of engineers, first lieutenants of engineers, second lieutenants of engineers, third lieutenants of engineers and constructors, cadet and cadet engineers, warrant officers, petty officers, and other enlisted men, all of said offices, respectively, corresponding to the present offices of the Revenue-Cutter Service, which are transferred to the Coast Guard, and all the present incumbents, officers and enlisted men, are also transferred to corresponding positions in the Coast Guard; a general superintendent, assistant general superintendent, district superintendents, keepers, and surfmen, which offices and positions shall be transferred from the corresponding positions in the existing Life-Saving Service and be made like positions in the Coast Guard, and all the incumbent officers and surfmen shall be transferred to such corresponding positions in the Coast Guard, in which the superintendents shall be commissioned as such, keepers shall be warrant officers, and surfmen shall be enlisted men, of which enlisted men the number one surfmen shall be petty officers. Except as herein modified all existing laws relating either to the present Life-Saving Service or the present Revenue-Cutter Service shall remain of force as far as applicable to the Coast Guard and the offices, positions, operations, and duties shall in all respects be held and construed to impose the same duties upon the positions and their incumbents in the Coast Guard as are now imposed upon the corresponding positions and incumbents in the said two existing organizations. The provisions of the Act entitled "An Act to regulate enlistments and punishments in the United States RevenueCutter Service," approved May twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred and six, shall apply to and govern the Coast Guard. All duties now performed by the Revenue-Cutter Service and Life-Saving Service shall continue to be performed by the Coast Guard, and all such duties, together with all duties that may hereafter be imposed upon the Coast Guard, shall be administered by the captain commandant, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, and all funds and appropriations now provided by law for the Revenue-Cutter Service and all funds and appropriations now provided by law for the Life-Saving Service shall be available for like purposes under the Coast Guard hereby created. * ** * * * When the organization of the Coast Guard shall have Sec. 4. been perfected the President is authorized to retire the general superintendent on seventy-five per centum of his June 18, 1878. June 20, 1874. Sec. 4. present salary, and no further appointment shall be made to such office. At the same time the office of assistant general superintendent shall be abolished. 469. Life-Saving Service. It shall be the duty of the general superintendent to supervise the organization and government of the employees of the service; to prepare and revise regulations therefor as may be necessary; to fix the number and compensation of surfmen to be employed at the several stations within the provisions of law; to supervise the expenditure of all appropriations made for the support and maintenance of the Life-Saving Service; to examine the accounts of disbursements of the district superintendents, and to certify the same to the accounting-officer of the Treasury Department; to examine the property returns of the keepers of the several stations, and see that all public property thereto belonging is properly accounted for; to acquaint himself, as far as practicable, with all means employed in foreign countries which may seem to advantageously affect the interests of the service, and to cause to be properly investigated all plans, devices, and inventions for the improvement of life-saving apparatus for use at the stations, which may appear to be meritorious and available; to exercise supervision over the selection of sites for new stations the establishment of which may be authorized by law, or for old ones the removal of which may be made necessary by the encroachment of the sea or by other causes; to prepare and submit to the Secretary of the Treasury estimates for the support of the service; to collect and compile the statistics of marine disasters contemplated by the act of June twentieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four; and to submit to the Secretary of the Treasury, for transmission to Congress, an annual report of the expenditures of the moneys appropriated for the maintenance of the Life-Saving Service, and of the operations of said service during the year. The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized, whenever, in his opinion, it may become necessary for the proper administration of the life-saving service, and the protection of the public property at the stations and houses of refuge herein authorized to be established, to appoint one superintendent for the coasts of Delaware and Virginia, one for the coast of Florida, one for the coasts of Lakes Erie and Ontario, one for the coasts of Lakes Huron and Superior, and one for the coast of Lake Michigan, and also a keeper for each of said stations and houses of refuge; and the said superintendents shall have the powers and perform the duties of inspectors of customs. The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to appoint an assistant to the superintendent of the coast of Long Island and Rhode Island, who shall perform the duties required of the superintendent at the life-saving stations within the State of Rhode Island, and reside on Block Island, and for his services he shall receive an annual salary of five hundred dollars. The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to Sec. 5. employ crews of experienced surfmen at such of the stations herein denominated complete stations and at such of the life-boat stations on the Pacific coast as he may deem necessary and proper, for such periods, and at such compensation, not to exceed forty dollars per month, as he may deem necessary and reasonable. The Secretary of the Treasury may accept the services sec. 6. of volunteer crews of any of the life-boat stations herein authorized, who shall be subject to the rules and regulations governing the life-saving service; and a list of the names of each crew shall be kept in the office of the Secretary of the Treasury. Such volunteers shall receive no compensation except a sum of not more than ten dollars each for every occasion upon which they shall have been instrumental in saving human life, and such of the medals herein authorized as they may be entitled to under the provisions hereinafter made: Provided, That no payment shall be made to any person who shall not have actually participated in the efforts to save the life or lives rescued. Sec. 10. Section six of said act of June twentieth, eighteen hun- June 18, 1878. dred and seventy-four, is so amended as to extend the compensation of the enrolled members of volunteer crews of life-boat stations therein named to occasions of actual and deserving services at any shipwreck, or in the relief of any vessel in distress, and that such persons as may volunteer to take the place of any absent or disabled enrolled members of a crew, and who shall be accepted by the keeper, may be paid therefor, in the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury, a sum not to exceed eight dollars each on every such occasion: Provided, That all crews and volunteers employed under authority of this act who may be present at a wreck shall be required to use their utmost endeavors to save life and properly care for the bodies of such as may perish, and, when such efforts are no longer necessary, to save property and protect the same, under the direction of the senior keeper present or of the superintendent of the district, until the arrival of persons legally authorized to take charge; and for the time employed in so saving and protecting prop |