THE ALIENS SUPPORT THE BUREAU
In point of fact, the Bureau of Naturalization is, as the Commissioner more than once has pointed out, completely self-supporting. Bare good faith to the petitioner for naturalization would seem to demand that the money he pays in in fees should be used by the government to afford adequate service in his behalf. In every year, except 1918–19, since the present system was established, the receipts from naturalization fees have, by a wide margin, exceeded the amount appropriated for the Naturalization Service; the amount representing that margin has simply gone into the general receipts of the United States, subject to appropriation by Congress. Those receipts, and the margin referred to, which might well have been devoted to improving the Naturalization Service, have been, according to the Commissioner’s reports, as follows:
TABLE VI
Receipts from Naturalization Fees and Disbursements from Various Appropriations for the Enforcement of the Naturalization Law for Rents, Supplies, and Miscellaneous Expenses, Fiscal Years 1907 to 1920{1}
| Year | Naturalization Fees | Cost of Administration | Difference in Fees Received Over Cost of Administration |
| 1907 | $65,129.00 | $29,243.18 | $35,885.82 |
| 1908 | 166,873.90 | 232,728.05{2} | -65,854.15 |
| 1909 | 172,202.13 | 194,428.45{2} | -22,226.32 |
| 1910 | 221,766.38 | 176,415.98 | 45,350.40 |
| 1911 | 290,551.52 | 222,831.15 | 67,720.37 |
| 1912 | 338,315.33 | 257,678.99 | 80,636.34 |
| 1913 | 350,716.60 | 290,026.20 | 60,690.40 |
| 1914 | 450,228.55 | 331,517.26 | 118,711.29 |
| 1915 | 441,764.49 | 363,593.11 | 78,171.38 |
| 1916 | 410,272.55 | 389,075.90 | 21,196.65 |
| 1917 | 635,927.52 | 393,240.15 | 242,687.37 |
| 1918 | 507,932.50 | 416,486.84 | 91,445.66 |
| 1919 | 597,087.97 | 812,056.38 | -214,968.41 |
| 1920 | 664,539.20 | 753,383.83 | -88,844.63 |
| Total | $842,495.68 | ||
| Less deficits | 391,893.51 | ||
| ————— | |||
| Excess of fees received over cost of administration | $450,602.17 | ||
note 1: Department of Labor, Annual Reports for 1920, p. 799, Table 24.
note 2: Included in these expenditures are appropriations to the Department of Justice for maintenance of field force prior to the transfer to the Department of Commerce and Labor—to wit, fiscal year 1908, $193,000; fiscal year 1909, $150,000.
The Commissioner puts his finger on the ethical point involved, when he says, as for example in his report for the fiscal year 1918–19:[95]