New-York tribune., 1880-09-30
CARELESsNESS IN NATURALIZATION

CARELESSNESS IN NATURALIZATION.
ALL THE LEGAL FORMAiITIEs NOT COMPLIED WITH
NEED OF MORE CARE IN JUDGE VAN vORsTS
COURT.
That political affairs now arouse much interest
among all classes of people is shown by the motley
crowd which day by day congregates at the Natur-
alizaton Bureau, in tie County Court House. The
applicants number from 100 to 200 day at
present and as soon as the local tickets of the two
parties are announced there will be larae increase
On Monday the number naturalzed was 50, OF
whom 81 were Germans, 81 natives of Great Britain
and Ireland of Russia, 4 of Austria, of Switzer
land, 2 of Sweden and l of France.
The process of naturalization is conducted in
the main with care, but there are certain formaii
ties laid down by the law which not strictly OBJ
served. In the first place, the applicants are exam
ned in the clerks office instead of the open court.
1t is held that this may properly be done for
yenience, but there has been ruling 10 the con-
trary in other courts. When General Butler
was running for Governor of Massachusetts in 1873
the Young Republican Association of Boston for
warded 10 the United States Courts of that city
representation regard to this very point. Judge
Lowell upon this representation, ordered that both
appcants and witnesses should be brought into
court and that the entire examination should take
place and the papers be filled up IN ihe court.
Having been examined by the clerk of the court
one OF Dis ASSISTANTS, tuc dpDAlDsbts VIII tucT
witnesses are directed to the Superior Court the
Court of Common Pleas. At present Judge Van
Worst is sitting in the Superior Court, and Judge
Joseph F. Daily in the Court of Common Pleas. In the
proceedings before Judge Daily is motto ID that both
the applicant and the witness are fully examined as
to the statements which have been made by them
before the clerk and set forth by him i'll their pa
pers This examination being satisfactory, they
are referred another clerk seated in the court.
before whom the applicant renOunces his
allegiance to foreign powers and takes
au oath Of fealty to the United
States His papers are then countersigned by the
clerk. and he is Il citizen The mistake in this pre-
cednre is that the whole iOimality of the law is not
carried out Neither the applicant nor the witness is
examined by the Judge under oath, and consc-
ouently in the event of their statements being false,
tbey cannot be indicted for perjury. There appears
10 be nothing done under oath, the law directs,
except as to the clause of the naturalization paper
relative to allegiance
In the court presided over by Judge Van Worst
there are other formalteS, which. when the general
business of the court is heavy, are sometimes neg
lec,ed. The procedure ADOPTED is the same as IN
Monday in which only the witness was
examined. the applicant not being called up
for examination at all And even the witness
moi examined under1Oath The few questions which
were put to bim were put in SO low a tone that no
one in court could hear them. Naturalization is a
indlca proceeding, and any citizen has the right to
Examine or cross-exanne both witness ana appli-
cant but the way i'll which these cases wefe con-
Quoted gave no an opportunity OF DONG SO.
Both political parties arc zcaOusy watching the
naturalization proceedings and the need of care in
carving out these minor requirements OF tie law
is apparent In the Superior Court, however, any
one who takes the trouble 10 observe the Datur-
allzation proceedings for half an hour
cannot fail to notice certain amount OF
carelessness which renders fraud not only |
pOssible but easy. Several have already been
spoken of in which naturalization papers were OBJ
tanned in this court by fraudulent representation.
In one of these the application was rejected in
the Court of Common Pleas on the ground that the
applicant did not come to this country before he
WAS eighteen years of age, his papers, made out
before one OF the clerks. stated. When he leav
ing the court friend asked why his application had |
been refused.
Because this ---,' he replied refused to swear
that / came here before l was eighteen" Then |
turning 10 his witness, he said, Now you've got |
To- do H. You've got 10 swear that. else"
IL Is too late now,D observed the spoken to.
Too late! Nothing of the sort. We can 90 into
the other court. Come on. Now you've got TO
swear t, you know, or else"
The two entered the Superior Court and Judge
Van Worst found difficulty in granting the appii-
cant citizenship. In another instance an applicant
not twenty years of age was naturalized and there
may he ma nv simliar cases.