The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-09-28
NATURALIZATION OF ALIENS.

a correspondent of the Tribune asks
| if it is not about time that halt was
called in the district court in the matter
of the naturalization of citizens?' The
answer of that paper is:
According to all accounts, the way
! naturalizations have been pressed in
the courts throughout the territory
during the past few months has made
a farce of the whole business. Men
have been naturalized who do not speak
our tongue and know nothing whatever
of our institutions. They have no pos
| sible conception of the honor which is
conferred by naturalization, have no
pride of citizenship and have no motive
in being naturaliZed except to acquire
property or acquire the right to sell
their votes.
To the Citizen" it may be replied
that the naturalization of citizens is as
important a function as the courts of
the country perform, and that to call
halt in their naturalization Just now
would be to deprive them of one of the
highest privileges an American citizen
has-the right to vote for those who
are to administer the laws under which
he is to live
Now, as to the comment of the Trib
une on Citizens" ''growl," as that
paper terms it. To say, according to
all accounts, that the way the natural
izations have been pressed in the COURT,
throughout the territory for the pasl
Few months has made a! farce of the
whole business is pure nonsense. IT is
well known all over the country that
when an important election is at hand
all parties are extremely active in hav-
ing those aliens who have taken out
their first papers and are entitled to
their second ones, complete their
naturalization, and it is done
because these prospective citizens have
usually made up their minds as to
(which party they will give their allegi-
ance. That is what has been going on
N this territory for some weeks past.
and the Democratic and Republican
parties have been alike Jealous in the
matter. Nor has any man been granted
his final papers that will confer upon
him the rights of an American citizen
who has not complied with all the re-
quirements of the congressional
statutes
A large, a very large, portion of the
people Of Utah are foreign born, and a
stfll larger portion are the children of
foreign born parents, and yet the or
gan of the Republican party says that |
men have been naturalized who "have |
no pride Of citizenship and have no |
motive in being naturalized except to |
acquire property or acquire the right |
to sell their votes''
Let us see 20 how large a part of
Utah's people this would apply, if there
were anything in the statement but a
base SANDER. In 1890 there We're in the
territory 154,SA native born persons,
and 5S,064 persons of foreign birth:
that is, more than one person in four
IN Utah in 1890, according to the CEN
sus, was of foreign birth. And yet |
'hese are the class of people of whom
the organ of the Republican party says
that they "have no motive in being
naturalized except to acquire property
DR. acquire the right to sell their votes"
more villainous thing was never utter
ID. There is no better class of people in
Utah than those sturdy and honest
sons of England. Ireland, Scot
and and Wales and Scandi-
navia, Germany and other countries
who came here to enjoy the
greatest political blessing conferred on
liberty Their votes
are not for sale and those who know I
hem know that this is so, and to in
innate that they are is to insult more
han fourth of the people of Utah.