The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-02-27
AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP.


Congress has just passed a bill re-
garding immigration. In some respects
it is an entirely new departure on this
subject, and is intended to remedy or
prevent what by some are considered
great evils. Solicitude about immigra-
ton is very desirable if it be not al
lowed to take the form of mere preju-
dice. One of the provisions of this
new immigration bill is TO prevent the
coming into the country of those whose
sole purpose is to secure work for a
limited time and who then return to
their own country. OF the policy or
impolicy of such a provision it is not
our intention to say anything, but it
serves to draw attention to the fact
that many people come to the United
States for the sole purpose Of getting
naturalization papers. and after they
have got them they return to the coun-
try whence they came. thereby evad-
ing the responsibilities of citizenship
in their adopted country as well as in
that of their nativity. If those who
do this were really attached to Amer
lean ideas and desired to live under
Institutions that carry them out, they
would remain here and not go back
to their old homes to live. When they
go back TO their old homes and remain
there permanently, it is not at all sur
prising that they are not made heartily
welcome by their old neighbors or the
officials; all are very apt TO feel that
both the old and the new country
have been tricked, as they have. If
the new country is a good one to adopt,
it should be a good one to live in, and
it is but natural that those who re-
main in the country from which the
immigrant has gone should desire him
to remain in the country of his adop-
ton. seeing that he prefers another
form of government to that under
which he was born.
1t is because of such practices as are
here spoken of that 50 many American
citizens in Cuba get into trouble with
the Spanish authorities of the island.
They come to this country, get nat
uralized and go back to Cuba, yet
they are no more American in aspira-
tons and ideals than the man in the
moon. They are nothing but source
of trouble and vexation to the United
States government The late Doctor
Ruiz, who is believed to have been
murdered in Havana by the Spanish
authorities, was one of these. He was
nominally an American citizen, but it
is said that he had not been in the
United States for seventeen years. A
man who comes to this country, gets his
naturalization papers, then leaves it
and does not even visit it in seventeen
years, is not much of an American
citizen though he may drape his house
from garnet to cellar with the stars
and stripes. But so long as the gov
eminent gives naturalization papers it
is bound to see that those who hold
them are protected in every part of
the world. In case of trouble with
another nation it is not probable that
these expatriated naturalized citizens
would come to the aid of their adopted
country.
This is a very difficult question and
it is quite impossible to say just how
it should be handled, but there will |
be no diff crence of opinion among the |
American people that the evils above
spoken of should be remedied if they |
can be, and somewhere there must be
a remedy 1t should be found out and |
applied. American citizenship is made
so easily ebtainable that it is not ap-
preciated at its true worth.