The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1900-08-09
The Naturalization Bureau,

The scenes reported to be taking place
in New York at the Naturalization Bureau
viii furnish the Intelligent and conscien-
tious voter with food for reflection. 1t is
said that coaches" are stationed on the
stairway to give all applicants the infor
nation requisite for the answering Of
questions put by the commissioners, and
sometimes this information Is even fur
nished in printed slips TO be fastened 10
the inside OF the hat. One bushy-bearded
Russian, when asked who makes our laws,
replied without hesitation:
President McKinIey'
A Teutonic applicant. when asked 10
name the houses Of Congress, replied:
q dond't know shlzt who are dose alrelty but
ink de Nite House Is one Of ia
Such incidents are suggestive Of several
things. One is that the huge foreign i'm
migration movement which brings millions
of ignorant and niiterate peasants to
America is certainly as destructive of in
teIigent voting as was the enfranchise-
meut CT the Southern negro Negroes who
gave answers like these above quoted
would probably be refused the right 10 vote
under the North Carolina and Louisiana
regulations. The large cities OF the North
were Immediately after the war, and are
Still. filled up with just this sort of voting
material, and this has been the cause of
much of the political corruption of the
day. When a man knows nothing beyond
the affairs of his own street, ward, or city
the ward boss becomes his political god
This is inevitable.
What n Ha he ro,,
Can the requirements for naturalization be
so devised that none but Intelligent men
shall obtain the right to vote? AS has
been seen, the system of coaching can
be made to set at naught most of such de-
vices, unless the requirments be made SO
stringent as to shut out even moderately
well-informed workingmen who know all
that an American citizen needs TO know to
vote intelligently. The applicant for natu-
radiation papers, moreover, is under the
disadvantage often times of speaking diff
ferent language from that of the country
OF his adoption, and while his ideas may be
perfectly correct and his intelligence fair.
he may not be able to explain his mean
tEg easily. When a European peasant
speaking. perhaps, one of the many Ger
man dialects, comes to this country he
has frequently all the qualifications for
the best sort of citizenship, being frugal,
industrious, honest, and anxious for his
own and his chiIdren's Improvement. At
the same time he may never, to the end
of his days. il he be a man in middle life
at the time of his emigration, become able
to express himself we'll In English when
talking upon abstract subjects. Such
man is manifestly at a disadvantage when
asked to explain a clause in the Constitu-
ton. If the requirements for citizenship
are made too stringent, he will be shut
out, while the native American. or the
foreigner who has thoroughly learned the
language, viii become voter. This would
be unjust.
1t has therefore come to pass that the
requirements for naturalization are 6nal6
gous to very coarse sieve, which does
not thoroughly separate the chaff from the
wheat; and SO long as things are as they
are, there must be this compromise be-
tween Ideal and actual system of govern
ment. The country cannot be built rp into
the ideal republic by any arbitrary svs-
TEN. No machine can be constructed once
for all and left to run itself. The laws
of nature do not favor perpetual motion
There must be constant exertion Of influ-
ence and authority on the part Of the best
element of the community to avoid the en-
croachments of the worst element The
ignorant or vicious voter cannot do much
harm If all the conscientious and intelJt-
gent men in the community are on the |
alert to prevent his corrupting the State
In fact. the ignorant man cannot do much
harm anyway. 1t is his intelligent leaders
who do the mischief. and they not he,
must be dealt with.