The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1900-02-17
TRUCULENT BLAIR
County Judges UnWarranted
Treatment Of Would Be
Citizens.
OUTRAGEOUS OBSTRUCTION
Thirty-two Men Directed to
Appear on Thursday But
His Honor Would Not
Hear Them.

Somebody at the Court House seems to
be interested in preventing or delaying the
naturalization of citizens. This is more
apparent during the period Immediately
preceding an election, thus giving it the
appearance of being a political scheme.
Many aspirants for citizenship are easily
discouraged and if the obstacles placed in
the way of attaining that high privilege
are made greater than they might be the
aspirant abandons his ambition.
The examination is said to be unneces-
sarily severe. The applicant is called into
Judge Blairs private office and there piled
with questions, some of which thousands
of native born citizens would be unable to
answer. This is one way of hfndering
the naturalization of candidate who
may be suspected of not being of the right
political faith.
Candidates who fail to pass the exam
ination are told to study up and try
again, but it is only a persistent man
who will do that. Then there is the de-
lay, very often unnecessary, the candi-
dates are subjected to. The majority OIL
them are poor men and the loss of days
pay is something of a hardship to them.
They and their witnesses are willing to
forfeit one days wages, but when they
wait around the Court House from early
morning until late in the afternoon and
are told to come again some other day,
the chances are that they will not return.
Judge Blair has fixed Thursdays for
naturaIizing citizens. On that day he also
pronounces sentences and conducts trials
in the Special Sessions Court, and the
candidates for citizenship are required
to wait until all the court business is
disposed of before they are attended to.
Last Thursday there were thirty-two
candidates in attendance at the Court
House and each candidate had witness,
making sixty-four persons in all awaiting
the pleasure of the Court. Judge Blair
was busy with the trGaT Of appeals cases
in the Common Pleas Court, and knowing
that he would be busy all day he directed
Sergeant t-at-Arms Mitchell to announce
that there would be no naturalization
business that day. Mitchell made the an
nouneement.
Some of the candidates and their wit
nesses went down stairs to the County
Clerks office and complained. They were
under the impression that somebody in
that office was to blame for telling them
to come at 10 o'clock Thursday morning
when there was no probability that they
would he attended to. The County Clerks
office, of course, was not to blame.
Deputy County Clerk went up to the
court room and suggested that it would
be better for the men to remain as there
might be an opportunity to attend to
them some time during the day. Judge
Blair said they might remain if they
wanted to, but he felt sure that his at
tention would be engaged by other busi-
ness until late in the afternoon.
Most of the candidates and their wit
nesses remained and had the pleasure of
hearing appeals cases tried, some of
which did not amount to SIS. It was 5:15
when the last case was finished and then
Judge Blair was SO tired that he did not
care to undergo the ordeal of examining
a lot of APPLICANTS for citizens papers.
They were told to come again next
MONDAY, but many of them win not re-
turn. There is only a short time left for
naturalization before the spring election.
No one can be naturaized within thirty
days prior to the election and that limit
will be up on March g.