The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1909-10-28
ARE SYRIANS ELIGIBLE?
Difference of Opinion over Ruling of
Census Bureau.

Cedar Rapids, Oct. 27.-The question
az to whether members of the Syrian
race who have emigrated to the Uni
ted States are eligible for admission to
citizenship has been brought up in
Cedar Rapids during the past month,
and has ben a subject of much discus
sion in every city where there are col
onies of that nationality. The latest
developments were contained in the
Associated Press dispatches Wednes-
day, which stated that under ruling
received at La Crosse, Wis, from R. s.
Coleman, chief examiner of the census
bureau at Washington, one hundred
Syrian voters in tibet city will lose
their citizenship, while hundreds of
others in that city will be affected.The
The ruling in effect is that Syrians
being of Asiatic origin, are not white
persons" within the meaning of the
law.
How the chief of the census bureau
or any other official outside of the
courts can deprive any man, black,
white or yellow, of his citizenship is
matter that is not clear to the Cedar
Rapids attorneys at least, and 1t would
seem to the ordinary citizen that the
census official has overstepped his GU
thority in announcing that the La
Cross Syrians were to be "denatural-
lied" 1t Is even question as to
whether the courts could deprive them
o. their right to vote after that right
had once been given them.
Several weeks ago Joseph Abodeely,
one of the best known members of the
local Syrian colony, applied to the
Judge of the superior court for citizen
ship papers. The question had been
raised before as to whether Syrians
are members of the white race, and an
immigration official whose headquar~
tors are at St. Louis made strenuous
objections to granting papers to Abb
oGeely on the grounds that he was not
a member of the white race, but of the
Asiatics. After investigating the mat
ter thoroughly, however, and receiving
opinions from several authorities Abb
odely was admitted on the grounds
that he is a Causasian.
Caucasian, according to the encyclo-
pedias and other authorities, was the
name adopted by Blumenbach for one
Of the main chronological divisions OF
mankind; and as the Georgian skull he
had was the finest in his collection,
the Caucasian was taken as the finest
type of the Indo-American stock. The
Syrians, Moors, Greeks, Italians and
ali people who inhabit the shores of
the Mediterranean sea. The division
between the Caucasian, Monaghan,
Ethiopian, Malay and other races is
not determined by color. but by the
bone formation and principally by
the shape Of the skull. The constitu-
ton states that all members OF the
Caucasian race are admissible to cit
izenship, and there is special clause
excluding Chinese. Mexicans, who
are as dark in color as the Syrians.
have been admitted to citizenship,
but the government has refused to ad-
nit Kanakas or Hawaiians.
The fifteenth amendment to the
constitution of the United States con-
tains the following: mo man SHALL be
deprived Of life, liberty or property
without due process of law. Taking
the rights of citizenship away from
ar Asyrian is depriving him Of his
liberty, and prominent local attorneys
claim that no one but court judge
has right to do that.
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