The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-11-01

the clerk of court was indicted for
making a false certificate that some
Of the persons so natualized had APP
peared before the court To that charge
the clerk has pleaded guilty and he is
now serving his sentence OF imprison-
ment and has been fined $1,000. The
United States law makes 1T the duty of
the judge to call all applicants for cit
izenship before him and examine them
in open court to determine whether
they are qualified to become citizens.
1t is obvious that the dead woman did
not appear and was not examined by
the Judge yet he admitted her to citi-
zenship and certified as did the clerk
that she had been by him examined.
There was in this matter no deception
OF the judge and no attempt made to
substitute any other woman for only
one woman appeared in court at the
time, while two women were natural
lied, the one who actually appeared
and the one who was dead and did not
appear.
The witnesses who signed the al
legged application of the dead woman
for naturalization were also indicted
and placed on trial in the federal court
at Minot on Oct 20, this year before
Judge Amidon and in his charge to the
jury, the judge thus characterizes the
proceedings:
Gentlemen of the Jury: This is a
humiliating exhibition of the admins
tration of a wise and carefully pre-
pared law. 1T is striking illustra-
ton of how impossible 1t is to secure
good government even under wise laws
If men who are charged with their ad-
ministration are false to their trust.
Now, what is to be done in court
when that proceeding is taken up?
Let me read to you that section of the
law: THAT every final hearing upon
such petition shall be had in open
court before a judge or judges thereof,
and every final order which may be
made upon such petition shall be un-
der the hand of the court, and entered
in full upon a record kept for that pur
pose, and upon such final hearing of
such petition and the applicant and
his witnesses shall be examined under
oath before the court and in the pres
ence of the court"
Under the regulations made pursu-
ant to this statute, as well as under
the statute itself, the law requires that
each applicant shall be separately and
individually examined under oath like
a witness in the trial of a case, and
that he and each of his witnesses, shall
be individually and separately interro-
gated SO as to disclose whether or not
he in fact and in truth is entitled to
citizenship. There can be no longer
admission of foreigners to citizenship
in the United States in blocks of five
or ten or twenty or a hundred. 1t is as
much an individual proceeding as the
trial of any lawsuit Is an individual
proceeding. The witnesses and the APP
plicants ought each one of them to
have the oath administered 70 them
that they will testify in the cause pend
ing before the court to the truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the truth,
the same as in any judicial proceeding.
and then 1t is made the duty of the
presiding judge or of some person act
ing in furtherance of the law, to inter-
rogate each of these witnesses and the
applicant so as to disclose whether the
law has in fact been complied with SO
that the applicant is entitled to admis-
sion to citizenship.
| Now, this case discioses that every
Feature of the law intended to safe
guard the citizenship of this republic
was outraged. in the district court of
Logan county in the proceeding that
we have under investigation 1T was
outraged by the violation of their duty
| by the clerk OF that court and by the
Judge who presided at the hearing.
The foreigners were brought before
/ 4V, -tv ~
| into citizenship without any knowl-
edge on their part of the requirements
| for admission to citizenship, or on the
part of the court as to whether those
requirements had been complied with.
The foreigners could not speak Eng
| fish and did not understand a word of
the proceeding No interpreter was
employed. No questions were asked.
No examinations were had. Simply
the oath of allegiance was administer
ed to the whole band of applicants in a
body. To the aliens the ceremony was
an empty form; and TO anyone having
a proper regard for law it was a legal
outrage. Look at the result. Here is
a person who had been dead for four
years admitted to citizenship of the
United States. And what was the OBJ
! ject of this outrage upon federal law
and American citizenship? To enable
a person who was not entitled to 100
acres Of land to get title to it.
| As / said at the beginning gentle
men, this is an impressive illustration
OF how impossible 1t is to obtain good
government. regardless Of how wise
our laws may be, if public officials will
not be faithful to the performance of
their duty under those laws. What,
| then. are we to do with these defend
ants? 1t is made a crime for any per-
son knowingly to make false affi-
davit in any of these citizenship pro-
ceedings | think the evidence conclu-
sively shows that owing to the lax and
miserable way in which the law was
administered in Logan county, these
witnesses being foreigners, knew Moth
| ing about what they were doing. They
made this affidavit and gave color to
this judicial proceeding through a mis-
take They acted under the advice OF
the clerk of court. He prepared SER
les of affidavits and they simply sigh
ed where he told them to sign. A
younger brother of the dead woman, by
his direction signed her name to the
petition for her admission to citizen
ship. The clerk falsely certified taat
she appeared before him and swore to
! the petition. He, too, was foreigner
and had little knowledge Of the law.
The court must bear the chief raspcn-
lsibility for this wrong. 1t treated a
solemn judicial proceeding as mn
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