The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-02-03
IT'S A HARD ROAD
Foreigners Find Naturalization
Pathway Difficult.
Government Now Passes OH All
the Applications.
CASE OF FRED Killing.
Old Citizen Of Topeka Has
Papers Cancelled.
Others Have Documents Re-
turned for Discrepancies.

1T is harder for an alien to become
q citizen of the United States than it
is for camel to pass through the
eye of a needle thus spoke Richard
L. Thomas. clerk of the Shawnee coun-
ty district court one of the compara-
lively few district court clerks of the
state who has not refused to handle
the naturalization business.
This has become especially true, he
says, since the federal government, be-
ginning September 26, 1906, took over
from the states the entire naturaliza-
tion work and placed it in the hands
of the department of commerce and
labor.
While the making of citizens is not
extensive In the Shawnee district there
still are many examples of the diff
| cultles encountered and many cases of
olsmlSsals of petitions. The govern
1nent has become very exacting on the
clerks who make up the petitions re-
quiring laborioGs preciseness in the
n1nutest detail. Yet the remuneration
amounts to very httle-half of the COM
plete naturalization fee of $5. In coun-
ties where the business is small the
clerks have taken advantage of the op-
ton extended them and have left the
business to the United States courts.
There is just now pending in the
Shawnee court the cases of Carl Alfred
SASe1SOu, d SuDJeCI OI Mig oscar IL, NIlO
| landed in New York March q, 1908,
=! from Mails, Sweden. Gleason is flor
! list. He declared his intention of be-
coming a citizen March %, in Kent
county, Michigan. He made applica-
ton here for final papers December 80,
1909, furnishing affidavits from Michi-
gan as to his residence there from
March 25, 1908. to May 5, 1907, when he
left there. To prove residence i'll To-
peka he had the affidavits of LANES
| nd Tor =
for whom he worked Their affidavits.
however, covered ''one year" previous.
The petition as filed in this court claim
ed residence in Kansas from June 10,
1903. When the duplicate copy was sent
to Washington, it was returned asking
i'll substance where Gleason had been
from May 5. 1907. when he left Michi-
gan to June 10. 1908. when he came to
Kansas. The fact is Gleason had been
at Junction City.
A peculiar feature of the naturaliza-
tion laws is, however, that in the same
state a petitioner can not get affidavits
to prove his residence but must produce
his witnesses. Hence, Gleason will have
to pay the railroad fare of his witnesses
to Topeka.
Case of William Killing.
A peculiar case is that of William
King, the tailor his son, Fred. and
August William Fouch, from the land
of Emperor William II. King arrived
Is, 1888, he declared his intention in
Kansas City, Mo. Then he came to To-
peka and October Is, 1892, was natural
lied under the Kansas state law, then
in force. by Judge John Guthrie in the
| Shawnee court.
| Now. August couch filed in Chicago
| in July, 1907, and later in Topeka Oc-
! tober T. 1909. He supplied the tailors.
! William King and son Fred Killing, as
| witnesses to his residence. The dupli-
/ ont IN To- n 1i1acr on
and was returned with a letter from Fl.
j. Bone United States district attor-
ney, ordering the petition to be dis
missed giving reasons. first, that there
was a period of year or so which was
not covered by affidaVits and secondly.
| that William King had illegal natural
| ization papers.
An examination of the papers showed
| on their face that king had been a
| resident but four years, from 1888 to
| celled December 13 1909. The next day
| he redeclared intention.
| But the effect was not on the father
| alone. Fred King, the son, claimed
| natura lization by virtue of his fathers
naturalization while he was minor.
Hence he is now no citizen.
| The whole affair has since been as
cribed to d political rush of foreigners
into citizenship during the campaign of
1892 when Cleveland was elected presi-
dent.
Two petitions in the case of Swedish
applicants have just been dismissed by
order of United States Attorney Bone.
Il When Clerk Thomas returned a
duplicate of the petition of Gust Skog-
land to Washington there was trouble
in store for the clerks there. They
looked for the name throughout the
record and traced him to his ship
Campania from Goteborg to New York
|. April 16, 1904, but there was no Skog-
lund arriving on that ship-only an
unaccounted for Gust Person. He
had simply changed his name-there-
by having his case dismissed-though
he did it quite innocently as he wrote
to Allen Church, chief of the depart
ment of commerce and labor at ST.
Louis.
Another and similar case is that of
Carl Hollendorf. who made intention
the same day as Skoglund though
he arrived several months later in
America.
When he announced his new Ger
man name, from a Swedish face. he
was called to task by the deputy
| clerk, Miss Jennie Rosen- But he in
sisted the German name was his own
The United States officials could not
. see it that way, however, and wrote
back that he was no other than Car
: Alb Anderson who landed in June
! 1904 from the "Celtic" which had
taken him on from his native pastures
: at Goteborg. Sweden. They further
said to dismiss the case implying thai
! a. Swede is a Swede for a that-ano
4 no German
III Other cases of the trials of a natur-
. alization clerk are too numerous tc
i mention. Yet due emphasis ought tc
: be laid on the signatures of some
hundred of Russians who filed abou
Ill a wear ago. A centipede couIdn'-
. make the litter of scratches they pu
e on the paper. and vet the United
t States had the nerve to write to Clerf
ri Thomas and tell him to make tbs
lsignatures, hereafter, conform to ths