Omaha daily bee., 1910-07-14
FREE WHITE PnRsoN.
Court Ruling on Question of Right to
citizenship.

CtttAen9ntns
Philadelphia Record.
Unless the government should see fit to
take the question to tho supreme court
the decision of the federal circuit court
Of appeals at New York in the case of
Bhicaja Framji Balsara will stand; and II
is to the effect that Parsee is free
white person" within the meaning of the
act of congress. and as such entitled to
naturalization as a citizen OF the United
States. Incidentally the privilege was ex-
tended by the court to certain Syrian mer-
chants, who interviewed in and were made
parties to the case.
The question is more complicated than
appears on It's face, The naturalization
law was one of the earliest .enactments of
congress, and 1t is not easy to determine
whom the national legislators of the year
1890 had in mind when they wrote the
words free white persons" into the law.
The sciences OF ethnology and anthropology
were not very much developed in the
eighteenth century. The word Caucasian as
a racial name had been used by a German
professor some nine years before the adop-
ton OF the naturalization law; but the
work of this learned man was certainly un-
known to congress in 1880 The best guess
is that congress in using the words free
whites intended nothing more than to dis
tinguish these from the slaves, free negroes
and wild Indians. This would open the
door to Asiatcs as well as all settlers and
immigrants from European countries, who
had become included in the population OF
the American colonies. But naturalization
court of the eighteenth century would
probably, have drawn the line at Turks
and Kalmucks, and, certainly, at tho Moors
Of the Barbary states, though the latter
notwithstanding their swarthiness, are ac-
counted members Of the white" race by
modern anthropologists.
The circuit court Abf appeals In determin-
ing the case was Influenced to some extent
by scientific opinion of the origin OF the
Parsees who came to India from Persia
over 1000 years ago. and in the dim pro-
historic past were part Of the same racial
stock from which the Greeks Latins. Celts
and Teutons were derived. The court alsC
took judicial notice of the fact that the
Syrians are Semites, and that the latter
are part of the great white race" The
judicial mind, nevertheless, seems TO harbor
a suspicion that a homogeneous white race
is a myth. 1t decides that the term white
persons" includes all persons who do not
belong to the black. red yellow or brown
races. The court says:
Whether there is any pure white race
and what peoples belong to 1t may involve
nice distinctions, but for practical pur-
poses there is no difficulty in saying that
the Chinese, japanese and Malays and the
American Indians do not belong to the
white race Difficult questions may arise,
and congress may have TO settle them by
more specific legislation, but In our opin-
ion the Parsees do belong to the white race,
and the circuit court properly admitted
Balsara to citizenship"
1t is not troublesome to draw broad dis
tinctions; the difficulties arise when the
fine shadings are under consideration
whereby the Hindu graduates into the
Burmese, or the Turk into the Mongol.
Some legislation will be required that will
establish a more nearly correct and scien.
tifio classification of citizen9-elect