The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-08-22
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those left behind knelt by the track in
prayer but in their eagerness to follow
the fortunes of the emigrants to the
promised land. a crowd of envious young
men obstinately chung to the running
boards Of the cars until the locomotive
stopped and the Sultan's soldiery drove
them back. .--
A New Problem.
With the rise of the republic as a
great immigrant nation such as the
world never had known. a new prob
lem in international law was pre-
scented. This problem still waits for
full solution and il may become
acute before the present year is over.
Until the French revolution men
were, in a sense, real estate or i'm
bile property and attached to the
soil on which they happened to be
born. The peasantry almost every
where on the European continent
could not move from one village to
the next without the permission of the
government. This is the rule in Rus
STA even today. and there still one
may see the people anxiously Gluten
ing their permits as they run about
from policeman to policeman. Only
sixty years ago. before the emanci-
patton of the serfs, a Russian land
lord was rated by the number OF
souls" on his estate.
Wherever the French Revolution de-
stroyed feudalsm and serfage however.
the people were left freer to come and
go. But until the exodus to America.
the first great free migration, men still
belonged TO their kings and could not
lawfully change their nationality.
Once a subject, always a subject"
was the ancient and universal rule.
And John Marshall upheld that dog
ma. the chief justice of the United
States speaking of nations holding
titles" 10 persons Joseph Story also
handed down from the same bench
the opinion that men could not with
out the consent of their government.
put off their allegiance and become
aliens" And Cha ncellor Kent added
his authority to the same side of the
question.
The Open Door of the Republic.
But every step forward has to be
taken in defiance of precedent and the
counsels of the judicious. Not with the
sanction of judges was the compact
in the cabin of the Mayfiower drawn.
the Declaration of Independence pro-
claimed or the Emancipation Procla-
nation issued.
The American people chose 10 give the
immigrant the benefit of the more gener-
Gus law of Moses: THE stranger that
dwelleth with you shall be unto you as
one born among YOU and thou shalt love
him as thyself. for we were strangers in
the land of Egypt" Accordingly. they
opened wide the door Of the republic to
welcome the newcomers into the family
of freedom. Since the first session OF the
First Congress in 1870. full and equal
citizenship has been freely offered to the
foreign born. and ever since 1902 resi-
dence of only five years has been re-
quired of applicants for naturalization.
For a century and quarter now the
United States has acted on the convic-
ton that men carry their sovereignty
under their hats. But the -nations Of
Europe. which a few generations ago
were denying their subjects even the
privilege of choosing for themselves
where they should live and what they
should do for a living, have continued
to assert that men have no natural right
to choose their nationality and pass from
one sovereignty to another.
When a man stands at the bar OF an
American. Naturalization Court. he is
called upon expressly. to renounce all
allegiance to his native country. But the
Old World insists that he cannot make
such a. remuneration. that allegiance Is
perpetual, yoke that cannot be thrown
of at will and from which a person can
be released only by the consent Of his
original sovereign.