Judsonia weekly advance., 1915-09-15

tion in the very vitals the national fabric anC consists in the work of making citizens out of thu raw material of the resident foreigner who has been coming to this country from all of the nations of Europe ever since it's discovery and in vast anf increasing numbers during the past three genera tions.
 The making of citizen, in far as the require ments of the law are concerned is no difficult mat ter, but to make citizen in spirit sympathy, anG loyalty, imbued with all of the essentials o love of country, is vastly different matter. Foi over century the nation quietly and persistently slept upon this most important duty and per mitted anyone, the most interruptions to vio late the naturalization laws and to add hundreds of thousands annually to the enjoyment of the priv ileges Of the franchise the holding of office, and all of the other rights, held in ancient Rome tc be sacred to the natural-born citizen. ----
 Congress, however, aroused by the report of the commissioners of naturalization, appointed by the president, and on June 29, 1906 passed the current naturalization law. By this law, all of the courts, both state and federal and the officials of these courts, in their ministerial relationship were placed under the supervision of the United States government. This administrative authority rests with the bureau of naturalization of the depart ment of labor
 With the creation of this federal control, all Of the lawessness ceased, except in sporadic cases which arise because of the ignorance of some particular candidate for citizenship his in- born fear of the government and the law which make him the prey of the unprincpled willing to win few dollars by quick rather than honest methods.
 Almost two and one-half million foreigners have asked for citizenship during the first eight and threefourths years of federal supervision of the naturalization law. Almost one and three-quarters million of these have declared their intention or taken out their first papers. Something over three quarters of million have asked for final papers, and. of these, about 650,000 have been ad mitted to citizenship during that time.
 During the same time, there have been upwards or S5,0O0 foreigners who have been refused ad mission to citizenship. Over one-half of these have been denied because of mental and moral unftness. The bureau has kept close superv sion over this phase of it's work and as early as 1907, through it's activities, the public mind was directed to the necessity for providing some means to enable these unfortunate candidates from the vast foreign populace not only to ac complfsh the act of admission to citizenship but to equip them better to carry on the daily fight for their livelihood. For it is among these that the fight for their existence is carried on under the most adverse circumstances
 While the above figures indicate large num- Der among the foreign element of this country coming forward for citizenship the number does not appear relatively very large when it is known that in 1910 there were nearly 14,O00 900 foreign CTS 1n this country, that of this number 900OOO0 were not citizens, and that the foreign body has been increased nearly 100000 annually since then. By far the larger portion of the foreign residents Of this country have retained their a legiance to the sovereignty of their birth Re cent reports in the public press have shown many of these are ready to respond to the be- hest Of these sovereignties. It is we'll known that large numbers returned immediately upon the call of the country of their nativity leaving the hes personal. family, industrial and others which have grown up in this country for the stronger call of allegiance to the foreign soy- ereignty. This the case prior to the great war Of Europe, ln the lesser wars among the Bal kan states Many have gone back to the old countries who have declared their intention Some of these afterwards returned to this country and presented themselves before the courts of citizen ship for admission Judges of the naturalization courts have held that such absence from this country in the armies and fighting under their native allegiance broke the continuity of resi- dence for naturalization purposes and denied their applications
 Among the approximately 100000 foreign allen residents 1650,361 classed as illiterate These illiterates the natural prey of the de- signing and scheming foreigners and natives as well, at every turn. They compel them to nav tribute, both in cash and blood for every service both real and imagined. and in the qualification of their desires. however interruptions or un- natural
 For years this conditions has been studied by the bureau of naturalization in it's application to