The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-04-17
WILL Get TO VOTE
Special Naturalization Hearing
for Civil War Veterans.
District Court Judges Here Set
Date for July %.
MUST APPLY BY APRIL q
Many Voted for Years Unaware
They Weren't Citizens.
Law Passed 1915 Puts Up Bars
to All Aliens.
MUST APPLY BY APRIL q

! For the benefit of veterans of the
/ Civil war. born in a foreign country.
who have enjoyed the privileges of
voting for years and who suddenly find
| that their failure to obtain final nat
uralization papers would bar them
I from voting at the August primaries,
Judge James A. Mcclure this week ar
ranged for a special naturalization
/ hearing here July %.
Announcement OF the date of this
hearing followed a conference between
! Judge George H. Whitcomb and Judge
Mcclure. Prior to the conference
Judge Mcclure talked with M r. Bev-
ington, chief naturalization examiner
for this district at st. Louis. Beving-
I ton gave official sanction to the spe-
cial hearing
Under a law passed in 1918 no one
is permitted to vote who is not a nat
uralized citizen. Prior to that time
any one who had filed a declaration
of intention enjoyed the right of suf-
frage. There was one provision in the
law for the benefit of unnaturalized
foreign born citizens who waived ex-
aminations on that ground and risked
| their lives in the service of their coun-
try.
Become Citizens July 20.
This, providing these honorably dis
charged citizens filed a petition for
naturalization with the clerk of the
district court ninety days in advance
of the regular quarterly naturalization
hearings before the judge of the dis
trict court The next regular hearing
in the Shawnee county district court
j on petitions for naturalization will not
be held until September which would
, throw a number of Civil war, Spanish
American war and world war veterans
out of the primary election.
Now, if honorably discharged SOL
diers will file their applications for
L
clerk of the district court, by April %.
the ninety day provision of the statute
can be complied with and the ex-sol-
diers may register Under the law all
persons desiring to vote at the coming
election must register before July %
with Miss Eta Covell, city clerk. The
ex-soldiers will become citizens July
20 and will have one day in which to
register. due to the efforts of the dis
trict judges in getting the sanction Of
the naturalization examiner.
Old Man Responsible.
William Patrick Farrell, 712 Lincoln
street. 76, and a veteran of the Civil
war, is responsible for the courts ac-
tion in arranging for a special hear
ing. Farrell was born in Ireland and
came to this country in 1853. He has
voted consistently since he became of
age and went to the office of Miss
Eta CoYell, city clerk, to register
There, he discovered he could not reg
lister unless he was a naturalized
citizen.
To think that he would be denied
what might be his last opportunity to
vote for president hurt Farrers feel
ings. He called on an attorney who
went to Judge Mcclure. Meantime,
W. ]. Stagg, commander of Lincoln
Post No. ]. G. A. r., took an interest
in the affair, realizing that several
Civil war veterans were in similar
plight.
Farrell is an honorably discharged
soldier of the Civil war, having served
two enlistments during the war. He
has two sons who served in the world