New-York tribune., 1922-02-19


10 hurl at the head of frightened foreigner
sitting for the first time in his life in lonely
conspicuousness on the raised witness stand in
the midst of a crowded courtroom, aquiver with
eagerness to see if they are going to give him
his citizen papers.
And yet # you are one of the governments
$50 bright young men charged with the duty
Of standing II: loco arunculi Cn the place of
heir Uncle Samuel, as it were) in the 230e
courts in this country that naturalizc aliens,
hats what the law says you've got to find
out and advise the judges about
When you face your first alien you realize
hat you can't use the words Of the law Peo-
ple don't talk like that when they can hep
It, even in court, until they have been there
.ong enough to be dehumanzed You realize
hat, even if the alien is an Englishman and
educated far beyond your own widest dreams;
End if he happens to be wholly uneducated
from Italy. or Russia a scant five wears
Id in Americanisn1, with English still as stiff
S a new Ford car, YOU pick the simplest
phrases you can hnd and thrust them at him
carefully, thus:
What is the Constitution Of the United
s,ates9'
The Constitootione is the fundamental law
- which the country is governed
You know then that, like Kipling's Tomlin-
oN, he read Of that in book" You've got
- find out if he understands it if YOU can
,;,r|t
mat very often you can't.
Have you read the Constitution:
AZ first you are painfully aware Of the
excessive uselessncss Of it If he has. The
Constitution isn't searcd to minds like his
Sat after awhile you come to forget that.
H says he has read it; but you have the
feeling that if your voice had had another
;saection-the kind you use when you ask
Have you been arrested? ?"-hed have
said he hadn't. And therefore,
What does it look lkc?" you persist ''ls
1t book. like that one on the table there?
Or building? Or a MAN.?
You know the question is ridiculous; that
one doesn't read building or-unless one
is a psyche analyst---a man; but your method
IS, perforce empirical, and it works.
The Constitootione?" he says with staccato
emphasis and delighted flash Of white teeth
tine Costtootone, he is man. He make-a
da law
He is mournfully surprised and disap-
pointed when, at your request, the judge con-
tlnues his case for ignorance" He has
acqured-and he knows he has acquired
50 much knowledge from that little brown
book the book store sold him for
quarter, called "1nformation for Our Future
Citizens! The poor fellow has probably been
telling his wife in his sleep that the Con-
stltution is the fundamental law by which the
country is governed, and that the three
branches of the government the Ex-
e-cu-teeve, the Legis-la-teeve, and the Ju-
de-cial. But, alas with all his getting, he
has got so little understanding!
Urged on by the Naturalization Service,
the courts have held-and quite properly
that to be attached to the principles of the
Constitution in any sense that is going to do
the United States any good, applicants Tor
citizenship must show that they have at least
rudmentary knowledge Of those principles,
and of the kind of government we have built
Up thereon. Therefore an educational ex-
animation, designed to test the applicants
&tness to vote, is now part of all naturaliza-
ton hearings.
It is difficult thing to conduct fairly.
Aliens learn the answers to a few questions
and shoot them at you parrotlike, and 1t Is
lard to go behind these and whether they
represent any actual knowledge. And it is
nard, too, on the other hand, to keep from
overwhelming timid people with words they
90 not know and the august effugcnce OF
Your governmental presence, sent all the way
from ID. c. Washington" Gas many OF them
nrmy believe) for the express purpose OF
getting them turned down. You do your best
and thank Fortune for CLINT Of humor now
ana then to relieve the tcdum and dull your