The united American : a magazine of good citizenchip., June 01, 1923, Image 5

THE
WESTERN
m e r ican
(continuing The Northman)
A MAGAZINE OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP
Devoted to the Cause of
Americanization, Assimilation and Group Elimination; Pointing the way to a Constitutional
Americanism, to Equality in Citizenship, and a better understanding
between Native bom and Foreign bom.
Vol. 1
19
JUNE, 1923
Number 9
CUMBERSOME NATURALIZATION METHODS
AIDING ALIENS UNDER ADVERSE CIRCUMSTANCES
[As instructor in the course of Americanization, added this
year to the subjects taught in the Oregon University Extension
Department, summer term session, which began June 26th, the
[university faculty secured the services of Mr. Geo. A. Green,
director of Americanization at Cleveland, Ohio, one of Amer­
ica’s foremost students of Immigration and Americanization
problems. In the following article, written for The Western
American by Mr. Green, his views on the subject have been set
north from almost every conceivable angle. His discussion of
the problems of naturalization, and the many impediments, in­
direct and faulty methods, still in vogue, should interest every
American having any interest in the subject, as well as all
those of foreign birth who are familiar with many phases of
the matter under discussion.—The Editor.]
By GEO. A. GREEN
THE PROCESS of naturalization of the aliens,
r seeking citizenship in America, is attracting the
attention of the American public at large today, to
a greater extent, than in any other time in the his­
tory of our country. Differ as people will on the sub­
ject of qualification, the fact of the matter is that our
naturalization laws are still largely in the experi­
mental stage and the qualifications of the applicant is
largely a matter resting with the judge of the natu­
ralization court and the examiner for the government,
nd they invariably disagree. The examiner often
ipproves of an applicant’s admission while the judge,
or temperamental or other reasons, refuses to admit
lim. Again the examiner may raise objec­
tions to the naturalization of an alien and demur to
lis qualifications while the judge, perhaps in a par-
jicularly happy mood, will overrule the examiner’s
Ejections and admit the applicant.
Paul Lee Ellerbe, for ten years a chief Federal Ex­
aminer at Denver, Colorado, and therefore qualified
to speak with authority on the subject of naturaliza­
tion, writing in a recent number of the Survey said:
To many an immigrant who wishes to throw in his lot with
this republic, naturalization must present itself as a kind of
steeplechase, with three hurdles to jump and an unseen arbiter
stuck off somewhere who may finally declare the race lost
anyway because the rider, didn’t cock his cap at the correct
angle or carry a rabbit’s foot in his pocket.
The first hurdle is put up by the clerk of the court, the
second by the naturalization examiner, the third by the judge.
The unseen arbiter is the Commissioner of Naturalization in
Washington.
The clerk fills out your papers for you. First, your declara­
tion of intention, or “first paper,” and then your petition for
naturalization. If he gets them wrong, down you go.
The examiner examines your papers, and you, and your wit­
nesses, your certificate of arrival, your depositions if you have
any, your neighbors, if he wants to, your sisters, your cousins,
and your aunts, your record in the old country, and anything
else that he thinks might add a cubit to the stature of his
hurdle, and if you don’t jump high and straight, he gets you.
The judge’s hurdle, as a rule, is a bit lower, but not always.
But remember, the judge in Ohio who would require twenty
years’ residence in this country before naturalization, and then
only admit the heads of families. And His Honor of Ar­
kansas, who avowedly “construes everything against the appli­
cant,” and would admit a German under no conditions until
he had been here fifty years.
However, we’ll say you’ve jumped the hurdles put up by
the three of them. You stick your certificate of naturalization
into your pocket and canter off into the pleasant fields of
citizenship, with the band playing the Star Spngled Banner.
But alas, the rabbit’s foot!
Mr. Ellerbe’s anology in many respect is unhappy
though it serves well the purpose for which he in­
tended it. Some of the most essential characteristics
of a race are speed, directnesss, light, and little or no
financial expense to contestants. Where do we find
any of these on the long hazardous journey to citi-