THE
UNITED
rican
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 born and Foreign bom.
Vol. 3 Ä"ous 21
February, 1925
Number 5
AMERICANIZATION AS A NATIONAL ISSUE
ON THE ROAD THAT IS LEADING TO A SAFER AMERICA
U7HILE WE ARE still waiting for words from the
Attorney-General of Oregon, regarding the
status of the Literacy Test Law, which is now definitely
in the statute books of this state, since the law was
ratified by the constitutional amendment sustained
by the people at the last election, it might be of
interest to know that the Supreme Court of the State
of New York recently upheld the Literacy test qualifi
cation for voters enacted in that state, and authorized
the New York State Board of Education to define
what is meant by the phrase “read and write English
understandingly.” In its decision the Board answers
that in order to read and write understandingly a
voter must have a knowledge of English equivalent
to that demanded in the sixth grade of the state
public schools.
The Oregon law does not require this, but it does
require that an applicant to register and vote shall
be able to read some fifty printed words of the state
constitution and write at least ten words of the matter
read before being permited to register.
Just where we are to begin ; if it is to be necessary
to have a general re-registration of the electorate in
Oregon under this new law, or if it is to apply only
to foreign-born citizens, and if all of these must
re-register in order to take the test, is a matter still to
¡be determined ; and the Attorney-General should lose
no time in giving his decision, so that the inefficient
voters may have proper warning and take steps
to prepare themselves in order to defend the suffrage
right in their franchise, before the next state election
brings thé situation abruptly home to them.
In vièw of the fact that New York State, by
[patriotic speakers in the west, is generally held up as
la horrible example of an American community where
the foreign-born are outnumbering the native-born,
litis indeed very interesting that New York State leads
[all other states in setting the standard of intelligence
in citizenship so high that only those properly quali
fied may exercise the franchise. Leadership in this
respect is sonmething of which New York may indeed
be justly proud.
Upon this phase of the new intelligence standard
in citizenship which has been set in New York, Imogene
B. Oakley writes most interestingly and intelligently
in the January issue of the Atlantic Monthly. Here
are some of the high points in the Oakley discourse
on the subject:
Buit even in the confusion created by our naturalization
laws and policy there exists a legal way to cheek this influence
of alien racial groups. The Constitution as amended declares
that the right to vote shall not be abridged by race, color,
previous condition of servitude, or sex, but it does not intimate
that it may not be abridged by ignorance. Several states
require that voters shall be able to read and write some
language, but it was left for New York State to adopt a con
stitutional amendment which witholds the franchise from any
citizen, native-born or naturalized, who cannot read and write
English understandingly. The State Supreme Court 'has up
held this amendment ....
It is possibly true that a man who can neither read nor
write may -be a better citizen than one who knows and speaks,
the English language in its purity, but a man of the most truly
patriotic intentions who can not read and mark his own ballot,
and must depend upon assistance, never can really know for
whom or what he has voted. He is forced to depend upon the
honor of the watcher at the polls who gives the assistance. By
requiring 'an educational qualification for the franchise and
making it binding in New York City, where it has been possible
to naturalize aliens fifteen to the minute, and where every
native or foreign-born citizen, however ignorant, has been able
to leave his impress on the government, New York State has
blazed a trail toward a safer and saner America.
The helplessness of the citizen who stumbles into
the polling place on election day and :s handed a ballot
containing the names of many opposing candidates
for any number of higher and lower offices and also
containing a number of measures of major importance
to the well-being of the community, the state and the
nation, is so appalling that it tends to bring tears into