MARCH, 1925
tenuating circumstance in favor of the man who has
applied himself.
If some of the group activities in foreign languages
were abandoned in favor of a more intensive American
language study, alien language illiteracy could be
COMING INTO CITIZENSHIP WITHOUT THE largely done away with in America.
KNOWLEDGE OF AMERICA’S LANGUAGE
We have no quarrel with anyone or anything ex
'THERE MAY be introduced extenuating circum- cept the slap-stick, naturalization laws over which
stances at a naturalization hearing which may be Congress is habitually quarreling.
of a nature to move both examiner and judge to a
The system is wrong. Uncle Sam is being cheated
degree of leniency, but there should be no com out of his just due by his own representatives.
promise where the general character of the applicant
•Give us something tangible to go by and the Natu
is involved or when evidence has been introduced to ralization Service and the courts will be enabled to set
show beyond a reasonable doubt that the applicant a uniform standard which will eliminate the clogging
is not attached to our form of government and we up of the naturalization docket with applications from
should forever be through with naturalising aliens, un-Americanized and untrained aliens who trust to
who cannot read the language of our land and because luck and sundry pleas for sympathy to help out where
of this serious handicap are unable to defend their qualifications are wantonly absent.
citizenship in an intelligent manner.
Among the reactions from the most recent natu AN IMMIGRANT’S IDEALS THAT ARE WORTH
ralization hearing in Portland, Oregon, we note this
EMULATING
paragraph from a news item in the Oregonian anent 'THE IMMIGRANT who has an honest desire to be
the day’s hearing during which fifty-five aliens became 1 of the greatest possible service to the country of
naturalized:
his adoption and is trying his utmost to fit himself to
Although Henry Gerlack, born in Russia of German meet the requirements in citizenship, should get the
parentage, had been going to night school for three years viewpoint of the late Samuel Gompers, President of
he had made little .progress and could not read English.
Gerlack has been here for nine years, has raised a family, the American Federation of Labor, who shortly before
educated his children and otherwise conducted himself as a his death reviewed his life in America in the following
good citizen. Judge Wolverton decided that he could easily words:
Page Ten
THE UNITED AMERICAN
EDITORIAL
overlook inability to read English and he was admitted.
Henry Gerlack may be an excellent man. We are
not taking issue with him. He may even become a
better citizen than many of those who are citizens
through birth. He may become a citizen of surpasing
value compared with a large number of those who are
able to pass the language test that proved such an
insurmountable obstacle in his case.
Wq are not particularly anxious to take issue with
Judge Wolverton for granting Gerlack the precious
paper he is said to have struggled so hard to obtain.
The judge has been one of the best naturalization
judges we have known. He has generally been just and
fair, always willing to consider every basic argument
brought to bear upon each individual application.
The state of Oregon recently adopted a literacy
test law which will make it impossible for Henry
Gerlack to attain the greatest privilege in citizenship
— to cast an American ballot, unless he can read and
write, to a limited extent, the language of America.
It is inconceivable to believe this to be beyond
Gerlack’s intellectual capacity.
America’s safety is of far greater importance than
all the elements of compassion that might be brought
to bear in favor of issuing citizenship certificates
to applicants pleading inability to learn our language.
Some of America’s fairest children, men and
women, have had to go through the formality of
■naturalization because their paSrents neglected to quali
fy. Children of such as Gerlack, if forced to do the
same thing, will feel less resentment against their
paternal parents of whom it can then be truthfully
said that they tried hard but failed on account of the
language test.
It is better to strive vainly than not to have tried at
all. Having made honest efforts and failed is an ex-
Sixty-one years ago I came to the United States, a boy of
thirteen years, with my father, mother, five brothers and sister.
What have these sixty-one years in America meant to me?
They have meant much. They have meant all that they could —
sixty-one years of service, sixty-one years of hope. I have tried
hard. They have meant loving my adopted country which gave
me the privilege of citizenship. I have tried to serve my country
and to prove worthy of the privilege of citizenship and the I
cause of humanity. As to what I may have been able to ac
complish, I cannot say. But to me nothing is worth while, no
life is worth living, except for the service you can give to the
cause of humanity.
What a wonderful sermon.
What an inspiration these simple sentences contain.
It is refreshing, in these days of so much selfish
ambition, to contemplate this brief summing up of
values from a long span of life, an immigrant’s whole
some vision of America and his noble efforts to live his
life as an integral part in that scheme of human
,emancipation which America has evolved.
What nobler heritage can anyone leave 'behind,!
when the soul departs, than the deeds of service, un
selfishly rendered, indelibly written into the history I
of the nation ?
What an atonement for alien inequity is the life of
the immigrant Samuel Gompers?
What a splendid aquisition to this land of emanci
pated ideals, in political government?
A veritable fortress against reactionary and dema
gogic radicalism was this naturalized citizen — Samuel
Gompers.
A giant spirit of altruism, loyalty and service was
this man of small physical stature and build, who in
•boyhood was made to think that because of his almost
diminutive size he could not accomplish any greater
life task than roll tobacco leaves into cigars.
He never looked down upon his humble trade. It
was honest labor, and while he rose to a commanding