OCTOBER 1925
THE UNITED AMERICAN
and most modern of civic thought, if the natural right
of families to be united is quite undesirable in the
present day and age, and further if it is necessary for
an alien to PROVE that he is in the United States
when he is already legally here, the sooner these
extraordinary hypotheses be established by the highest
court of the land or other equally competent authority
as the tenets of genuine Americanism the better for
all concerned.
Any panacea looking toward the alleviation of con
ditions as they now exist must come from any or all
of the following three sources: Congress, the Depart
ment of Labor or the Courts.
With respect to redress from decisions handed
down by the latter, it might be remembered that Natu
ralization is not a right. It has always been con
sidered, rather, as a mere privilege; a bounty to be
conferred by the Government. The procedure may
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applicant petitions; the Federal examiner cross ex
amines; and the acquiescing judge generally accepting
the examiner’s recommendations without question. The
examiner cannot be blamed for the air of authority
which his presence casts over the Judge, particularly
in a State Court where it might be suggested that his
Honor by way of diversion read the Naturalization
laws and lean less upon the ipse dixit of the Govern
ment’s representative, in order to relieve himself of
the responsibility and necessity of deciding a question
for himself. He would do well to peruse 3 F (2D)
Pg. 691 in re Linklater, where he will discover perhaps
for the first time that the examiner has no judicial
powers whatsoever, is an administrative officer ONLY
and is wholly without power to prevent any person
from filing a petition for Naturalization.
The reforms recommended in the Commissioner’s
Annual Report can well cause us to throw up our hands
in despair for here again we find projected a new set
of plans resembling the Russian passport system which
existed during the regime of the late Czar, an annual
i registration scheme to be handsomely paid for by the
alien, a proposal to treble Naturalization fees and
charge each of the children of Naturalized parents
$10.00 for a certificate and an unusual recommenda
tion to clothe the examiner with judicial authority and
legislate into him scientific qualifications for the
administration of an educational test.
The responsibility for the perplexing conditions of
the hour may be traced directly to the effects of recent
i rulings emanating from the Department of Labor at
■ Washington. An immediate revocation of every one
| of them would work a marvelous reformation without
awaiting the action of Congress or the Courts, institu
tions somewhat aptly described by a former Denver
Naturalization Examiner for purposes of immediate
relief, “as remote as God.” But in the midst of it all,
| the Commissioner with a far-off look toward Congress
[cries out for a new law, and in the meantime, the
bewildered petitioner—with his eyes fixed on the Com
missioner—humbly and respectfully and in the name of
I justice asks for a new deal.
Page Fifteen
IT CAN BE DONE—IN ROXBURY
(Boston Port)
HE MOMENT when Judge Gray and his associates of
the proposed National Crime commission are organizing
over in New York for the very laudable purpose of trying to
accomplish something to lessen our great American scandal
we wish there might be called to their attention something
that has just happened in our Suffolk County court. It may
be enlightening to the eminent investigators.
On Tuesday night a couple of holdup men attempted to
rob a Roxbury storekeeper at the point of a pistol. The
merchant, not being of the meekly complaisant kind, shouted
for help, although badly beaten with the butt end of the gun,
and the bandits fled. The police captured them not long after
the commission of the crime.
Now—and here is the pungent point for the consideration
of Judge Gary’s new organization—the pair of bandits were
indicted by the grand jury on Wednesday forenoon; in the
afternoon they were arraigned. One man planded guilty. The
other demanded a jury trial, and he was tried then and there,
not six months from then. In 14 minutes the jury returned
a verdict of guilty Judge McLeod, uninfluenced by any plea
for leniency, sentenced them to the state prison for terms
of ten to twelve and five to seven years, respectively. In less
than twenty-four hours, therefore, after the commission of their
crime, they were beginning a long residence in the Charlestown
bastile.
We haven’t seen anything more heartening in the conduct
of justice around here for a long while. It furnishes an
example that talks, and in a voice that is sure to be heard
by other inhabitants of the underworld who have similar raids
on society in mind. It shows that swift and stern punishment,
the best preventive of crime, is not an impossibility, even in
these days of over-sentimental treatment of criminals.
T
The United States is using up its timber four times as fast
.as it is growing, according to the latest figures, and a large
part of the timber supply seems to be used up in making paper
plans for reforestation.
—Milwaukee Sentinel.
The
Welding Together
of Two Great
Financial Houses
Stye
Mniteh States
Natimi a I Wank
combining by purchase the
LADD & TILTON BANK
“ One of theNorthwest’s Great Banks.”
Broadway and Sixth
Street
It will be most discouraging to the jingoes to learn that the
Japanese naval maneuvers this season will be held in Tokyo
bay and not San Francisco bay.
Washington Post.
Place Your Orders With The United American Advertisers—and Tell Them Why