compilation showing the racial distribution of the petitioners studied, compared with the racial distribution of all unnaturalized foreign-born white aliens 21 years of age or older in the country as a whole, and in the nine large cities covered by this investigation.

Considerable variations will be observed between the racial distribution of petitioners studied and that of the unnaturalized but potentially naturalizable males in the whole country in 1910. For instance, while 18.5 per cent of the unnaturalized persons in the United States were born in Italy, only 13.7 per cent of the petitioners studied were Italians; on the other hand, while 29.9 per cent of the petitioners studied were from Russia, only 17 per cent of the unnaturalized males in the United States in 1910 were Russians.

These discrepancies do not prove, however, that even in such cases the groups of petitioners studied are not representative of the foreign-born population, because racial distribution varies considerably from state to state. Fortunately, moreover, it is possible to compile from the census figures to show by country of origin the distribution of unnaturalized white males in the cities covered by the study, and these figures, also included in the last column of the table, show conclusively that the racial distribution in those cities is fairly typical. The percentages do not exactly agree, nor is that to be expected. In the first place, there is a difference of three years between the times represented respectively in the two sets of figures-years during which there was a heavy immigration. The figures given for the unnaturalized are not complete, inasmuch as for those cities the citizenship status of 9.8 per cent of the foreign-born males 21 years of age and over was not reported by the 1910 census. Furthermore, the petitions studied were not all from these nine cities, although nearly nine out of ten (86.8 per cent) of them

were. On the whole, the nativity distribution in those nine cities of the petitioners studied coincides remarkably with that of the unnaturalized but naturalizable males.

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RELATIVE CIVIC AND POLITICAL INTEREST"

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In Table X, page 211, the relative numbers and percentages are arranged in the order of magnitude, and this arrangement is illuminating in its display of what the Immigration Commission and the writers who have taken their cue therefrom have interpreted as 'civic and political interest" exhibited in relative desire for citizenship. With the exception of Italy the races from the sources of largest recent immigration show a higher proportion naturalized than the proportion they represented in the population. It can fairly be said that the desire to become citizens is as evident among these immigrants of the new races as among those of the earlier, entirely leaving out of consideration the length of residence which operates in favor of the older immigrants.

HOW DID THESE PETITIONERS FARE?

How did these applicants for citizenship fare? However much they may have desired citizenship, these of the "new immigration" and the "old"-did they get it? Did they pass the examinations? And as regards the reasons for denial of those who were rejected, how did the "recent" races account for themselves in respect of those matters which really go to the questions of moral and intellectual fitness?

Well, to begin with, the percentage of all denials (3,033) among these more than 26,000 petitioners was 11.5-almost exactly that (11.2) of the whole United States during the entire period of eleven years, 1908

18, as shown by the reports of the Commissioner of Naturalization. Here appears a compilation analyzing all the denials during the period 1908-18.

TABLE XVII

COMPARISON OF CAUSES OF DENIAL FOR THE YEARS 1908-18 AND 1913-19 FROM COMMISSIONER OF NATURALIZATION REPORTS, AND DENIALS OF 26,284 PETITIONERS STUDIED

A study of the figures covering the reasons for denial of the 3,033 among the petitions of 1913-14 here analyzed illuminated special aspects of this matter, showing, as it does, how large a proportion of the denials are for reasons of a purely technical character, or because the petitioners abandoned their pursuit of citizenship after filing the final petition.

The following table lists the races represented by forty or more petitions, in the order of percentage of

TABLE XVIII

RACIAL DISTRIBUTION OF 26,284 PETITIONERS DENIED, 1913-14, AND THE PER CENT OF THE DENIALS FOR THE SIX PRINCIPAL CAUSES

1 Denied because declaration of intention was more than seven years old.

denials, and shows the percentages attributable to the six principal reasons, respectively: "want of prosecution," "incompetent witnesses," "declaration invalid," "ignorance," "immoral character," and "oldlaw declaration-held to be invalid.”

In this table there are 14 countries listed whose per cent of denials exceeds that for all countries. Of these only four supply the "new" immigration. And of the seven showing a lower than 11.5 per cent denials, five constitute the "new" immigration. This would point to greater success on the part of the new races in attaining their naturalization papers. The qualifying fact here, as elsewhere, is that more than twice as many petitioners belong to the "new" races as to the "old."

The two causes of denial showing the largest per cents for the country as a whole and for most countries are "want of prosecution" and the invalidity of their "oldlaw" declaration. That so large a proportion of immigrants have taken the trouble to take almost the last steps toward citizenship and then fail by default is symptomatic of waste somewhere along the line. This condition seems to prevail among both the "old" and "new" peoples.

For some of the less mechanical causes of denial, let us segregate and arrange the countries in order of percentages. The following table shows denials for "immoral character."

The average percentage of denials for the whole United States for the period 1908-18 on the ground of "immoral character" was 4.0 per cent. With the exception of Turkey in Europe, not one of the "newer' races came up to this average in the year 1913-14, so far as may be judged by this analysis of the court