TABLE XIX PER CENT OF DENIALS DUE TO "IMMORAL CHARACTER, Country of Birth Total cases.. Turkey in Europe... Denmark. Sweden.. Canada. Rumania. Hungary. England.. Germany. Russia.. Italy.. Austria. Ireland.. Denials 1.9 7.6 6.9 5.0 4.6 3.7 3.2 2.5 2.4 1.7 1.7 1.4 0.6 records of more than one in five of the petitions passed upon in that year. Austria, Hungary, Italy, Rumania, all showed a record materially better, and the figures generally show that cause to be negligible, anyway. In considering the statistics of denials on the ground of "ignorance," it is to be remembered that the examinations which disclose this "ignorance" do not go as a rule to the subject of illiteracy or general intelligence, but deal in the majority of cases with the understanding of the petitioner as to the form of government, and sometimes decidedly minute details of the history, of the United States. The average percentage of denials on the ground of "ignorance" in the whole United States during the eleven years 1908-18 was 10.3. The records of the petitions of every one of the "recent" races, except Italian, for the year 1913-14-if one may judge by this study of more than one-fifth of them-was far better than that average, though generally higher than that of the old races. TIME-INTERVALS IN NATURALIZATION Generally speaking, judging by the 26,284 petitions examined, each of which must show the date of arrival and declaration of intention, the immigrant is in this country in the average case anywhere from 5.4 to 12.7 years before he files his declaration of intention to seek citizenship. (See Table XXI.) The evidence on this point was strikingly uniform in all the courts save one. The lowest average shown was 5.4 years in Cincinnati; the highest average but two was 8.6 in the State Superior Court at Worcester, Massachusetts. The extreme exceptions were 9.4 years in the Superior Court for Middlesex County, at Middletown, Connecticut, and 12.7 years in the Androscoggin TABLE XXI THE AVERAGE TIME ELAPSING BETWEEN ARRIVAL AND DECLARATION OF INTENTION; BETWEEN DECLARATION AND PETITION, AND BETWEEN PETITION AND NATURALIZATION AS SHOWN BY 26,284 CERTIFICATES, 1913-14 Supreme Judicial Court at Auburn, Maine. The latter court in naturalization matters deals largely with French-Canadians; of all the 385 Canadian petitioners falling under this analysis, this one court passed upon 61.5 per cent. Having filed his declaration of intention after an average residence in this country shown in all courts as 6.8 years nearly two years more than the five years' minimum residence required for the completion of citizenship—our average immigrant waits more than five years longer before he files his final petition for naturalization-although under the law he need have waited only two. The range, however, was wide, between an average of 3.0 years in the Supreme Court of Androscoggin County, Auburn, Maine, and 11.1 years in the Circuit Court at Portland, Oregon. The whole average shown in all the courts studied was 5.1 years. These are very surprising figures for those who have been complaining that we have hurried aliens into citizenship. Once the applicant has his petition filed, the process becomes more expeditious. The figures collated for the year 1913-14 show an average interval between petition and certificate of naturalization of 4.9 months; the range is between 3.9 months in the United States District Court in Manhattan, and 12.7 months in the State Supreme Court at Elmira, New York. From the point of view of delay, three months must always be subtracted, since the law requires, in any event, an interval of at least ninety days after the petition is filed before it can be considered by the court. HOW DO THE RACIAL GROUPS COMPARE? What light do the petitions throw upon the question of the relative "civic and political interest" of the various racial groups, as shown by the interval that 'elapses between their attainment of the age of 21 years, or if they come here after they are 21, between their arrival and their filing of the final petition? TABLE XXII AVERAGE INTERVAL BEFORE FILING PETITION, AFTER ATTAINMENT OF TWENTY-ONE YEARS, FOR THOSE ARRIVING AT AGES OF ONE TO FOURTEEN, BY RACES We have three groups of statistics on this point: those petitioners arriving at the ages of 1 to 14, those at 15 to 20 years, and those 21 years and over. In the following |