matters displayed by these scions of the "old stock" has been almost invariably both ludicrous and lamentable. One of the questions which the Americanization Study asked of the naturalization judges was whether they would favor a standard intellectual test for both native and foreign born as a prerequisite for admission to the ballot box. Of 326 judges who answered the question a substantial majority (180) answered, "Yes," and 44 were not sure but that it would be a good thing. The best answer that the 102 who opposed the idea could make was valid enough-i.e., that the native born have had 21 years of residence in the atmosphere of American institutions, and may be assumed to have a general intellectual fitness. The other objections were legalistic; but they all came out to the same fact that fitness for citizenship and the ballot is a question of personal character and general attitude toward the public welfare.

At first glance it might seem simple enough to devise an oral or written examination by which to test the individual equipment of an applicant for citizenshipor a native-born citizen seeking access to the ballot box; actually it is impracticable. A set of questions would permit memorizing and recital by rote; to leave it as at present to the wit of the examiner or the judge means that no two applicants will be subjected to the same test. The naturalization judges say frankly that they cannot outline an examination, though they think that somebody might!

The Merchants' Association of New York appointed a committee on immigration and naturalization which gave considerable study to this subject, and came out where everybody else comes out:

In recommending that unnecessary obstructions and technical difficulties be eliminated from naturalization procedure your committee does not believe qualifications for citizenship

should be lowered. On the contrary, it believes they should be raised. In addition to present requirements concerning residence and moral character there should be an educational qualification requiring proficiency in English and reasonable familiarity with our history and government. Your committee will not attempt to enumerate the details of such requirement, but recommends that a suitable and well-defined educational standard for citizenship be fixed by statute.

Every applicant for citizenship—including the wives who now are swept in regardless of their own fitness by the naturalization of their husbands, or kept out by their rejection or failure to apply, should be considered in the light of his own personal character and record of behavior during the preliminary-period residence here. And character and behavior should be proved as any other material facts are proved-by preponderance of evidence. The present practice is quite otherwise. The whole procedure would be revolutionized if the applicant were required, or permitted, to produce a body of reasonable and competent evidence sufficient to convinec the court or its representative assigned to take the testimony. His neighbors, his employer, his pastor, the school-teacher, his fellow workmen, by word of mouth or affidavit-in short, all those who know what sort of person he (or she) has been during the five years of required residence-could readily satisfy the court as to the essential fact. The judges themselves in most cases would welcome this change. As it is now, the whole business is wound up with red tape, and thousands of persons have been excluded on the flimsiest technical grounds, simply because the evidence presented to the court must be, in the typical case, that of two witnesses, only two, and the same two throughout the whole proceeding. If anything can be found amiss with these or either of them, the application must be rejected.

It may even be argued that the presumptions and the benefit of doubts should be in favor of the applicant; that the burden of proof should lie upon those who oppose admission. During the whole period, 1908-18, in the whole United States only 14.3 per cent of all denials of petitions for naturalization were for reasons involving the personal fitness of the applicant-"ignorance" and "immoral character." This means that if every alien who applied for citizenship during those eleven years had been granted his certificate of naturalization without investigation or formality, the proportion of "ignorant" and "immoral" admitted would have been only 1.7 per cent-less than two in a hundred!

Whatever might have been the merits, real or imaginary, of the hairsplitting, meticulous policy which has governed the operations of our naturalization system since the Act of 1906 swept into ancient history the scandals of the previous years, that policy was effectively junked during the war. Since the beginning of the fiscal year, 1918-19, under the operation of the military naturalization plan, more aliens have been naturalized on the sole ground that they were in the war service practically without regard to race, declaration of intention, previous residence, educational or moral qualifications-than the ordinary naturalizations of any year since the beginning of the present system. These are direct admissions; we have no means of knowing how many "derivative" citizens these soldiers and sailors carried in with them, or have made by marriage to alien women since their naturalization.

This wholesale letting down of all the bars, however necessary and innocuous it may be deemed, at least has reduced to absurdity the policy of hand picking

1 See Appendix, Tables LIX and LX, Analysis of Denials, pp. 433-435.

and superscreening practiced in the ordinary cases. It furnishes a sound and logical starting point for a new, more reasonable, and more humane system, under which the alien may know with greater certainty what he must do and prove in order to establish his right to join us; a system which will give him a different impression of our common sense and efficiency, as well as of our attitude toward him not only as a petitioner for fellow citizenship with us, but as a fellow member of the human race.

NO LOWERING OF STANDARDS

There is no argument here for lowering the standards of admission. The applicant should be able to speak intelligibly the English language. This is not very important practically, because in the years which ordinarily elapse before the average alien files his petition he will have learned to speak English anyway. There is good ground for requiring also the ability to read English. The intelligent participation in the politics of this country requires some knowledge of current events and political argument; the voter should be able to read the English-language newspapers. We are unable to follow those who would enforce also a requirement of ability to write in English. Such ability probably will exist in a majority of cases, anyway. It is no sine qua non of either intelligence or character.

Theoretically, one might argue for a distinction to be made between the general rights and responsibilities of bare citizenship (such as diplomatic protection, the right to own property, exemption from taxes imposed upon aliens as such, etc.) and the specific right to vote. This, however, is almost completely academic, because, except for the limitations of age and residence for a period prior to election which apply alike to all citizens,

our Constitution-especially with the Nineteenth Amendment in force-assumes that citizenship includes the ballot. It is difficult to see any reason for requiring of the naturalized citizen, as a qualification for voting, educational attainments other than those required of the native born. It is equally difficult to see how even a native-born citizen can be an intelligent voter if he cannot speak and read the language in which the issues of elections are discussed. Our own statistics of illiteracy, in states where the proportion of the foreign born in the population is negligible, call for educational measures having no exclusive reference to the foreign born.

There is a growing custom in the courts, properly urged by the Naturalization Bureau, of accepting, in lieu of any other educational test, a certificate of graduation or proficiency from teachers in public and other schools. The Naturalization Bureau now supplies the forms for such certificates. A majority of the judges who answered the questionnaire of the Americanization Study not only favored this practice, but declared that it was their own. A good many, however—a full third of those who expressed themselves on the subject -insisted upon their own right and duty to examine the petitioner themselves, or minimized the importance of the educational test altogether. It seems obvious,

however, that the certificate of properly accredited American schools should be accepted for this purpose. Whatever may be said in favor of having no educational test whatever, and of admitting a petitioner who has no such certificate, there seems no reason for not giving the petitioner the benefit of the extra credit implied in his having attained such a graduation.

The declaration of intention (to become a citizen) should be retained, notwithstanding the opinion of many persons, including some attentive and dis