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. TABLE XX PER CENT OF DENIALS DUE TO “IGNORANCE,” BY RACE ================================ Country of Birth Denials Per Cent -------------------------------- Total cases 7.2 Italy 14.2 Norway 8.3 Switzerland 8.0 Hungary 7.6 Rumania 7.4 Austria 7.2 Russia 6.2 Turkey in Asia 5.6 Germany 4.7 Sweden 3.8 Scotland 2.4 Ireland 1.8 England 1.7 ================================ 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 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. 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