Americanization; Civics; Immigrants -- United States; Naturalization -- United States; Noncitizens -- United States
The Commissioner of Naturalization reported[153] at the end of the
year 1918-19, that, during the thirteen years since the enactment of
the law of 1906, the total number of certificates of naturalization
issued had been 1,079,459. If it be correct to assume that 60 or more
women are swept into citizenship with every 100 certificates, this
would mean that during those thirteen years something like 650,000
individuals, available as voters wherever woman suffrage prevails
(subject to the five-year-residence limitation in certain states),
have been automatically made citizens regardless of any fitness or
volition of their own. And this says nothing of the additional future
voters added through the automatic naturalization of children. In his
previous report Commissioner Campbell said:[154]
Since 1906 there have been 861,819 who have been admitted to
citizenship upon direct application, and an equal number of
wives and children have derived citizenship from the act of the
petitioner. Following this average through, and the average has
been higher down to and including the last fiscal year, it will be
seen that about 1,250,000 have had the title conferred upon them
without justifying the nation in any belief that its ability for
self-government has been increased thereby.
LARGELY AN IGNORANT VOTE
We are dealing now, however, chiefly with the question of the married
women, mothers and housewives, who are or now have been herded into
the mass of voting citizens without volition or substantial interest
or appreciation on their part. The children, particularly those under
sixteen, may be left to the process of the schools and their general
absorption into the life of the streets and the contacts of social
life which quickly teach them not only the English language, but
some sense of what it means to be American. In no appreciable degree
are the adult women subjected to this Americanizing process.
In the vast majority of cases, the potential vote thus added is an
uninformed and often ignorant vote. Its characteristics are well
summarized in a memorandum prepared by Miss Cornelia Marvin, State
Librarian of Oregon, in the course of which she says:
Women are left behind in intelligence by the fathers and children.
They do not learn English, they do not keep up with the other
members of their families who are constantly in touch with
Americans, and there is frequently the tragedy of the mother of
the family who cannot read English and cannot understand the
conversation in English which goes on about her. She is a “back
number,” and as such cannot be an effective citizen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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