Section 9. That every final hearing upon such petition shall be had in open court before a judge or judges thereof, and every final order which may be made upon such petition shall be under the hand of the court and entered in full upon a record kept for that purpose, and upon such final hearing of such petition the applicant and witnesses shall be examined under oath before the court and in the presence of the court. Attention needs to be drawn especially to the following section, which, however innocuous in appearance, has given rise to a vast deal of vexation and injustice, and has caused the exclusion from citizenship of a large number of persons otherwise perfectly qualified and desirable: Section 10. That in case the petitioner has not resided in the State, Territory, or the District of Columbia for a period of five years immediately preceding the filing of his petition he may establish by two witnesses, both in his petition and at the hearing, the time of his residence within the State, provided that it has been for more than one year, and the remaining portion of his five years’ residence within the United States required by law to be established may be proved by the depositions of two or more witnesses who are citizens of the United States, upon notice to the Bureau of Naturalization. It will become evident as we proceed that the interpretation which has been placed by the courts and the Naturalization Service upon the distinction between the phrases, “two witnesses,” “at least two witnesses,” and “two or more witnesses,” has in practice caused a palpable absurdity from the point of view of common sense, and inflicted crying hardships and wrongs from the point of view of bare justice. Upon the humanity and good sense of the court, interacting with the same on the part of the representatives of the government, has depended to a very great degree the sensible interpretation of these and other provisions of the law; but in general both are bound by its letter, and in many instances they have been forced to reject petitions which, on the sane merits of the case, should have been accepted. V THE LAW IN OPERATION Commissioner Campbell, in his annual report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1914, described in some detail the operations of the field service of his Bureau in the handling of the applicant for citizenship: