Congress took note of the difficulty an alien might labor under if he were obliged to move about from state to state during the five years’ period, and provided that four years of the time, in the event of inability to bring witnesses who could swear to knowledge of the whole period, the applicant might prove residence, etc., _in other states_ by deposition. This helps a good deal, as far as it goes; but in any event the last year, the year of residence required to be within the state where the petition is filed, must be covered by “two witnesses”--_two, only two, and the same two_. Suppose the case (and there have been many such) of a Methodist minister, an Englishman if you please, who, during the five years preceding his petition, has been assigned to two or more pastorates within the same state at points more or less distant from each other. He could produce almost any desired array of witnesses to cover his residence in each of the several places, and affidavits galore; but he must not. There is virtually no chance at all of his being able to find two, only two, and the same two, who can testify to personal, neighborly knowledge of his residence in all places. What, then, of an average immigrant who has been obliged to shift about in search of employment, resident all through the year in the state, but never staying long enough in one place to establish intimate relations with possible witnesses under such restrictions? JUDGES DENOUNCE THE ABSURDITY The judges are all but unanimous in their denunciation of this system. The comment of a United States district judge in the Middle West represents the sentiments of most: I do not think it tends to raise the standard of citizenship or to do anyone any good to have the requirements such that, if a petitioner has lived in the state for the full five-year period, he must prove that entire residence and his good character and reputation during that entire period by the two petitioning witnesses. The two petitioning witnesses should have known him for at least a year, and be able to make a showing for at least the last year of the period. I know of nothing so sacred about a state line that this great difference should be made between the petitioner who moves here from another state and the petitioner who moves here from a distant part of the same state. A Michigan judge gives a striking example of the injustice of the discrimination: