We have no standard definitions of the citizenship requirement as to what constitutes knowledge of English, of the constitution, of loyalty, or the meaning of the oath of allegiance. Some judges with a high sense of patriotic duty enforce one standard; others “pass them up”--and again America pays the price in its quality of citizenship and in the kind of service such men and women railroaded into citizenship will render when called upon. We have never considered a knowledge of the country, of its institutions and of Americanism as necessary for citizenship, either of native or foreign born. We rest our case upon a rather splendid series of assumptions. We assume that the school and home and job and town will do this work with never an inquiry by the Federal government as to how the task is being done. Were it not for the campaign for preparedness and the dangers we face we would still accept the public school Fourth of July oration as sufficient evidence of the interest and proficiency of the native-born son; we would still believe that the granting of papers to foreign-born men sealed their loyalty to America. We hardly yet realize the significance of the fact that no specific way of pledging allegiance is required from the men or women who come of age; even the child born here of foreign parents is not asked to make a choice between the two possible allegiances that may be dear to him. Little citizenship training is given in our schools, except in the form of diluted history or civil government, and the thousands of girls and boys that leave school at 14 years of age and go to work do not obtain even that. We assume that the child has absorbed American ideas and traditions. The feeble response to a preparedness call and our attempts at neutrality in thought have shown us how little of the national and how much of the local and selfishly “safe” attitude we as a nation have. What is our conception of citizenship? Does it mean that we, the people, are the possessors of life, liberty, happiness, and prosperity in America with no corresponding obligations? Does it mean that our obligations consist in paying taxes, being law abiding to the point of keeping out of court, and voting at some elections? We owe these obligations to any country in which we are guests. We still find ourselves, after generations of American citizens, debating whether we shall train our young men to defend America. We find the best life in the country not in government service, building a strong nation, but in business, building an individual fortune.