Congress is charged by the Constitution with “establishing a uniform rule of naturalization.” It has never been established. It is the immediate duty of Congress to do so. We need a thorough overhauling of our Federal naturalization laws, and of local laws in regard to voting, holding land and property, earning a living, etc., from the standpoint of national development and defense, and from the standpoint of the future of our Americanism. We cannot do this without a thorough, impartial scientific study of the effect of the enforcement of these laws--not only as shown in official statistics and records in Washington, but in the local districts and among those naturalized. We need to know more of the cost and effectiveness of our naturalization process and the kind of citizens it gives us. We need to know about the granting of papers through the various courts and the influences at work for making good or bad citizens throughout the country. We need to know what our facilities are for educating aliens to become citizens, and more of the attitude of our newly naturalized citizens toward America. Having these matters in hand, we may then proceed to work out a citizenship policy and practice which will accord with the times in which we live and will be a national and international code which will make all native-born citizens doubly proud of their heritage and all foreign-born citizens proud to live or die for America, as the call may come. CHAPTER V THE POPULAR VOTE We are facing a national election in which the “vote of the people” will decide the future of America more certainly than at any election since the Civil War. One of the most vital questions before us this year is: Will the foreign-born vote tend to solidarity and be cast in racial interests, or will it be cast for America along broad lines of national policy? Will the 1500 foreign-language newspapers influence the foreign-born vote in favor of a national policy or will it attempt to influence it along racial lines? The returns of the next national election should have an important bearing upon our future immigration policy of admission. Should we find the vote tending to solidify along racial lines then we have an additional reason for insisting upon the development of an assimilation policy if we are to continue to admit aliens. The racial vote may prove to be a far more anti-American influence than the foreign colony. America cannot afford to have an Irish vote, a German-American vote, a Jewish vote, cast _en bloc_ for any measures or man, if Americanism as defined in the Declaration of Independence and Federal Constitution is to prevail.