thorities of the States and municipalities to undertake the preparation of alien residents within their respective school districts for American citizenship.

This, however, though the safe and sane method, does not quite keep pace with the newly awakened zeal of the popular mind. They desire the training, but they do not want to wait upon it. Everywhere, and especially among the great employers of industrial workers, there is displayed an eagerness for the speedy naturalization of alien employees. This is palpably a state of public opinion consequent upon the existence of a state of war, but its continuance is not dependent upon the existence of a state of war. It will probably last for years. It finds expression in the increased and steadily increasing efforts to secure American citizenship. To a limited extent it will be disclosed in the tables which follow. But there are no available figures to show how large it is, because the peace-time equipment as to the personnel in the offices of the clerks of courts is wholly inadequate to cope with the situation, and thousands have been in consequence turned away from the clerks' offices disappointed, and an unknown number, discouraged by the apparent inability of their friends to file naturalization papers, have been deterred from even making the effort. The obvious remedies for this deplorable situation lie within the power of the Congress alone.

WORK OF THE COURTS.

The subjoined table (No. 1) refers to the work of the courts under the general provisions of the law, exclusive of what has been done by them under the special act of May 9, 1918, in disposing of the military applications, which will be given in a subsequent table.

TABLE 1.-Statement showing number of certificates of naturalization granted and denied, fiscal years 1908 to 1919.

The total number of cases from civil life, disposed of by the courts, was 102,142, which exceeded the number of cases in 1918 by 2,504. When the business in military cases handled by the courts, which will be shown in a subsequent table, is considered it seems remarkable that the amount of civil cases determined should have been greater instead of less than during the preceding year, in which no military cases were presented until near the termination of 1918. That the excess was not much larger was due, as already indicated, exclusively

to the inadequate force of assistants to clerks of courts. It adds to the significance of the above figures, as evidence of the increased desire to become citizens, if we recall the fact that the nationals of the countries with which we were at war-the central European powers—were excluded from the applicants as "alien enemies."

The next table shows that for various reasons 12.84 per cent of the petitions heard (13,119) were dismissed. Of this number only 1,403 were rejected on the ground of personal unfitness-668 because of "immoral character " and 735 for" ignorance." If the investigations were at all adequate, it speaks volumes for the high standard of our alien population that out of a total of more than 100,000 people only 668 were found to be immoral.

The 735" ignorant " petitioners were insufficiently posted in regard to our form of government. The same comment may be made as to the high mental equipment as has been to the moral standard of alien residents. The other grounds of denial were such as related to noncompliance with some requirement of the law, of death of petitioner, of discovery that petitioner was already a citizen, and of lapses or withdrawal of petitions. The last mentioned were those who requested dismissal of their petitions, amounting to 383, and the curious fact is that 3,870 lost sufficient interest in prosecuting their petitions to attend court. The bureau is convinced that this table discloses that no adequate investigation is provided. So many denials for mere omissions by petitioners can not easily be accounted for otherwise. Out of a total of 13,119 denials only 21 were on account of color, under the provisions of section 2169 of the Revised Statutes, which forbid the naturalization of any alien who is not a free white person or an alien of African nativity or a person of African descent."

Total

Certificates denied and reasons therefor.

Unable

Certifi- peti- Per

Besides the petitions either granted or denied there were 44,687 continued for an opportunity to the petitioners to cure remedial defects, or nearly 2,000 less than the number of corresponding cases during the preceding year. The causes are shown in the annexed Table 3:

TABLE 3.-Continuances, by naturalization districts.

As suggestive of the result of the educational work, notice should be taken that there were 7,587 continuances, on account of ignorance of our form of government as compared with 10,661 during the year 1918, a decrease of 3,074, or nearly 29 per cent.

The following table gives a view of the disposal of cases in which cancellation proceedings were instituted because it appeared that the certificates of naturalization attacked had been either fraudulently or illegally procured; that is, that the petitioners had either purposely deceived the court as to some material fact or, on the other hand, the court had overlooked the fact that there had been a failure to comply with one or more of the conditions upon which the law extends the privilege of citizenship to an alien friend.