2 5 o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tion. The order recited, as a reason for the revocation, the fact that the fees 

 had not been paid. 



In many instances I found that it was common knowledge that clerks of 

 courts had issued, in the aggregate, hundreds of certificates of citizenship to 

 aliens who never appeared in court, and afterwards forged the court records to 

 make it appear that they had been admitted in open court. 



Other clerks have furnished certificates blank as to names of aliens, but 

 bearing the seal of the court and official signatures to members of his political 

 organization, who have filled in the names of aliens, the clerk subsequently enter- 

 ing them in the court records as having been admitted in open court. 



Mr. Van Deusen in summing up the situation makes the following 

 statement and prediction : " These evils and frauds have existed for 

 years, exist to-day, and will continue to exist and multiply until radical 

 and stringent changes are made in the naturalization laws, and a strict 

 supervision of their administration imposed." 



It is unfair to charge to the alien the political corruption, and 

 cheapening of the rights of citizenship, resulting from this condition of 

 fraudulent or careless naturalization. The fault is in our laws, and to 

 an even greater extent in the lax administration of them. 



The attorney general, in his report for 1903, outlines a plan for 

 legislation which would undoubtedly prove effective in eradicating 

 these evils. He presents the following recommendations: 



1. The omission from the statutes as they now stand of the question of 

 intent and guilty knowledge where an offender has in his possession a fraudu- 

 lent certificate of naturalization unlawfully obtained in any manner whatever, 

 or where a fraudulent certificate so held and obtained is used for any purpose 

 whatever. Such a change would permit prosecutions for the possession of a 

 fraudulent certificate unlawfully obtained, or for the use of a fraudulent 

 certificate irrespective of the intent of the oath of the applicant and witness 

 on the certificate, which is to be regarded as presenting merely a question of 

 fact. 



2. That the law be amended so as to compel an alien at the time of 

 applying for citizenship to present from the appropriate immigration author- 

 ities a certificate showing his age and the date of his arrival and containing 

 also his physical description similar to that in a passport. This certificate 

 should form a part of the court records, like his application for citizenship. 



3. The petition and application and all certificates should be uniform 

 throughout the United States, and the final certificate of citizenship issued 

 by any court throughout the country should contain a physical description of 

 the applicant and holder on the back thereof, for the purpose of identification 

 and to avoid substitution. 



4. The certificates should be printed in Washington under government 

 direction, containing a watermark similar to United States obligations, and 

 the unlawful possession of or counterfeiting of such certificates should be 

 made an offense against the United States. The blank certificates should be 

 distributed to the various courts on requisition, and each one should be 

 properly numbered and recorded. 



5. The power of issuing certificates of naturalization should be with- 

 drawn by congress from the various state courts and should be restricted to 

 United States courts. 



