CITIZEN 



1391 



CITRON 



glance, guarantees its protection to person and 

 property and insures the enjoyment of certain 

 rights and privileges. The term is derived from 

 the Latin civis, meaning citizen, from which 

 comes also the word city. To the ancient 

 Greeks and Romans, however, citizen did not 

 signify a resident of a town, but a member of 

 a free, self-governing commonwealth, and it is 

 used in the same sense to-day in the American, 

 the Swiss and the French republics. In modern 

 monarchical nations, as Great Britain and Ger- 

 many, the relation of citizenship to the govern- 

 ment is usually expressed by the term subject, 

 and citizen is applied there to a local resident. 



In theory, a government not only guar- 

 antees its citizens security at home, but ex- 

 tends its protection to them while they are 

 absent in foreign lands. The security which an 

 alien enjoys in a foreign country indicates 

 the strength of his home government and the 

 prestige in which it is held by the other nations 

 of the world. This idea finds its counterpart 

 in the plea of Paul, the missionary, who, when 

 brought by the Jews before Claudius Lysias, 

 the chief captain of the Romans stationed at 

 Jerusalem, was saved from death because he 

 reminded his captors that he was a Roman 

 citizen (see Acts XXII, XXIII). 



A Citizen of the United States. According 

 to the Constitution, "All persons born or 

 naturalized in the United States, and subjects 

 thereof, are citizens of the United States, and 

 of the state wherein they reside." Women and' 

 boys and girls are citizens as well as men, and 

 Indians who have adopted the dress and cus- 

 toms of civilization and have abandoned tribal 

 relations are admitted to citizenship. This 

 privilege, however, is denied Chinese, Japanese, 

 Burmese, Porto Ricans and Hawaiians. 



Citizenship and the right to vote are not 

 identical, for suffrage is a privilege conferred 

 by the individual states, not by the Federal 

 government. Women in eleven states west of 

 the Mississippi River are voting citizens and 

 may cast their ballot for all elective officers, 

 including Presidential electors. Those in Illi- 

 nois may vote for nominees to all offices not 

 created by the state constitution, including 

 Presidential electors, and in nearly half the 

 states women may vote for school officials. 

 A foreigner who makes his home in any state 

 is an alien until he is naturalized (see NAT- 

 UBALIZATION), but in some states the filing of a 

 declaration of intention to become naturalized 

 gives the individual the rights o{ citizenship. 

 See WOMAN SUFFRAGE. 



A Citizen of Canada. Persons born in the 

 Dominion are Canadian citizens and British 

 subjects, and citizenship is likewise granted to 

 a person born out of the realm whose father 

 is a British subject either by birth or naturali- 

 zation. A person naturalized in Canada is a 

 British 'subject in every other portion of the 

 British Empire, and vice versa. Before nat- 

 uralization can be granted in Canada the appli- 

 cant must have resided in Canada for not less 

 than one year immediately preceding the appli- 

 cation, and must have resided either in Canada 

 'or in some other part of the king's dominions 

 for a period of four years within the eight 

 years before the application. Each of the 

 provinces regulates by law the granting of the 

 right to vote. B.M.W. 



CITRIC, sit'rik, ACID, an acid found in 

 many common fruits, such as gooseberries and 

 red currants, and especially abundant in the 

 citrus fruits lemons, oranges and limes from 

 which it takes its name. It is generally pre- 

 pared for commercial use from lemon juice. 

 It can also be made from glucose (which is 

 made from corn starch) by a special kind of 

 fermentation. When pure it is white and odor- 

 less, with a pleasant, sour taste. In combina- 

 tion with metals it forms crystalline salts, 

 known as citrates, which are used in medicine 

 as cooling drinks. Effervescent citrates of mag- 

 nesium, used as easily-taken and pleasing 

 laxatives, are mixtures which when dissolved 

 in water produce magnesium citrate by chem- 

 ical action. Carbonic-acid gas is formed as 

 another product of such action, and it is the 

 escaping bubbles of this gas which cause the 

 effervescence, or "fizzing." Sometimes the term 

 is applied erroneously to other effervescent, 

 laxative medicines. Crude citric acid is used 

 to prevent the formation of colors not wanted 

 in calico printing, and as a substitute for lemon 

 juice in making beverages. J.P.S. 



CIT'RON, a large, sour, lemonlike fruit, 

 valued chiefly for its thick, tender rind. When 

 preserved it is used in cakes and candies; when 

 fresh it yields two perfume oils. The juice 

 of the fruit is sometimes used with sugar, for 

 a drink like lemonade, or to flavor various 

 liquors. The citron tree, a native of India, 

 has been a favorite in Europe since the days 

 of the ancient Greeks, because of its handsome 

 fruit and violet-colored blossom. It is culti- 

 vated in California and Southern Florida to 

 a small extent, but cannot thrive well on 

 account of ' frosts. In the United States the 

 name is also given to a small, hard watermelon 



