OCR Text |
Show oo BEFORE THE NATURALIZATION COURT. Two women of Scandinavian birth I called up the Standard this morning to plead against foreigners seeking naturalization papers being compelled to face a large body of spectators during dur-ing their examinations. "I intend to go through the test," said one of them, "but the presence of a large number of young people, with critical minds, would overwhelm me with embarrassment." The one big essential to citizenship is a love of American institutions, which carries with it honesty of pur- pose and a desire to do right. To determine to what extent this spirit of Americanism has been established In the mind and soul of an applicant for naturalization should bo the main point of the examination, and the repeating re-peating of American history, which is not much more than a memory test, should not overshadow the motive. The women who appealed to the Standard should face the ordeal, and openly acknowledge to the court their embarrassment and then proceed in their own way, even in their own tongue, if necessary, to explain the promptings which have caused them to seek to throw off allegiance to a foreign potentate and declare fealty to the United States. No examiner will fall to be impressed by this unbaring un-baring of the soul of a foreign man or woman earnestly desirous of becoming be-coming a citizen. |