Speech #530032133

Why. sir. in the gentlemans own State. the State of Massachusetts. some years ago it was so easy a matter to obtain naturalization and there were so many aliens seeking naturalization and so many abuses connected with the proceeding that the Legislature of that State enacted laws regulating the proceedings of the State courts in that respect so as to require identification and also proper proof that the applicant was the kind of a man who ought to be naturalized. That law caused the great bulk of applicants to abandon the State courts and seek the United States courts. It is in proof. as cited in the report. that in some cases the clerks of the court or perhaps the deputy clerks. in the absence of the judge. have taken aliens in droves of ten and conducted them with the witnesses and papers to the door of the court room where the officer would say: "Consider yourselves in the presence of the court." he would then admister the formal oath and issue the naturalization papers. although no judge was there and no court was open. One of your committees developed the fact that in one of the courts in the city of Brooklyn there existedwithout fault on the part of the judge. for he knew nothing about it as the matter was carried on through one of his subordinatesa sort of secret organization engaged in the business of making citizens for pay. having control of the seal of the court and the forms of certificates this organization would for $25 make any man a fullfledged American citizen three days after he had arrived in this country.