The clerk. upon examining the paper which he produced to- show that he was a citizen. found that it was a forged paper. forged throughoftt . that is. the seal of the court was a forgery. the signature of the clerk of the court was a forgery. and the printing upon the paper was a forgery. As a result of that we started an investigation to find out where these forged papers came from. and assistants were sent to us from the Department of Justice to carry on this work. We found that a set of men in the city of New York had a plant by which they were printing these certificates of naturalization. having a counterfeit seal of the court. and one man being employed to copy. as nearly as he could. the name of the clerk of the court. It is rather interestlag to know how and why these men made a plant of their own to supply these certificates of naturalization. We now have a charge pending against the clerk of the court for the southern district of New York for issuing improperly certificates of naturalization. He would. according to the evidence that we have. obtain a certificate bearing the proper seal of the court and the signature of the clerk. but with the name of the applicant not filled In. He would then dispose of that certificate. in blank. without the name of the applicant. The applicant would take it outside and would fill in the name of the party desiring it. and for doing this the clerk received a certain sum of money. After a while he began to increase his prices. so that these Italians who we found were carrying on this plant thought it would be cheaper to make naturalization certificates themselves. which they did. Now. in the city of New YorkI must speak of that. because our work has been therewe find this naturalization fraud in almost every particular that you can think of. Not only. as I say. have these papers in blank. that have the seal of the court and the signature of the clerk upon them. filled in. but papers already filled in are taken out. the name is erased from them. and they are sold to other Italians. I am speaking particularly of Italians. because our work has been directed in that line.
Identified stereotypes
Italians are forging naturalization papers.