Speech #590098511

This proposition. Mr. Chairman. providing for the establishment of a central and national bureau having control of naturalization. is not a new proposition. It has been submitted to Congress by three Presidents of the United States. and I desire to call the attention of the committee to what these different Presidents have said. In his annual message of 1884 President Arthur said: It might be wise to provide for a central bureau of registry. wherein should be filed or concentrated transcripts of every record of naturalization in the several Federal and State courts. and to make provision also for the vacation or cancellation of such record In cases where fraud has been practiced upon the court by the applicant himself or where he had renounced or forfeited his acquired citizenship. President Cleveland said in his first annual message of 1885: I regard with favor the suggestion put forth by one of my predecessorsthat provision be made for a central bureau of record of the decrees of naturalization granted by the various courts throughout the United States now invested with that power. President Roosevelt In his message of 1904 said: The courts should be required to make returns to the Secretary of State at stated periods of all naturalizations conferred.