Speech #600128516

It is not an infliction upon the applicant. It may be in great cities where they have the federal courts. but for the applicants in the remote districts. it is a convenience and a saving of expense. because. for instance. it would cost him more than that to go from my town 60 miles and pay his expenses in order to get to a federal court. where they could naturalize him. Even in the larger cities. for want of sufficient clerical force. the applicant has to return sometimes three or four times. Now I will read a little further: The clerk of any court collecting such fees is hereby authorized to retain onehalf of the fees collected by him in such naturalization proceeding. the remaining onehalf of the naturalization fees in each case collected by such clerks. respectively. shall be accounted for in their quarterly accounts. which they are hereby required to render the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization. and paid over to such bureau within thirty days from the close of each quarter in each and every fiscal year. and the moneys so received shall be paid over to the disbursing clerk of the Department of Commerce and Labor. who shall thereupon deposit them in the Treasury of the United States. rendering an account therefor quarterly to the Auditor for the State and other Departments. and the said disbursing clerk shall be held responsible under his bond for said fees so received. The Chief of the Bureau of Naturalization has stated to me time and again that he was receiving complaints from clerks of the smaller districts where they have no federal courts continuously. and unless some relief is granted. you people who shed so many tears for the alien. instead of benefiting him by keeping down the fees. are going to impose upon him additional hardships by forcing him to go to cities remote from where he lives in order to become naturalized. and in the large cities force him often to lose much time and expense in accomplishing his desire.