Mr. President. on the 1st of January. 1914. the German Government promulgated a law or decree that a subject of the Gernan Empire might be naturalized in any other country and if lie filed a statement with tin official of the German Government 11e could retain his allegiance to the German Empire. That is. he could become a citizen of the United States by our process of naturalizatiol and yet remain a German subject. It was one of those farsighted things that Germany is apt to do. It was also one of those. I think. villainous things that she Is apt to do. for this simple reason : No man could possiblly take naturalization In the United States and retain his allegiance to the German Emperor withiut committing perjury of the grossest kind. Tie oath which a foreignborn citizen takes is ian extremely strong oath. It nolt only renounces all other allegiance. but it especially renounces allegiance to the soverelgl of the country from which the allen comes. and this was a deliberate attempt to allow Germans to become naturalized in this country while they remained subjects of the German Empire. and held their allegiance to the Kaiser. Mr. President. I think that isentirely wrong. I do not think we ought to permit men to be naturalized where they have the opportunity to commit tlis perjury nd attempt this (lual citizenship. No doubt there may be cases where they desire naturalization imnestly. and do not file the certificate with the ofi1cial. but we Iave no means whatever of knowing thatnone whatever. It would be impossible to find out. The German could file a certificate in Germany before le left that country. He could file it with tie consul here. We have no access to tleir records. find a 11il in this country who gives himself out am parades as a naturalized citizen. and who all the time is a German. is a dangerous citizen. and ought not to be admitted. I see no way of getting at it except by a general provision of this kind. It is quite true that at this moment Germans are alien enemiies. and can not be naturalized. but it is just as well to prepare agaiust the future.
Identified stereotypes
Germans are portrayed as being inherently disloyal and willing to commit perjury to maintain dual citizenship.