Speech #650321473

President. it will be seen from the foregoing that we already have here a very large numl)er of foreignborn women. Of course. nany of these are illiterate. many have had no educational advantages. Another fact that should not be overlooked is this: The tendency to enter into marital relations is marked among these immigrant races. Of course. we know little or nothing about the loyalty and the real allegiance of these women and less about their character. many of them may be anarchists. nihilists. polygamists. yet these women may. simply through the performance of a marriage ceremony. become citizens of the United States. Is it not essential that we should write in the Constitution a provision which will enable Congress to pass legislation that will restrict the menace arising from this condition? I do not think the amendment as drawn does this. and I believe that Congress should take the precaution to lay the foundation for protecting the country in this regard. After consultation with the legal advisers of the Immigration and Naturalization Bureaus I am firmly of the opinion that if the amendment should be adopted as drawn it will not be possible thereafter for Congress to remedy the situation described by me by passing legislation. In other words. the constitutional amendment. unless it shall be changed in some such manner as that I suggest. will prevent the passing of any legislation to place any restriction with regard to the exercise of the franchise upon foreign women who have become citizens by marriage. This citizenshipbymarriage provision was enacted by the Federal Congress when women could not vote and at a time when Congress had no thought of giving them. the vote. its object being to protect property and dower rights and to care for many legal and international questions. To accomplish these purposes Congress conferred the benefit of such citizenship upon such women. Now women are asking for the additional benefit of tie right of suffrage--too long denied thembut a changed situation is created. which Congress should carefully consider before pas.ing a constitutional amendment. The view has been expressed by some lawyers that Congress could afford protection to the elective franchise under this constitutional anendmelAt by hereafter passing statutes naturalizing foreign women married to citizens and worthy of the privilege of voting. Possibly a satute could be passed that hereafter would protect the electorate and compel married women who have become citizens by marriage to be naturalized in a court proceeding before they vote. but I do not believe it. To hold that it can is tantamount to holding that the Congress can by statute compel a woman who has already been naturalized by marriage and who has by that process of naturalization become as full a citizen as though born here. to go through another process of naturalization. the cotut process. before she will be allowed to vote. notwithstanding a provision in the Consitition prohibiting the United States or the several States from denying or abridging on account of sex the right of a citizen to vote. No law will or can be passed hereafter in that regard that will protect the electorate against the unworthy or unqualified women who are given this right under this constitutional amendment unless you lay the foundation in the amendnient itself by the use of words that will confer upon Congress the power to do so. Perhaps it might be thought. that the second section of the article of the amendment proposed in the resolution. providing that the Congress shall have power by appropriate legislation to enforce the provisions of the article. would lay a sufficient foundation for subsequent legislation dealing with the subject I am discussing.