Speech #680191732

I can not quite see the logic of my colleague in that regard. These peopleare passing upon more applications than they ever have before. and this has been the biggest year in the history of naturalization in New York City. That also is a matter of record. stated by the Commissioner of Immigration before a Committee on Appropriations. As a matter of fact. under the old scheme it cost 55 cents a head to the Federal Government to naturalize an alien. Now it costs 20 cents a head under the scheme of having the Federal Government employ its own assistants to do the work and to do nothing else but that work. Something has been said about the condition of the supreme courts. the supreme courts. of course. being the State courts having jurisdiction of the matter in the same way the Federal courts have jurisdiction. I have a letter from a supremecourt justice sitting in Brooklyn. The assertion has been made in my hearing on more than one occasion that for certain reasons the State courts in Greater New York did not feel willing to do this naturalization work unless the county clerk had the appointing of the assistants. that they did not feel willing to do it if the Federal Government employed the assistants directly. and that in fact they had intentionally slowed up taking care of Paturalization cases. I am glad to say that the rumor was utterly unfounded and that the State courts have been proceeding just as they did before. doing the best they can with this problem. But. in any event. a letter was written to this justice asking him to indicate whether there was any truth in the suggestion that the supreme courts were unable to handle the work when It came to them through the assistants appointed by the Federal Government. He replied: I have neither heard nor do I know of any injustice to applicants for naturalization papers based upon the clain that the employees of the Bureau of Naturalization can not do the preliminary work properly and promptly. as stated in your communication. The statement. however. that Judges of the supreme court concur in such a claim surely can not refer to either statement or opinion by me. The further clahn that the judges will not pass these applicants along as expeditiously for the bureau employees as they will if the work is referred to the county clerk is also without foundation.