Speech #750030068

February 5. 1917. Is not an arbitrary date chosen at random. It is the date which marked a definite change in the immigration policies of this country. It was then for the first time that our immigration laws imposed educational requirements upon aliens coming into the United States. Under the Immigration Act of February 5. 1917. aliens over the age of 16 who cannot read or write the English language. or some other language or dialect. are excluded. Since the enactment of this law no alien has been admitted to the United States who did not have at least a primary education. To allay the fears of those who may feel that by the passage of this amendment to our naturalization laws. our standards of citizenship would be lowered for all times. It is pointed out that the group of aliens who stand to benefit by this legislation is definite in number and is limited by three very important requirements: First. that they must be 50 years of age or over. second. that they must have come into the United States prior to February 5. 1917. and third. that they must have filed their declarations of intention to become American citizens prior to the passage of this amendment. The provision in this bill that an applicant from this limited group of aliens shall not be required to sign the petition or application for admission to citizenship in his own handwriting. is not a new one in our naturalization laws. The Naturalization Act of June 29. 1906. section 4. second paragraph. contained a similar provision which applied to persons who had filed their declarations of intention before the passage of that act. Congress at that time was confronted with the same situation which we are faced with today. i. e.. whether the right to citizenship should be further denied to aliens who had been welcomed with open arms and who had been permitted to enter the United States without as much as having to sign their names. Mr. Chairman. If the Fiftyninth Congress. in all its wisdom. saw fit to suspend certain educational requirements in our naturalization laws by the act of June 29. 1906. so as to admit to citizenship that group of aliens who had entered this country under the same conditions as the aliens included in my bill. H. R. 4634. let the Members of the Seventyfifth Congress likewise do justice to this present group of men and women who also entered the United States at a time when our immigration laws did not provide fqr any literacy test.