Chapter XVIII: Section 2169: (not a | | | | | | (2)

True, the form of an inquiry as to character and fitness was maintained; but the fact is substantially, that not only was full citizenship conferred upon every foreign-born soldier who desired it, but appreciable moral pressure, to say the least, was exerted to induce many to accept who cared nothing about it or perhaps did not want it, as well as upon large numbers who had but scant understanding of what it was all about. A few definitely refused to be naturalized, for reasons variously stated and interpreted; a few could not get the required indorsement of their officers (who in absence of others were accepted as witnesses); on the whole, however, it may be said that the mass of those admitted under the “military naturalization” procedure knew well enough what was happening, welcomed it gladly, and were proud of the new status thus suddenly conferred upon them. There is no purpose here to criticize or demur to what was done; but it should be clearly understood that it went far to overturn and nullify all the elaborate procedure of hypercritical precaution, so carefully constructed by the Naturalization Service during twelve years, to the end of straining out of the raw material of adopted citizenry every gnat of alien disqualification.

ALL SAFEGUARDS ABANDONED

In the previous year, 1917-18, even though the war was already in full blast, of 12,182 petitions denied more than two-thirds (8,422) were denied for the strictly technical reason of “incompetent witnesses,” “declaration invalid,” and “want of prosecution,” and only 1,720 for “immoral character” and “ignorance.” In the last year before the outbreak of the war (the fiscal year ending June 30, 1914), of 118,572 petitions disposed of, 13,133 were denied, most of them (8,986) for these three reasons; only 1,735 for reasons going definitely to the question of character and personal fitness embodied in “immoral character” and “ignorance.” These figures are cited only to emphasize the fact that up to the moment of the installation of the system of military naturalization--and even after that time outside of that system--the policy of meticulous vigilance was maintained. In the six or seven weeks between the enactment of May 9th and the end of the fiscal June 30, 63,993 soldiers of foreign birth were scooped into citizenship complete for every purpose. One year later, June 30, 1919, the total number of these military naturalizations had reached 128,335. The total number of petitions granted in the entire period 1908-18, even including the military naturalizations up to July 1, 1918, had been only 848,777.

Under the provisions now in view, aliens generally, who were in the army, navy, marine corps, or United States merchant marine, who had made declarations of intention, could be naturalized without proof of five years’ residence in the United States, if it could be shown that such residence could not be established; aliens in the military service during the war could petition for naturalization without previous declaration or proof of residence, and the machinery of naturalization, hitherto enlisted in the cause of delay, was now devoted to every possible expedition. Hearings were as nearly immediate as possible. Aliens who had been accepted previously into the military or naval service on condition of becoming citizens were required to prove only three years’ residence. Honorable discharges from previous service were accepted as evidence of both residence and satisfactory character when supported by the evidence of two witnesses, and where such persons were actually in the service there was complete waiver of the requirement of certificates of arrival, as well as of the usual ninety days’ posting and the statutory interval of thirty days before an election.

The proceeding might be held in the most convenient court. Persons, other than enemy aliens, who had erroneously believed themselves to be citizens, who had lived in the United States for at least five years preceding July 1, 1914, could be naturalized without declaration of intention. And the payment of any fees was excused in applicants in the military service, except in those states where the clerk of court is required to turn into the state treasury his half of the receipts; in those states only that half needed to be paid.

ALL RACE RESTRICTIONS REMOVED

Furthermore, the effect of the law was such as to remove the racial restrictions, so far as soldiers were concerned. A number of Japanese and Chinese aliens were admitted to citizenship under the military naturalization law. A dispatch to the Associated Press from Honolulu, dated February 14, 1919, cited Judge Horace Vaughan, of the United States District Court for Hawaii, as having “already granted naturalization to 184 Japanese who entered the service,” and as holding that they were entitled to citizenship under the law. Indeed, the law does say, repeatedly, “_any_ alien.”

It was provided, too, that any American citizen, native or foreign-born, who, as would have been the case under previously existing law, had lost or might be deemed to have lost his citizenship by enlistment and oath of allegiance to another sovereignty in the military service of “any country at war with a country with which the United States is now at war” might fully and forthwith restore his American citizenship simply by taking before any United States consul, or any court having authority to confer citizenship, the oath of allegiance to the United States.

In a word, the Act of May 9, 1918, overturned everything the Bureau of Naturalization and the courts had been contending for and making into law at great expense of time, money, and devoted labor. The bars were not simply let down; they were obliterated.

ORDINARY NATURALIZATION DISRUPTED

“The soldier naturalization work completely disrupted,” says Commissioner Campbell, “the other naturalization work that arose in the courts under the general provisions of the naturalization law, almost the entire force of naturalization examiners being necessary for the task,” ... “even though their removal from their stations resulted in embarrassment to courts, court officials, and thousands of candidates for naturalization under the general provisions of the law.”

It is impossible at this time to say, or even to estimate with any degree of confidence, how many of the aliens, thus hurriedly naturalized, actually saw the battle lines in Europe, or even endured the perils by sea involved in transport to the other side. A large number of them never got farther from home than the army camp to which they were first sent. No statistics on this subject have as yet been collated, or perhaps ever will be. It is the impression of the Naturalization Service, doubtless justified by the fact, that the majority of the foreign-born soldiers thus naturalized at the camps actually did get overseas, even though the armistice prevented their ever further imperiling their lives for the country and flag to which they had thus twice sworn allegiance. The main reason for the haste was, as the Commissioner says, to finish the naturalization of the alien members of units in time for embarkation. The courts engaged in this work at the large encampments, and particularly at the points of rendezvous for embarkation, worked overtime. Eight courts were used at Newport News alone. Every effort was bent to catch the men before they went overseas; in many cases aliens thrown into casual units were quickly naturalized for the special purpose of permitting them to catch up with their own organizations.

“Enemy aliens,” as a rule, were handled separately. In one “job,” 855 Serbs and Rumanians from Transylvania, which was then a part of Austria-Hungary, were turned in a trice into full-fledged American citizens.

Many got away without being naturalized, but made up for it when they came home again, not a few with wound stripes to reinforce their title to the new privilege. There were naturalizations even in the hospitals, where men in beds raised their right hands to take the oath of allegiance. Little doubt about _their_ knowing what they were doing.

On the other hand, undoubtedly there were many who did not at all understand. At one of the large hearings at one of the far Western camps surreptitiously brought their certificates of naturalization to two women investigators for one of the Government War organizations, and wanted to know what they meant.

“Would you be so good as to tell us what these papers are?” they said. “We got some papers before, and had to go to court as witnesses. We had a great deal of trouble. We would like to know if these papers will get us into more trouble.”

STATISTICS OF ALIEN REGISTRATION

The total registration under the operation of the Selective Service Act, during the whole period, June 5, 1917-September 12, 1918, according to the report of the Provost Marshal General,[128] was 23,908,576. Of these registrants--roughly speaking, one-fifth of the total population of the United States--20,031,493 were citizens; 3,877,083 were aliens. Of the citizens, 1,336,967 (6.67 per cent) were foreign-born and naturalized. Of the aliens, about one in three (1,270,184--32.76 per cent) had declared intention to seek citizenship. More than two and one-half millions (2,606,901--67.24 per cent) were aliens out-and-out, still owing full allegiance to other sovereignties, and of nationality, so far as the war was concerned, divided as follows:

TABLE XXX

ALLEGIANCE OF ALIENS REGISTERED UNDER THE SELECTIVE SERVICE ACT{1}

===========================================================
| NUMBER | PER CENT
-------------------------------+--------------+------------
Total registration | 3,877,083 | 100.00
Ages 21-31 | 1,703,006 | ....
Ages 18-20, 32-45 | 2,174,077 | ....
| |
Cobelligerents (the Allies) | 2,228,980 | 57.49
Ages 21-31 | 1,021,063 | ....
Ages 18-20, 32-45 | 1,207,917 | ....
| |
Neutrals | 636,601 | 16.42
Ages 21-31 | 249,034 | ....
Ages 18-20, 32-45 | 387,567 | ....
| |
Enemy and allied enemy | 1,011,502 | 26.09
Ages 21-31 | 432,909 | ....
Ages 18-20, 32-45 | 578,593 | ....
===========================================================

[note 1: _Second Report of the Provost Marshal General to the
Secretary of War_, on the Selective Service System to December 20,
1918, p. 90, Table 23.]

We have no figures to show how many of those aliens and declarants registered in the registration of September 12, 1918, were below the age of 21 years; therefore it is not possible to say just what proportion were available for naturalization under the special provisions of the law of May 9th. The previous registration had applied altogether to men above the age of 21, and of course all of those in the subsequently registered class 32-45 were naturalizable so far as age was concerned.

The classification of registrants under the registration of September 12, 1918, never was completed, being stopped by the armistice of November 11th; therefore the availability for service of the citizens and aliens has been reported only for those between the ages of 21 and 31. Of the 1,703,006 aliens and declarants of this age classification, a little less than one in three (538,363--31.61 per cent) had declared intention. The fitness of these for service is shown by the following analysis:

TABLE XXXI

FITNESS FOR SERVICE OF ALIEN REGISTRANTS{1}

===========================================================
| NUMBER | PER CENT
-------------------------------+--------------+------------
Placed in Class I | 414,389 | 24.33
Declarants | 160,594 | 29.64
Nondeclarants | 253,795 | 21.79
| |
Placed in deferred classes | 1,288,617 | 75.67
Declarants | 377,769 | 71.36
Nondeclarants | 910,848 | 78.21
===========================================================

[note 1: _Second Report of the Provost Marshal General to the
Secretary of War_, on the Operations of the Selective Service
System to December 20, 1918, p. 91, table 25.]

ALIENS AND MILITARY SERVICE

As the Provost Marshal General says, in discussing the intricate legal situation which the legislation of May 9, 1918, was calculated in part to meet, “it was realized that, from the point of view of international law, not all aliens stood on the same footing in this country.” He analyzed the differences as follows:[129]

(a) An alien occupying a diplomatic post enjoys immunity from
military service, as well as from many other burdens, for he
is the representative of a foreign country, present by consent
and invitation, and is protected by a number of privileges not
enjoyed by a private citizen. Diplomatic privileges do not extend
to consuls, as they are not diplomatic officers, but merely
representatives for commercial purposes.

(b) A transitory alien friend cannot be compelled to serve other
than mere police duty, for otherwise commercial intercourse would
be interrupted and the person might be required to aid a country in
which he is a stranger.

(c) An alien friend who is domiciled, that is to say, who is a
permanent resident, can be compelled to serve, for otherwise he
would receive the benefits of the government without sharing the
burdens. An alien’s declaration of intention to become a citizen,
though it does not make him a citizen, is conclusive evidence that
he is properly to be considered a permanent resident.

(d) An alien enemy cannot be forced to serve, for otherwise he
would be compelled to fight against his own country.

(e) A national of a country with which the United States has a
treaty containing appropriate provisions may enjoy exemption from
compulsory military service. Some of our treaties exempt all of the
citizens of each of the high contracting parties. Others exempt
only certain designated classes.

The situation described in paragraph (c) was the one under force of which Congress, in the Selective Service Act of May 18, 1917, based the draft “upon liability to military service of all male citizens, or male persons, not alien enemies, who have declared their intention to become citizens,” between the designated ages. As the Provost Marshal General pointed out in his first report, heretofore quoted, the exemption of alien nondeclarants would have created great injustice in the enforcement of the local quotas in states and regions disparate in the ratios of native born and aliens; therefore, in legislation of May and June, 1918, Congress changed the basis of apportionment to meet this inequity, and incidentally so that thereafter it became incumbent upon the alien to bear the burden of proof of his right to exemption.

It is fair to assume, as the Provost Marshal General said,[130]

that it was impossible for the local and district boards or any
other governmental agencies independently to ascertain whether or
not a registrant was a nondeclarant alien, because such an inquiry
would involve a search of the records of the naturalization courts,
Federal and state, throughout the entire country[131] to ascertain
a negative--_viz._, whether a person had not declared his intention
(“an obviously impossible and absurd inquiry,” as one judge has
said).... The regulations and instructions required local and
district boards to give every alien ... a full and fair hearing, or
a full and fair opportunity to be heard, on any claim of exemption
that he might have.... Local boards were authorized to inquire into
the status of any registrant where they had reason to believe that
the particular registrant was a nondeclarant alien and had failed
through ignorance to claim exemption, and, if such were found to be
the case, the boards were required to exempt him.

Legal advisory boards were established to aid registrants--the courts generally upheld the right of out-and-out aliens to exemption--moreover, in regions where there were large numbers of aliens, the local draft boards often, if not usually, included men of foreign race or descent as well as men interested in and closely familiar with the foreign-born population, who took every pains to inform the ignorant and protect them in their rights. On the whole, it is highly probable that the spirit of the law in this regard was substantially observed throughout the country. The Naturalization Bureau--virtually helpless as it was to prove or disprove claims of alleged nondeclarants--had referred to it more than 50,000 cases.

FOREIGN BORN EAGER TO SERVE

The Provost Marshal General declares that the mass of foreign-born residents were themselves permeated by the spirit of readiness to waive their exemptions and voluntarily accepted the call to military service.[132]

Thousands of nondeclarant aliens of cobelligerent and even of
neutral origin welcomed the opportunity to take up arms against
the arch enemy of all; the records of correspondence in this
office contain eloquent testimony to this spirit. The figures of
alien classification indicate this, and the local boards report
explicitly that the number of nondeclarant aliens waiving their
exemption was very large (191,491).

There came eventually into being a “Foreign Legion,” made up principally of nondeclarant aliens, a large proportion of whom, because of birth within the territorial sovereignty of Austria-Hungary, were technically enemy aliens. Their spirit is well exemplified in a letter written by one such “enemy alien” at a time before the army had awakened to the fact that these men, whatever the technicalities of the prevailing political geography might seem to show, were Allies in spirit, with better cause to fight their titular sovereign than any other sort of American; the author was a Jugo-Slav, who had been offered exemption because of his “Austrian” nationality:

... I received the civil clothes sent from Cleveland, and at the
same time a thought occurred to me which never left me--that I
should feel ashamed to leave the army and go back to civil life.
Indeed, how I love my young, healthy life, how I long to be free
again, going my own ways without hearing the command of another.
But alas, am I justified to think of my own liberty and happy life,
when the moment is here that calls on every young man to give
liberty to others? Away, you selfish thoughts. On into the battle:
I am a Slovene myself, and my fathers and grandfathers never had an
opportunity to fight for liberty. Indeed, they fought for hundreds
of years under the command of Hapsburgs to continue slavery and
tyranny.... Good by, my beloved young life; I shall not return to
my happy home until the day has come when I can proudly see the
liberated Jugoslavia in a liberated world. Then I shall return,
conscious that I have done my bit. If I shall perish--I am afraid I
will--let it be so; the only thing I am sorry about is that I don’t
possess hundreds of lives, giving them all for liberty.

Dear brother, the suit of clothes you sent me I sold to-day to a
man for thirty dollars, who thinks less than I do.

The provisions for immediate naturalization turned the “Foreign Legion” into a legion of citizens, and took out of the category of aliens thousands of men of like spirit. As for those of neutral nationality who withdrew their declarations of intention in accordance with the provision made by Congress, and lapsed into purely alien status, the following tabulation from the second report of the Provost Marshal General, although only partially complete, is illuminating:[133]

TABLE XXXII

NEUTRALS WITHDRAWING FROM THE SERVICE

==============================================================
Total neutral alien declarants registered June 5, |
1917-Sept. 11, 1918 | 77,644
Placed in deferred class (66.62 per cent) | 51,726
Placed in Class I | 25,918
Exempted on withdrawal of declaration | 818
==============================================================

In this group only three per cent availed themselves of the privilege.

Of the significance and extent of the response to the opportunity for immediate naturalization, the Provost Marshal General says:[134]

One test of the spirit of loyalty among aliens may be found in the
number of naturalizations applied for and granted to registrants
since the United States entered the war. Such action inspires a
sentiment of admiration for their readiness to enter the war in
the service of their adopted country. The Bureau of Naturalization
reports that the total number of naturalizations in the United
States between October 1, 1917, and September 30, 1918, was
179,816; and that since the passage of the Act of May 8, 1918, the
number of naturalizations accomplished in camp, up to November
30, 1918, was 155,246. And there were only 414,389 aliens placed
in Class I up to September 11, 1918 (including declarants and
nondeclarants), and as a large portion of these must have gone
overseas prior to June, 1918, it is plain that the opportunity for
naturalization found a hearty response from the great majority of
aliens to whom it was offered.

AUSTRIANS WHO WERE NOT FOR AUSTRIA

Concerning the technically enemy aliens of the Austro-Hungarian allegiance, the same report shows that when Austria-Hungary became an enemy nation in December, 1917, it affected the status of some 239,000 registrants, and that thereupon the camps were found to contain “thousands of Austro-Hungarian declarants, not deferred on ordinary grounds, and also a large number (probably about 9,000) of Austro-Hungarian nondeclarants who had waived their alienage exemption.”[135]

“A great majority of these men,” says the Provost Marshal General, “were of the oppressed races of Austria-Hungary, and therefore sympathetic with the cause of the Allies and ready to remain in camp.” As an evidence of this the report cites the fact that in one camp, regarded as typical in absence of complete returns called for by the Adjutant General of the army in October, 1918, as to the aliens who desired discharge or were suitable for discharge under the head of enemy aliens:[136]

Out of a total of 1,589 aliens in this camp in October, 1918,
only 289 asked for discharge when the opportunity was offered,
or less than 20 per cent. Of these aliens, 383 were technically
enemy aliens, virtually all being either of Austro-Hungarian or
of Turkish allegiance; and 139, or a few more than 36 per cent,
applied for discharge. Of the cobelligerent aliens, 1,006 in all,
and composed almost entirely of British, Italian, and Russian
subjects, only 24 applied for discharge, or a little more than
2 per cent. Of the neutral aliens, 200 in all, 84 applied for
discharge, or 42 per cent. These contrasts between the several
groups show just such cleavage as we might expect. The general
figures indicate how slight was the disposition of these alien
groups to withdraw from the opportunity of taking arms against the
world foe.

THERE WAS HUMAN WAR-TIME PSYCHOLOGY

It would have been less than human, in the hectic state of public feeling conditioning all the preparations for war, had there not been instances--perhaps very many instances--in which aliens were enlisted in spite or in ignorance of their right to exemption; in which they were virtually forced by local sentiment, displayed in various more or less illegal and outrageous ways, to join the army; but, on the whole, those who either actually or by default waived their exemption were willing soldiers, and their performances were quite equal in fidelity and courage to those of the native-born or naturalized citizens.

The Provost Marshal General is to some degree candid about this:[137]

That the boards occasionally allowed themselves the patriot’s
privilege of pleading with the man who had not fully reflected
on his duty is not to be doubted. An Italian was about to claim
exemption on account of alien citizenship.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” asked the chairman of the board.

“Why not?” was the inquiry.

“There are two reasons,” said the official. “One is the United
States, the other is Italy. Two flags call you to the colors. There
is a double reason for you.”

“I’ll go,” he said.

But that the boards should be disparaged for thus at times taking
on the attitude of a recruiting officer no one would maintain.
Here, as in all other incidents of the draft, the situation varied
somewhat in different localities; and without a doubt there were
rare and sporadic local instances of carelessness and of bias
which led to improper inductions.... These various instances of
induction of nondeclarant aliens, whether properly or improperly
made, led to a number of diplomatic protests on their behalf by
the representatives of foreign governments. The number of these
protests reaching this office from the Secretary of State was some
5,852 in all.

DIPLOMATIC REQUESTS FOR EXEMPTION

The list of these protests is interesting; it is arranged here in the order of the number of cases, but for a fair assessment of the sentiment value involved, one should take into consideration the war status, and the relative proportions, of the nationalities represented in the total registration. These statistics are not in all cases available; but so far as the report of the Provost Marshal General gives them, they are given in the last column:

TABLE XXXIII

DIPLOMATIC REQUESTS FOR DISCHARGE OF ALIENS, AND TOTAL REGISTRATION
OF ALIENS, BY COUNTRY OF BIRTH

=======================================================================
| NUMBER | NUMBER{2} | | NUMBER | NUMBER{2}
COBELLIG- | OF{1} | REGISTERED | NEUTRALS | OF{1} | REGISTERED
ERENTS |REQUESTS| | |REQUESTS|
--------------+--------+------------+-------------+--------+-----------
| | | | |
Russia | 1,433 | 808,503 |Switzerland | 995 | 21,888
Italy | 166 | 652,971 |Spain | 592 | 44,320
Greece | 119 | 88,831 |Norway | 404 | 62,656
Portugal | 65 | 62,434 |Denmark | 241 | 33,457
Cuba | 23 | .... |Sweden | 216 | 99,995
Great Britain | 22 | 467,468{3}|Mexico | 109 | 192,617
Japan | 13 | 56,697 |Netherlands | 85 | 27,190
Brazil | 12 | ....{4}|Persia | 61 | ....{4}
Belgium | 5 | 16,701 |Colombia | 7 | ....{4}
China | 5 | 23,599 |Argentina | 5 | ....{4}
Panama | 4 | ....{4}|Ecuador | 4 | ....{4}
France | 3 | 18,314 |Peru | 4 | ....{4}
Guatemala | 3 | ....{4}|Venezuela | 4 | ....{4}
Honduras | 2 | ....{4}|Chile | 2 | ....{4}
Siam | 2 | ....{4}|Santo Domingo| 1 | ....{4}
--------------+--------+------------+-------------+--------+-----------
Total | 1,877 |2,228,980{5}| Total | 2,730 | 636,601{5}
=======================================================================

===========================================================
ENEMY AND | NUMBER OF | NUMBER
ALLIED-ENEMY | REQUESTS{1}| REGISTERED{2}
-------------------------------+------------+--------------
Turkey | 971 | 81,608
Bulgaria | 304 | 19,873
Austria | 62 | 751,212
Germany | 8 | 158,809
-------------------------------+------------+--------------
Total | 1,345 | 1,011,502{5}
-------------------------------+------------+--------------
Grand total | 5,852{6} | ....
===========================================================

[note 1: _Second Report of the Provost Marshal General_, 1918, p. 400.]

[note 2: _Ibid._, p. 399.]

[note 3: This total represents the registration from all the British
Empire.]

[note 4: Not separately listed.]

[note 5: Includes nationalities not listed in this table.]

[note 6: _Sic._ as per Reports.]

RECIPROCAL CONSCRIPTION AMONG COBELLIGERENTS

A large factor in the diplomatic interchanges arising out of induction or attempted induction of aliens into the military service was the situation regarding cobelligerents. It does not call for extended description here; suffice it to say that the policy of reciprocal conscription and of crediting registrants, whether citizens or aliens, with the fact of their enlistment under the flag of any of the Allied nations, largely relieved this situation, so far as the nondeclarant alien was concerned. A collateral development was the upgrowth of desire on the part of representatives of the oppressed races of Central Europe to organize armed forces under their own commanders, and to proceed more or less independently to the battle line. Of this the Provost Marshal General says:[138]

The situation thus presented ... was finally relieved in part by
two measures. In the first place, the War Department conceded that
aliens of the oppressed races, who had already enlisted in the
Polish foreign legion, should not be required to be discharged
and returned to the American draft; but that in future no such
enlistment should be sanctioned. In the second place, the Army
Appropriation Act authorized the organization of the Slavic
Legion ... into which could be enlisted aliens of the oppressed
races--Czecho-Slovak, Jugo-Slav, and Ruthenian (omitting Polish),
who were otherwise exempted under the draft.... Computations ...
give estimates for the number of males of military age who would
have been eligible for enlistment under this act ranging between
188,000 and 330,000.

OF GERMAN DESCENT, BUT LOYAL AMERICANS

The Provost Marshal General takes occasion to pay high tribute to the thousands of registrants of German stock who “loyally stood by the American flag,” notwithstanding the “natural distrust” at first attending them in public opinion, “and the notorious intrigues of the German government to secure their support.” The opportunity afforded to such of them as could satisfy the courts and the Naturalization Service of their loyalty, to become American citizens, was availed of by them in large numbers. It is regrettable that, as the Provost Marshal General says:[139]

Unfortunately, time has not sufficed to analyze the naturalization
papers and thus discover the variances between the different
nationalities in this demonstration of loyalty to their adoptive
country.

DESERTION, AMONG ALIENS AND CITIZENS

It has been asserted by ill-informed persons representing on the one hand those who attribute inherent deficiencies and evil tendencies to the immigrant as such, and on the other those who seem to think that the immigrant as such is somehow superior to the native-born American, either that the desertions from the army or evasions of military service were inordinately numerous on the part of foreign born as compared with the native born; or, _per contra_, that “the proportion of desertions among the native born is about twice as great as among the foreign born.”[140] In point of exact fact and essential justice, neither of these views is justified. The Provost Marshal General deals directly, and with broad justice, with this situation:[141]

Of the 474,861 deserters reported, the registration cards of
185,081 state that they are aliens. Of this number, 22,706 had
declared their intention to become citizens, and were, therefore,
subject to draft, while 129,268 had not declared such intention,
and were, therefore, on proper proof of alienage, entitled to
exemption. There were also 33,107 enemy aliens, who, of course,
would not have been accepted in any event.

There are two main reasons for the large proportion of alien
desertions. The first is that many aliens, knowing that under the
selective-service law (and also, for many countries, by treaty)
they were entitled to exemption, believed that, by stating on the
registration cards that they were aliens, they had performed their
full duty with respect to the draft; they ignored the regulations
which required them to submit proof of alienage. The second is
that many of them did not speak English, were ignorant of the
laws and customs of this country, did not know that they were
required to keep their local boards informed of their addresses,
and failed to realize their obligations to this country under the
selective-service law. And the difficulty experienced by the local
boards in reading and writing their names frequently caused the
mail notices addressed to these registrants to go astray.

Apart from the foregoing explanations, however, which would suffice
to show that such aliens did not desert in the ordinary sense,
but merely failed to come forward to claim their exemption, there
was undoubtedly a large exodus of aliens from some of the border
states, and those near to the seaboard, where the easiest course
for these ignorant and misguided persons seemed to lie in flight
beyond the national boundaries.

The figures upon which the Provost Marshal General thus comments are given by him in Table XXXIV.[142]

TABLE XXXIV

COMPARISON OF REPORTED DESERTIONS OF ALIEN AND CITIZEN REGISTRANTS

================================================================
DESERTIONS | NUMBER
--------------------------------------------------+-------------
Total alien and citizen registrants, June 5, 1917 |
to Sept. 11, 1918 | 10,679,814
Total desertions | 474,861
Total alien registrants | 1,703,006
Reported alien desertions | 185,081
Total citizen registrants | 8,976,808
Reported citizen desertions | 289,780
================================================================

It is clear from these figures, and regardless of the allowances made by the Provost Marshal General, as quoted above, that nearly 11 out of every 100 aliens registered, as against a little more than 3 out of every 100 citizens, who, in one way or another evaded or sought to evade the draft; also that it is simply not true that “the proportion of desertions among the native born was about twice as great as among the foreign born.” True, the citizen-deserter percentage of the whole number of registrants is 2.71, as against an alien-deserter percentage of 1.75 ... but there were _nearly six times as many citizen registrants as alien_. In order even to _equal_ the alien ratio, the citizen deserters would have had to be considerably more than three times as numerous as they were. But no such plausible excuses could have been made for them! There are no available figures to show how many of the citizens who thus evaded service were of foreign birth.

WAR’S TEST OF “THE MELTING-POT”

The essential quality of manhood in America was tested in all this business, and gave the lie direct alike to those Americans who were wont to sneer at the alien among us, and to the German autocracy which counted upon those of German descent in this country to prove disloyal to America. “The cosmopolitan composition of our population was never more strikingly disclosed,” says the Provost Marshal General, “than by the recent events of the World War. Then the melting pot stood in the fierce fires of the national emergency; and its contents, heated in the flames, either fused into the compact mass or floated off as dross.” And he goes on to say:[143]

The great and inspiring revelation here has been that men of
foreign and of native origin alike responded to the call to arms
with a patriotic devotion that confounded the cynical plans of
our archenemy, and surpassed our own highest expectations. No man
can peruse the muster roll of one of our camps, or the casualty
list from a battlefield in France, without realizing that America
has fulfilled one of its highest missions in breeding a spirit of
common loyalty among all those who have shared the blessings of
life on its free soil. No need to speculate how it has come about;
the great fact is demonstrated that America makes Americans.

It is no part of the province of this volume to multiply words about the way in which these adopted citizens of every racial blood gave account of themselves in the thousand ways of war service under their new-pledged flag. That is history, which, as General Crowder said, can be read broad upon the face of every list of those who fell--foreign and native born side by side, their intermingling blood poured forth for “America.” The diary of a German officer, found on the battlefield,[144] tells what the common enemy found:

Only a few of the troops are of pure American origin.... But these
semi-Americans fully feel themselves to be the true born sons of
their country.

AN OLD PRACTICE WITH A NEW SIGNIFICANCE

Who shall forecast the effect of this wholesale admission of aliens to full citizenship and potential political power in the United States? How many of these men were among those whom, in earlier proceedings, the rigorous precautions of the past had kept at arm’s length? They came up in courts far from their home jurisdiction; no longer was the esteem of neighbor a prerequisite; no longer was it necessary to have lived even one year in any particular vicinage--or, indeed, to have any residence at all! There can be no checking up, even now, to see whether even a criminal record should have debarred the applicant; the Bureau of Naturalization was more than 500,000 behind in the examination of naturalization certificates even before this flood of new ones was poured in upon its overworked force!

In the old days, before the establishment of the Naturalization Service, there was hurried admission of thousands of aliens, regardless of qualifications, within short periods, and it was deemed a dreadful menace to our institutions. Of course this was very different from every point of view; but was the difference sufficient to guarantee real assimilation into the spirit that we like to believe characterizes sound American citizenship?

WHAT SOME JUDGES THOUGHT OF IT

The questions addressed by the Americanization Study in the summer of 1919 to the naturalizing judges throughout the country included this question:

Do you believe that the admission of large numbers of aliens
under the Act of May 9, 1918, solely on the ground of military or
naval service, without the usual requirements of residence, etc.,
operated on the whole to the advantage of the United States?

The paucity and hesitation, even reluctance, of the replies are a striking evidence of the impossibility of answering the question. Of 356 judges who gave any attention at all to the question, 110 frankly declared themselves unable to express any opinion whatever. Thirteen were in grave doubt, inclining to the negative; 16 said only, “I hope so”; 108 replied flatly, “No.” The others (109) in various phrases expressed their affirmative. But many of these affirmatives were greatly qualified. Some thought the advantage applied only or chiefly to those soldiers who had volunteered; others believed that the mental and physical training and the psychological effect of imperiling his life for the flag would offset the evils involved in hasty admission of the otherwise unqualified individual. Many argued that, whatever the doubts about the wisdom of the policy, it was “only fair,” “it is their right,” “you cannot deny citizenship to a man whom you compel to fight for the country,” etc.

“I held up about 68 Germans and Austrians,” says one judge, whose vote was an emphatic “No”; “but the government at Washington advised taking them in--and they were.”

In a number of instances the judges declared that they went against their own judgment in admitting men whom they regarded as unfit--naturalizing them only upon the insistence of the representatives of the Naturalization Service. An eloquent illustration of the about-face in the policy of the Bureau!

“No, decidedly!” cried a Michigan judge. “It was a colossal blunder!”

“An impulsive act of Congress,” answers another; while an Iowa judge voices the opinion of many in saying:

Mere willingness to fight is not necessarily an indication of
either patriotism or fitness.

Among these judges were several worthy of note who officiated at the naturalization of very large numbers of soldiers. The striking fact is that these, almost without exception, were in various degrees enthusiastic in their expressions of belief that the policy was a good one. Some contented themselves with a mere “Yes” for answer. Among these was one who naturalized more than 10,000 men at one of the great camps of debarkation. Here are a few characteristic expressions from others:

“They gave the best evidence of loyalty.”

“It was the best thing to do under the circumstances.”

“I do not see how the government could do otherwise with men in the
service before allowing them to go overseas.”

“Yes. I have naturalized 400 and 500 men at a time, and seen their
enthusiasm for this country, which, in my judgment, was no sham.”

“My policy was to decide for the applicant wherever I could under
the facts.”

“I found in a majority of cases aliens in the armed service were as
enthusiastic as our own native-born sons.”

HERE WAS “ATTACHMENT TO OUR PRINCIPLES”!

The naturalization of an alien under our laws [says Commissioner
Campbell][145] may be compared justly to the “coming of age”
celebration of the heir of a great estate. It is the formal
recognition of an accomplished fact, the attainment of manhood with
all of its implications of the putting away of childish things
and the assumption of the obligations that mark the mature and
responsible personality.... The vital thing to bear in mind in
considering the statistics of naturalization is that these figures
represent human beings, and human beings in that most important
stage of human progress stepping upward from the infantile stage of
blind and unquestioning obedience, backed by external compulsion,
to the plane of political maturity which not alone has a part
in the making of laws, but, what is more important, must obey
the laws from an inward and self-imposed sense of obligation....
Genuine citizenship is primarily a state of inward feeling, and
only secondarily one of knowledge. It is not impossible for one to
be a good citizen who is ignorant of the forms of our government
or who even has no very clear mental conception of the basic
principles upon which it is founded.

The completion of the nationalizing process is marked for every essential spiritual purpose, as Professor Weatherly said,[146] “when the things of the spirit are held in common and cherished by all,” or, as Renan expresses it, when the people “have a common glory,” by reason of having “done great things together.”

* * * * *

How may a man more convincingly show his “attachment to the principles of the Constitution,” his benevolence toward “the good order and happiness” of his country, than by imperiling his life for it? “Greater love hath no man than this.”

A candidate for naturalization, in ordinary conditions exhibiting knowledge of the legal relationship between the Federal and state governments, knowing the name of the President of the United States, the date of the battle of Bunker Hill, the cause of Shay’s Rebellion, and when the yellow fever came to Boston, may have no more idea of what the flag of the United States means and might mean than he has of the mental processes of the ichthyosaurus; his very plenitude of intellectual accomplishment may indeed make him only the greater menace to the essential welfare of his community.

But when he becomes a citizen in the very act and fact of going forth under that flag to lay down his life for what it stands for--what better thing can he do, what better evidence can he offer, of his “inward and self-imposed sense of obligation?” Nay, more, how better may he show that he is enlisting in the service of his new country something that was kindred in the old? There was a ringing challenge to all our smug self-sufficiency in what the Bohemians bore on their banner in that Cleveland parade:

AMERICANS, DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED:
WE HAVE BEEN FIGHTING THESE TYRANTS
FOR THREE HUNDRED YEARS!

Many of us looked upon these men as somehow sneaking into a privilege, overlooking the fact that they were bringing us a gift!

ASSIMILATING THE ENEMIES OF TYRANNY

We are hardly yet awake to the wonder of what happened, to the magnitude of the work of national assimilation that took place all in a moment. We were very stupid about it. One of the most important officers of our army, charged with great responsibility in the preparations for the war, naïvely confessed some time after the United States had entered upon it, that he did not know who were the Czecho-Slovaks, or from what part of the world they came! And it was only with the greatest difficulty that the army authorities were made to realize that most of the races making up that political nightmare known as Austria-Hungary desired nothing so much as the chance to help overthrow the unspeakable tyranny from which they had fled, against which they and their fathers had “been fighting for three hundred years.” Better than the Allies themselves they understood the cause of the Allies, yet to the American army authorities they were only “enemy aliens”!

It was in keeping with our statistical customs, not only in the Naturalization and Immigration Bureaus, but in the very census itself, to class an Austrian as an Austrian, knowing little and caring less about the world of difference between a Magyar and a Czech, between a Croat and a Slovak--though all were “Austrians” to the superficial eye of the census enumerator--and the General Staff of the United States army, which was going to war against “Austria” with absurdly, unpardonably vague, notions as to what an “Austrian” might be! It required a vigorous campaign of education before there could emerge even a fair, working intelligence in this regard; but emerge it finally did, and the anti-Austrian “Austrians” at last got their chance to go forth as American citizens under the Stars and Stripes to help give the _coup de grâce_ to the old oppressor of themselves, their fathers, and their fathers’ fathers.

EPISODES OF MILITARY NATURALIZATION

In one army division, at Fort Riley, Kansas, thirty nationalities were represented by the candidates for citizenship, including not only the pseudo-Austrians, but Rumania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Armenia, Syria, Guatemala, Honduras, the Azores, and most of the rest of the civilized world. At Fort Riley was made the record of “forty-three citizens in forty minutes.” At Camp Devens, Massachusetts, more than 2,000 men were admitted to citizenship and took the oath of allegiance in one operation, lined up on the parade-ground by nationalities. A New York State court naturalized soldiers of fifty-six racial varieties on the first day of the visiting court.

In a session of court held in a Tennessee encampment the court crier opened the ceremonies with his, “Oyez! Oyez!” and a procession of dignitaries, military and civil, marched in under the flags for the ceremonial--a solemn invocation, an address by a venerable judge, and the crash of “The Star-spangled Banner.” Then the general made a speech, in which he welcomed each of those who a little while before had been “strangers and foreigners,” and dubbed him “one of _our_ men.”

“Fellow citizens, comrades!” he struck home with booming voice in his peroration, “we will lash ourselves together with hoops of steel, and go forth to avenge the outrages that have been committed. There is no power on earth that can keep us from our purpose!”

Some soldier started the song, “Keep the Home Fires Burning,” and the aliens of a little while before, many of them hardly knowing the English word, joined in, with lusty emphasis upon and new significance in the refrain,

“_Till the boys come home!_”

Down in Alabama, a government official at a similar session apostrophized Liberty in strident Polish, followed by a second lieutenant in similar vein, but in Italian; and even those of other tongues, including English, who could not understand the words, knew well enough or felt in their hearts the drift of it.

As has been said, some got across without naturalization, and one aftermath of that was an extraordinary scene in the Walter Reid Hospital at Washington. The opportunity returned to the wounded there, in dramatic guise. An orderly walked through the wards summoning all men who desired to become citizens to gather at once in the library, to be taken before the judge.

There was a scrambling from cots, men with missing limbs, lads with heavily bandaged faces, soldiers in every manner of hospital négligé. The thump of crutches was heard along the halls--more than a hundred answered the first call. When the officer in charge looked over the battered and motley assembly, saw the lame and helpless being assisted into motor vehicles for the journey to court, he gave an order designed to produce more formal dress for another occasion, but did not dampen the ardor of that going! And before the judge they held up their hands, or stumps of hands, and swore their fealty to the country to which already they had given better proof.

Out at Camp Zachary Taylor, near Louisville, Kentucky, is a great ash tree, now come to be known as “Naturalization Tree.” Its arms, in benediction, have been spread out over many hundreds of new citizens as they took the oath of allegiance and marched away upon their first American duty. That tree is for them a monument, a memorial of a Great Occasion.

In one of the Eastern camps three officers, helping the Naturalization Service in this business, looked up at one another in the spell of a common thought:

“Here we are, Major Schmidt, Captain Pulaski, and Lieutenant Martinelli”--such might have been their names; they were of races as various--“all of foreign birth, helping to make Americans!”

’Twas a pregnant thought, and it typified what was going on all over the country, in preparation for the “doing of great things together,” for the new nation’s acquisition of “a common glory in the past ... a will to do still greater things in the future.”

In the varied procession that passed on this errand before just one court came a Gentleman from Verona and a Merchant of Venice, as the judge himself styled them; a Filipino who had served two years in the Philippine constabulary; an Abyssinian count, born in Somaliland and claiming kinship to King Menelik and to speak twenty-seven languages. Then there was Dugga Ram, a Hindu, whom the judge made an exception to the rule against Asiatics; and the man from Russian Poland, who denied having any sovereign at all; the Armenian who said he would refuse citizenship if to get it he had to acknowledge himself a Turkish subject; the technically alien color sergeant who had served for years in the regular army and had been wounded in the Philippines.

An old soldier of the Civil War, still an alien in the eyes of the law, a Kentuckian seventy-six years old with a wife and six children, all born on this soil, and Americans beyond cavil, took advantage of the opportunity to file his tattered old army discharge of 1865 in lieu of “first papers.” There will be, till he dies, two Great Dates in that old fellow’s life--1861, when, like the aliens of this war, he pledged his life to maintain the United States, and 1918, when the United States formally accepted him into full recorded fealty and fellowship. Yet the _Fact_ had been a human reality for nearly sixty years!

There were not a few officers who had been commissioned in oversight of the fact that their alienage legally should have barred them. The defect was swiftly removed. And there were English and Irish and Scotch and Welsh--and others, too--who had been here so many years and were so saturated with all that is essential of Americanism that their naturalization seemed a formality almost absurdly superfluous.

To all of these at various times and under diverse conditions--sometimes in glaring noonday inbreaks of dreary camp routine; sometimes at night in the last hours before the grim setting forth for France--great words were spoken to solemnize and signalize the transaction. Perhaps the best of all was that tense sentence of General Bell:

_I beg of you not to take this oath of allegiance to the United
States unless it is in your heart to do so._

Let it not be forgotten that nobody compelled these men to utilize this privilege. The law stipulated only that they “_may_ petition.” Their alienage would have exempted them from service and the peril that awaited them.

At first, the certificates of naturalization were delivered; but later, as the flood of applicants became overwhelming and the complications involved hurried departure overseas, before the papers were ready, and other considerations, the delivery was delayed, and the men were advised to arrange to have their precious “last papers” sent rather to their homes, or even retained in Washington until after the war. This was a deep disappointment to the new citizens; and at Camp Upton, for one example, a judge, who knew men by heart, caused the drawing up of a mimeographed temporary certificate, properly embellished with “SS,” “Be it known,” and all the rest of the imposing verbiage, with the soldier’s name suitably prominent in mid-page.

THOSE WHO WENT WITHOUT CITIZENSHIP

Many alien soldiers who were entitled to naturalization went overseas without having been naturalized; a large number before the permission had been made available. Many others, still in the cantonments, had not yet been reached by the process. The situation with regard to such of these as, on their discharge, took steps to get the citizenship to which they were entitled is suggested, even if not completely set forth, by the former chief examiner of one of the large districts, quoted by the Commissioner of Naturalization in his report for 1919:[147]

After the armistice a different situation arose. Many thousands of
soldiers have been, are being, and for some time will be discharged
who did not have the opportunity to be naturalized while in the
service. The work in connection with their naturalization ...
devolves solely upon the force of this service; ... the army is
no longer in a position to render aid.... The demands upon the
field-naturalization offices are so great that both civilian and
soldier naturalization have had to suffer. Because of inability to
furnish a sufficient allotment for additional clerical assistants
in the office of the clerk of one of the largest naturalization
courts in the United States, the clerk is able to care for but a
small proportion of the soldier applicants as promptly as should
be, and, under his present allowance, will be able to naturalize
only approximately a half dozen daily. In another office of the
clerk of a large naturalization court, civilians and honorably
discharged soldiers are being turned away without receiving
attention; and this is equally true in the field naturalization
offices. So large a number of soldier applicants are coming into
the field offices that in some it has become necessary to take
the names and addresses of the applicants as they call and send
notices to them at a future date when they can hope to have their
applications attended to. Notices have also been inserted in the
newspapers notifying them of the time they may appear, in order
to save the time and expense of useless trips to the offices
of examiners. It has also been necessary to close the doors of
naturalization offices when the number of applicants admitted to
offices constituted as many as could be accommodated. This has
resulted in turning away from 100 to 150 soldiers and civilians
daily in several cities. Because of insufficiency of appropriation,
it has become necessary in one field office to limit the taking of
civilian petitions for naturalization to only two days of the week
in order to take care of the applications of honorably discharged
soldiers.