Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1756-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more
Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Newspaper Page Text
Nm* $pti^^ PARTV. EIGHT PAGES. SUNDAY. AUGUST 13, 1016. PART V. EIGHT PAGES. ?'-ABS'LU'LY 'NENTIRELY RENOUNCE 'NABJURE-" Hyphenated Americans Might Not Re So Half-Hearted in Their Americanism if Ameriea Were a Little More Whole-Hearted in Welcoming Them to Citizenship?Not Even a Flag in the Naturalization Court A WTTNESS. NOT LONG ago the government decided to admit some Ameri? can Indians to citizenship. In? stead of being wards of the nation, liv? ing by sufferance on a government reser - vation, these picked Indians were to be given title to their lands and were to be made voters and taxpayers. The problem of naturalization was a bit delicate. It ifl difficult to know just how to go about "naturalizing" a man whose ancestors were robbed by your anccstors of the land you purpose to give him and tax him for. The simplest way would have been to give the Indians a paper, or something, and let it go at that. But our present Secretary of the Interiur happen** to be Franklin K. Lane, and Mr. Lane is an extraordinary being ?a public oriicial with an imagination. What be did was to write a special reremony and ritual for the occasion, and then travel out to the reservation to conduct the ceremony in person. Here it is: Th< Secretary stands before one of the caiididates. NJo?eph T. Cook, what was your Ind? ian name?" "Tunkansapa," answers the Indian. "Tunkansapa. I hand you a bow and arrow. Take this bow and shoot the ar row." The Indian does so. "Tunkansapa, you have shot your last arrow. That means that you are no longer to live the life of an Indian. You are from this day forward to live the life of the white man. But you may keep that arrow. It will be to you a symbol of your noble race and of the pride you may feel that you come from the first of all Americans." The Secretary now addresses Tunkan? sapa by his white name: "Joseph T. Cook, take in your hands this plough." Cook does so. "This act means that you have chosen to live the life of the white man. The white man lives by work. From the earth we must all got our living, and the earth will not yield unless man pours upon it the sweat of his brow. "Joseph T. Cook, I give you a purse. It will always say to you that the monev you gain must be wisely kept. The wise man saves his money, so that when the sun does not smile and the grass does not grow he will not starve." Mr. Lane now takes up the American hg. He and the Indian hold it together. 1 give into your hands the flag of your country. This is the only flag you ever will have. lt is the flag of free men. the flag of a hundred million free men and women, of whom you are now one. That flag has a request to make of you Joseph T. Cook, that you repeat these words." Cook then repeats the following after Mr. Lane: "Forasmuch as the President has said that I am worthy to be a citizen of the United States, I now promise this flag that I will give my hands, my head, and *9 heart to the doing of all that will make me a true American citizen." The Secretary then takes up a badge uPon which is the American eagle. with JJw national colors, and, pinning it upon -ndian'r* breast, speaks aa follows: "And now, beneath this flag, I place upon your breast the emblem of citizen ship. Wear this badge always, and may the eagle that is on it never see you do aught of which the flag will not be proud." I wonder if you are thinking what 1 thought when I read that ritual and that pledge. It seemed to me that here was a man who knew how to make Ameriea real and vital to a new citizen, who knew well how to make the ceremony of nat uralization the unforgettable moment that it should be. And I thought: If an officer of this government takes these pains to welcome a new citizen who was born here, how mueh more eager the government must be to greet the new citizens who have come to us from for? eign countries. What is that ceremony like? So, one Tuesday morning, I went to the second floor of the Federal Building, at the lower end of City Hall Park, to see our newly naturalized citizens of for? eign birth take the oath of allegiance to the United States of Ameriea. Let me describe what I saw: I saw a large, ugly room with a high ceiling?a courtroom, itfl yellow paint ed walls hung with oil portraits of men in judicial robes. At one end of the room was a railed-in space. Behind the rail, at a table, sat a kindly faced man wearing horn-rimmed glasses. Behind him rose the judge's bench. Here sat a man in blaek robes, with a stout, soothing-look ing court attendant standing beside him. Around the sides of the room and across the other end were rows of benches. Here sat Ihe applicants for citi zenship, with their friends and witness? es. I-ooking at these people I began to realize why ours is like no other nation on earth, and why, on the other hand, it is a little like every other nation nn earth. For here sat Italians, Frenchmcn, Germans, Irishmen, Poles, Swedes, Rus? sian Jews, German Jews, negroes, Eng lishmen?men and women from every corner of the civilized world.gathered to? gether to deelare themselves Americans. On the whole, a modestly, even shabbily dressed crowd, and a serious crowd. It was a significant moment for these peo? ple. It was not so serious to'the people in charge. Not that they were flippant; they were just bored. As I came in. they were administering the oath of al? legiance to one Samuel Kessler, a young Russian Jew. "Hold up your right hand," said the Bv DEEMS TAYLOR "HOLD IT YOUR RIGHT HAND." man in hom glasses. "Do you her. by de? elare on oath that you absolutely and en tirely renounee and abjure all 'llegianee, mumble, mumble, fort. power or princi pality, mumble, mumble, mumble?Pat riek Gallogher!" Samuel Kesslei* looked a bit bewil dered. He probably wondered what P_tt rick Gallegher had to do with his be.om ing a citizen of ihe United States. Ile may be wondering yet; for, as he did not move promptly, the baili'F touched him on the arm and waved him toward a door. Samuel Kessler had become a cil Izen. After filling in a paper upstairs ho would be frc3 to vote, and to pay taxi's, and do jury duty. His great mo? ment had come and gone. Fifty years from now ho can tell his grandchildren of the proud day when he stood up be? fore a man who said: "Do you hereby decUre on oath?mumble, mumble? Tatrick Gallagher!" Patrick (iallegher, as you have guessed, was not part of the oath of al legiance. Ho was simply the next can? didate, After him came Thomas Carro', a Ol-tS IS LIKE NO OTHER NATION AND A LITTLE LIKE EVERY NATION. negro. He had with him two wit? nesses, white men. "Hold up your right hands," said the man in hom glasses. Up went threo right arms. Down came Thomas Car rol's, pulled down by the bailiff. In fa^t. one of the bailiff's chief jobs seemed to be that of standing behind applicants and witnesses in order to pull their _______ up or down at the proper times. The man in hom glasses spoke again. 1 ? Doyousolemnlyswearthatthetestimony subscribedbyyouistruesohelpmeGodThe observed. The witnesses nodded. The official turned to Thomas Carrol. Up went Thomas Carrol's right hand, hoisted by the bailiff. "Do you hereby 'clarenoath 'tyou abs' lu'ly 'nentirely renounce 'nabjure? mumble, mumble, mumble?Virginia Marozzi!" Out went Thomas Carrol, citizen and up came Virginia Marozzi with her two witnesses. After her came Jacques Val lon, a Frenchman; Giuseppe Spolino, an Italian, and Carl Gustav Erickson, a young Swede. "William .Morris Ullman!" called the man in horn rimmed glasses. A young (.erman Jew came forward with his three witnesses. They were sworn in, and then the official prepared to admin ister the oath of allegiance to William Ullman. "Do you hereby deelare 'noath that you absorotely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance?what? Oh, no. That was the sixteenth, I think? to all foreign powers and principalities, mumble-mumble" I didn't quite re.ilize, at first, what had happened. Then I knew. An offi? cer of a Federal court had stopped half way through administering the oath of allegiance to the United States of Amer? iea in order to answer a question put to him by the bailiff. Confound it, I'm not blaming the man! I don't blame any of the court officials. They must do their work as it is laid out for them. They must do it hurriedly, for there is mueh of it, and they have not sufficient time in which to do it right. No wonder they are bored. So would you be, if you had to natural ize fifty persons in one scorching Au? gust forenoon. Their government doesn't care; why should they? I say their government doesn't care. In that room there was not one symbol that might suggest the United States of THE BAILIFF. America. There was not even an Amer? ican flag. One thing, though, the gov? ernment did do. It set its prospective citizens a singularly bad example in the way of obedience to law. This was a Federal District Court, and, as such, was naturally without the jurisdiction of local ordinances. So the United States government calmly violated a stringent law of New York State. lt kept a water cooler in a public place j without providing individual drinking cups. There was one tumbler, bounti fully decorated with thumb-prints. I was thirsty, but I did not drink out of that tumbler. I had see#n some of the people who had used it'. I try to be democratic, but I could not use that tumbler. In the lives of all of us there are two supreme crises?two events predestined and inevitable: the day we are born and the day we die. These new citizens had chosen to add a third great moment, not inevitable, perhaps, but deeply signifi cant. For what is naturalization but a voluntary rebirth, the renunciation of an old life and the choosing cf a new? In that moment a man says: "Though I was born in another country I am not of that country. The things for which it stands are not the things that I desire most. And so I choose this as my na? tive land; here is freedom; here are my ideals!" It is as though a man should choose for himself a new mother. How many men make that choice lightly? Not many, I think. What of yourself? Suppose you found that the United States no longer stood for the ideals that meant everything to you; suppose you decided to renounce alle giance to this country and become the citizen of another. Would you come to that decision without thought. and with? out regrets? Do you think that such a decision costs a man nothing? These men and women who take our oath of allegiance are doing what we naturally consider a fine and commend able thing. It is the highest compli ment they could pay us. But do not forget that to thousand -: of men and women in Europe they are committing an act that is very like t reason. And these new citizens know that. They are not altogether happy as they take the oath. They are at the crossroads, They may have lost their love for the country they have left; but they do not love ours?yet. They approve of it, they admire it. It is for us to make them love it, to make them revere the flag that is its symbol. And what are we to give them ? Wfhat do we give them? Il this to be our wel come, the memory we would have them carry away of their first moment as Americans?this hurried gabbling of meaningless words, this scramble through a perfunctory ritual that lacks even the poor dignity of a grammar school commencement? The people we eall hyphenated Ameri? cans are in the wrong, of course. They have no business to become American citizens and renounce allegiance to an? other country if they do not intend to make that renunciation eomplete and permanent. But perhaps they would not be so half-hearted in their Amerieanisrn Continued on Page Tico. 1