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witnesses can not be procured to testify as to all such residence, it may be proved by the oral testimony of two such witnesses for each such place of residence, in addition to the affidavits required by this act to be included in the petition. At the hearing, residence within the United States but outside the county, and the other qualifications required by this subdivision during such residence shall be proved either by depositions made before a naturalization examiner or by the oral testimony of at least two such witnesses for each place of residence.

Mr. Griffin's bill proposes to amend that paragraph by adding at the end thereof the following new sentence:

Except that no person mentally, morally, and otherwise qualified shall be debarred from citizenship by reason of his or her religious views or philosophical opinions with respect to the lawfulness of war as a means of settling international disputes.

Mr. DICKSTEIN. Mr. Griffin is here now.

STATEMENT OF HON. ANTHONY J. GRIFFIN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Griffin, the committee is in session for the purpose of considering your bill, H. R. 3547. We are ready to hear you. How much time will you require?

Mr. GRIFFIN. We have 14 speakers, including myself.

The CHAIRMAN. I do not think we can spare the time to hear so many people.

Mr. GRIFFIN. It will depend altogether upon the courtesy and consideration of the committee. We will be glad to be guided entirely by your wishes in the matter.

The CHAIRMAN. The Chair has here [indicating] a list of letters and telegrams written to the committee. They are placed before the committee. Also, I have a package of telegrams and letters here [indicating] that are in opposition to the bill. A large number of these people want to be heard as witnesses. One hundred or more desire to be heard.

Mr. DICKSTEIN. I do not suppose we can dispose of these hearings to-day. We will have to run along as best we can and hear as many

as we can.

Mr. KERR. Let us limit the time for each side and let each side divide its time.

Mr. DICKSTEIN. I should like to see everybody given an opportunity to say what he has in mind.

Mr. Box. We have not the time to let everybody say all he wants

to say.

The CHAIRMAN. Suppose we run along till 12 o'clock and then see how we stand. Mr. Griffin, you will please proceed.

Mr. GRIFFIN. Mr. Chairman and my colleagues of this committee, Sir Philip Sidney wrote a little ode which runs like this:

Sometimes, when unknown folks surround you,

To whom you are unknown, 'tis fair to mention
Your claims to worth, that they may not confound you
With vulgar folks, but show you due attention.

While I am known to my colleagues of this committee for as long as I have been in the House, which is over 12 years, it is just possible that they have not dug deeper than the mere casual record

in the Congressional Directory. I know the positive attitude that this committee holds in the matter of Americanism, loyalty, devotion to the flag, and so forth, and I hope I may be excused for making a personal allusion to myself. I come down to the present generation from two strains, namely, Holland-Dutch on the maternal side and Irish on the paternal side. My mother's great grandfather fought in the American Revolution. I think with that background I can at least lay claim that I can not, in the very nature of things, lack anything of devotion and loyalty to my country. Let that be coupled also in your minds with the thought that I am far from being a pacifist. I served 12 years in the National Guard and in the United States Army. I was a captain during the Spanish-American War.

I emphasize these facts because there has been a great deal of misapprehension as to the purpose of H. R. 3547. Some have

said:

This bill proposes to give immunities and privileges to naturalized citizens that are not accorded to the native born.

That statement I deny.

This bill has nothing whatever to do with military service in time of war. Let that be understood plainly in the beginning. This bill simply has to do with a state of mind and with an interpretation of an act of Congress itself.

Read the bill carefully and note what it says. It simply provides that no person who is mentally, morally, and otherwise qualified, shall be debarred from citizenship by reason of his or her religious views or philosophical opinions with respect to the lawfulness of war as a means of settling international disputes.

The CHAIRMAN. I find on page 8 of naturalization regulations the third subdivision of section. That is the oath of allegiance. That says, speaking of the alien:

He shall, before he is admitted to citizenship, declare on oath in open court that he will support the Constitution of the United States, and that he absolutely and entirely renounces and abjures all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, and particularly by name to the prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of which he was before a citizen or a subject; that he will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and bear true faith and allegiance to the same.

Your bill provides that the fourth subdivision of section 4 of the act of June 29, 1906, shall be amended by adding those words. The fourth subdivision of section 4 of the act of June, 1906, as amended by the act of March 2, 1929, read as follows:

Fourth. No alien shall be admitted to citizenship unless (1) immediately preceding the date of his petition the alien has resided continuously within the United States for at least five years and within the county where the petitioner resided at the time of filing his petition for at least six months, (2) he has resided continuously within the United States from the date of his petition up to the time of his admission to citizenship, and (3) during all the periods referred to in this subdivision he has behaved as a person of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States. At the hearing of the petition, residence in the county where the petjtioner resides at the time of filing his petition, and the other qualifications

required by this subdivision during such residence, shall be proved by the oral testimony of at least two credible witnesses, citizens of the United States, in addition to the affidavits required by this act to be included in the petition. If the petitioner has resided in two or more places in such country and for this reason two witnesses can not be procured to testify as to all such residence, it may be proved by the oral testimony of two such witnesses for each such place of residence, in addition to the affidavits required by this act to be included in the petition. At the hearing, residence within the United States but outside the county, and the other qualifications required by this subdivision during such residence shall be proved either by depositions made before a naturalization examiner or by the oral testimony of at least two such witnesses for each place of residence.

It is your purpose to modify that?
Mr. GRIFFIN. No; to add to it.

The CHAIRMAN. What is your purpose?

Mr. GRIFFIN. That is what I am coming to. That is a good example of the misinterpretation of the intention of my bill. You know what the oath says.

The CHAIRMAN. Read it to us.

Mr. GRIFFIN. The oath reads:

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, and particularly to * * * of whom (which) I have heretofore been a subject (or citizen); that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. So help me God.

That oath is repeated in the questionnaire submitted by the naturalization examiners.

The CHAIRMAN. Are you certain that your amendment should not be proposed to the third subdivision to be found on pages 8 and 9 of naturalization regulations rather than to the fourth subdivision? Mr. GRIFFIN. No; it should not.

The CHAIRMAN. Your mind is clear on that?

Mr. GRIFFIN. Yes; the object of this amendment is to put the interpretation of Congress upon the meaning of the word" defend." The oath says not a word about fighting or cutting throats. There is no justification, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, for this unwarranted putting into the questionnaire of that heckling question you find numbered 24 on the questionnaire. That seems to be a later development in the Bureau of Naturalization. I believe that form was effective July 1, 1929.

Mr. DICKSTEIN. Perhaps it was by reason of custom.

Mr. GRIFFIN. I do not know why it was introduced. It is not called for by law. A large part of this procedure is left wholly in the hands of a bureau as to the form of questions that they shall put to prospective citizens and for years and years from the date of enactment of this statute by Congress the Bureau of Naturalization has questioned applicants for citizenship and never touched on the question as to what they would do or would not do in the event of a certain contingency to happen some time in the future. Nobody ever thought of the foolishness of asking aged men and women whether or not they would actually bear arms in time of war.

As a matter of fact, aged men and women have never been called upon to bear arms. We all know that there is an age limit for military service and we never call upon aged men and women to serve in the Army in time of war. This construction that is placed upon the term "defend " is entirely unjustifiable.

Mr. JENKINS. Do you not think, then, that your battle ought to be against the regulation rather than against the law? Your complaint is against the department for putting such a question in the questionnaire, rather than against the law.

Mr. GRIFFIN. That is precisely what I am trying to do and I want to emphasize this before this committee.

The CHAIRMAN. You are before the committee advocating your bill and you should hold yourself to a consideration of it.

Mr. GRIFFIN. That is how Congress speaks. How else may we speak except by putting in a definition of our meaning. We ought to tell the Bureau of Naturalization that it has no right to ask heckling, unnecessary questions of applicants.

Mr. DICKSTEIN. You want to put into law something that the Bureau of Naturalization would follow as an act of Congress. You want to define how an applicant shall subscribe to the oath of allegiance. You want to define what question constitutes adequate and proper proof.

Mr. GRIFFIN. Yes.

Mr. DICKSTEIN. Is there any intention to modify the oath found on page 8, as you read it?

Mr. GRIFFIN. Absolutely not. The oath is valid and proper and everybody should take that oath.

Mr. DICKSTEIN. Then your main objection is as to the rules and regulations covered by the questionnaire and which requires a man or woman to swear to something the law does not contemplate. Mr. GRIFFIN. Yes.

Mr. Box. Do I understand that you are trying to amend the regulation by a law or that you are trying to amend a law that is on the statute book?

Mr. GRIFFIN. I am now trying to amend a statute. What I am trying to do is to furnish the Bureau of Naturalization a guide so that it will not take these unwarranted liberties when drawing up the forms used in connection with naturalization. Look at this [indicating] form. Question 23 asks "Have you read the following oath?" Then follows the oath that is administered. That oath is prescribed by an act of Congress.

Mr. DICKSTEIN. I ask unanimous consent that Mr. Griffin may have the privilege of inserting the "Application for a certificate of arrival and preliminary form for petition for citizenship" from which he is reading.

The CHAIRMAN. He is about to read it.

Mr. GRIFFIN. I would like to have it put in the record.

The CHAIRMAN. Without objection, it will be made a part of the record.

[This form in use since July 1, 1929]

Form A-2214-Philadelphia

No

APPLICATION FOR A CERTIFICATE OF ARRIVAL AND PRELIMINARY FORM FOR PETITION FOR CITIZENSHIP

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Use Form 160 in issuing certificate of arrival on this application.

To the applicant: Do not write above this line. Read carefully and follow the instructions on last page hereof.

Take or mail this to District Director of Naturalization.

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I hereby apply for a certificate of arrival showing my lawful entry for permanent residence in the United States of America for filing with my petition for citizenship to the

Court at

(Name of court)

(City or town)

(State)

and herein

submit a statement of facts to be used as a basis for such petition. There are inclosed with this application, as required by law and the instructions herein, my declaration of intention (first paper), my original Immigrant Identification Card No. (see statement No. 10), two photographs of me each of which I have signed, and postal money order No. in the sum of $5, made payable to the order of the "Commissioner of Naturalization, Washington, D. C.," in payment for the certificate of my arrival. I arrived in the United States at

under the name of

vessel

(City or town)
on
(Month)

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(If otherwise than by vessel, show manner of arrival) Additional facts to aid in locating a record of my arrival: 1. I have

(If so) It was

used another name in this country than that given above. I used that name because_

2. The full name of the person shown on my steamship ticket was

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The place where I took the ship or train which landed me in the United States

was

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7. The ticket on which I came to this country was bought at..

(City)

8. (If arrival by ship) Name of steamship line was-

(Country)

first, second, or third cabin

(State which

I arrived as a passenger, stowaway, seaman, member of crew, or otherwise

(State which, giving particulars)

9. I traveled on (an immigration visa, a passport, or permit to reenter)

(State which)

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