all to go to the Government; the other half to be sent to the bureau of naturalization and deposited in the usual manner in the Treasury. In recent years there have been, it is estimated, about 100,000 naturalizations conferred each year. The enormous increase in immigration does not encourage the belief that there will be a great falling off in this number in future years, although naturalization inay be made more difficult to obtain than it now is. Allowing the Government's revenue for each naturalization to be $3.50 (and it will be more), the revenue for the Government would be $350,000-three times as much, the Commission conjectures, as the cost of the Federal machinery necessary to supervise the law-more than enough to defray this expense if the naturalizations should decrease one-half.

VII.

Federal supervision.

In view of the language of the Constitution, "The Congress shall have power * to establish an uniform rule of naturalization," there can be no doubt of the right of Congress to enact a law providing for effective Federal control of naturalization. An alien who seeks naturalization seeks citizenship of the United States, and he may never acquire citizenship of any of the States. As the law now stands, however, it prescribes how a man may secure naturalization as a citizen of the United States, but provides no machinery to supervise the operations of the law.

In his annual message of 1884 President Arthur said:

It might be wise to provide for a central bureau of registry, wherein should be filed authenticated transcripts of every record of naturalization in the several Federal and State courts, and to make provision also for the vacation or cancellation of such record in cases where fraud had been practiced upon the court by the applicant himself or where he had renounced or forfeited his acquired citizenship.

President Cleveland said in his first annual message, of 1885:

I regard with favor the suggestion put forth by one of my predecessors, that provision be made for a central bureau of record of the decrees of naturalization granted by the various courts throughout the United States now invested with that power.

President Roosevelt said in his annual message of 1904:

The courts should be required to make returns to the Secretary of State at stated periods of all naturalizations conferred.

Until recently the several bills submitted to Congress to restrict naturalization have not made provision for national supervision. A step in that direction was, however, suggested in the bills reported to the House of Representatives March 14, 1892, by Mr. Oates, of Ala

• Mr. Van Deusen's report of June 14, 1905, Appendix E.

bama. There were two of these bills (H. R. No. 11 and H. R. No. 12, 52d Cong., 1st sess.), one being "A bill to amend the naturalization laws of the United States," the other a bill to regulate immigration, embodying in it provisions to amend the naturalization laws.

The latter bill, which was the more complete of the two, provided that as soon as an alien's petition for naturalization should be filed the clerk of the court should report the fact to the United States attorney, or the State's attorney, who should defend the United States against the petition at the final hearing, and that the clerk of the court should report to the Secretary of State each naturalization conferred, sending him a transcript of the proceedings. The Secretary of State must then index and file the papers, and the act of naturalization should not become effective until such filing had taken place. Such a provision would give the National Government national records of naturalization-which are greatly to be desired-but would give it no direct power over pending naturalizations, since it would receive information only of naturalizations after they had been conferred. The requirement that the district attorneys and States' attorneys defend the United States in naturalization proceedings would work irregularly. Most United States attorneys would, it is conceivable, perform this duty, but in State courts it would be at the mercy of attorneys some of whom would be indifferent or negligent. Experience has shown that many judges have administered the law badly. It would be unreasonable to expect prosecuting attorneys to do better, for the bill provided for no supervision over them.

The bill introduced in the last session of the Senate by Senator Platt, of New York (S. 6655, 58th Cong., 3d sess.), went further and offered the real solution of the difficulty in a paragraph creating the bureau of naturalization in the Department of State, to have general supervision over naturalization matters, provide uniform forms, and receive returns of naturalizations and the fees. The provisions of Senator Platt's bill were still defective, however, in that there was no requirement that the Federal Government should receive notice of pending naturalizations, and such notice is absolutely necessary if the conferring of naturalization is to be effectively safeguarded. The way to secure it appears to the Commission to be simple. Abolishing the declaration of intention, which, as now required, means little or nothing, and substituting for it a formal petition made to the court from which the naturalization will issue at least three months before the case is heard, it should be required that a duplicate of this petition should be sent as soon as it is made to the bureau of naturalization. The bureau will then be in possession of full information concerning each case of pending naturalization in ample time to make such investigations and take such steps as may be necessary

to protect the Government's interests. Receiving also the returns of naturalizations conferred, it will be in possession of the complete case. Frauds committed against the courts or by the courts should under these circumstances become rare.

The Oates bill and the Executive recommendations are that the returns of naturalization be made to the Secretary of State, and in the Platt bill that the bureau of naturalization be in the State Department. Probably that Department was chosen because the only act heretofore requiring returns of naturalization to the Federal Government (that of June 18, 1798) required that reports of naturalization be made to that Department. But the State Department then had a number of domestic functions as part of its duties— patents, census, pardons, etc.-which have since been distributed among other Departments of the Government as they have been formed, and it has evidently been the policy of Congress to make the State Department as nearly as possible a foreign office. It is true. that if a naturalization bureau were in that Department it would be useful in connection with the Secretary of State's duty of issuing passports and protecting naturalized Americans abroad, but in the Department of Commerce and Labor is the Bureau of Immigration, and naturalization and immigration are intimately related. The Commission is therefore of the opinion that the bureau of naturalization should be made a part of the Department of Commerce and Labor, rather than of the Department of State.

VIII.

Recapitulation.

Accepting the principles of existing law, the chief recommendations of the Commission are as follows:

First. That no one be admitted to citizenship who does not solemnly declare his intention of permanently residing in the United States.

Second. That no one be admitted to citizenship who does not know the English language.

Third. That the declaration of intention be abolished and there be substituted in its place a petition to be filed with the court before which the application for naturalization will be heard, at least ninety days before the hearing.

Fourth. That only Federal courts in cities of over 100,000 inhabitants shall have power to naturalize aliens who are residents of such cities.

Fifth. That the wording of the certificate of naturalization prescribed by law, that it be printed upon safety paper and f...... to the courts by the bureau of naturalization.

Sixth. That there be prescribed by law a uniform fee, and that a portion thereof be turned into the Federal Treasury.

Seventh. That there be established in the Department of Commerce and Labor a bureau of naturalization to supervise the execution of the naturalization laws and receive returns of naturalizations, pending and accomplished.

M. D. PURDY, Chairman,

Department of Justice,

GAILLARD HUNT,

Department of State,

RICHD. K. CAMPBELL,

Department of Commerce and Labor,

Commissioners.

RECOMMENDATION CONCERNING THE VALIDATION OF CERTAIN CERTIFICATES OF NATURALIZATION NOW INVALID UNDER SECTION 39 OF THE ACT OF MARCH 3, 1903, "TO REGULATE THE IMMIGRATION OF ALIENS INTO THE UNITED STATES."

The section generally known as the "anarchist clause" provides that, in order to render a court judgment of naturalization valid, the court record must show that the person naturalized has complied with the terms of that act and previous acts relating to naturalization, and that every certificate of naturalization must specifically recite that the required affidavits of the applicant and his witnesses have been made and recorded by the court or be null and void.

Soon after the passage of this act the Secretary of State brought it to the attention of all the governors of the States in order that they might in turn bring it to the attention of the State courts having power to naturalize aliens, and the Attorney-General brought it to the attention of the Federal courts. Nevertheless, many courts never received notice of the provisions of the act; or, if they did, ignored them, and many thousands of certificates of naturalization have been issued which are in consequence invalid."

In those cases where the courts have made the inquiry required by the act and have erred only in failing to make the necessary statements in the certificate of naturalization, it is easy for the holders of the invalid certificates to exchange them for valid certificates; but in those cases where the courts conferred the naturalization without making the inquiry required by the act the naturalization is invalid, and the aliens must be naturalized over again if they are to be deemed citizens of the United States. This condition of affairs is not due to any fault on the part of the persons naturalized, but is entirely the fault of the courts which ignored the requirements of the law, and it is unfair to make innocent parties suffer. It seems plain, therefore, that certificates of naturalization otherwise lawfully issued which are now invalid because of failure to comply with the requirements of section 39 of the act of March 3, 1903, should be validated, and it is recommended that the following be enacted by Congress:

Whereas the act approved March 3, 1903, entitled "An act to regulate the immigration of aliens into the United States," provides in • See Mr. Van Deusen's report, Appendix E.