Life, 1914-12-17 · page 29 of 40
Life — December 17, 1914 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This article satirizes the hypocrisy of American naturalization procedures circa 1910s-1920s. A well-educated Canadian gentleman—a Rhodes Scholar—must make four trips to Newark, N.J. and pay repeated fees to become a citizen. On his fourth attempt, officials reject him for a minor error answering a constitutional question, demanding he see a judge. Meanwhile, the text notes, Italian laborers receive naturalization papers with apparent ease, their only qualification being connections to a "ward-heeler" (political machine operative) who controls their votes. The cartoon at top right mocks this absurdity: an elevator boy boasts he's crashing "RIGHT THROUGH THE ROOF" in a dinky twenty-story building—suggesting upward mobility through low-skill work, contrasting with the educated Canadian's bureaucratic obstacles. **The satirical point**: America's naturalization system is rigged—excluding educated, genuinely qualified immigrants while expediting those who serve political machines, revealing the system protects corrupt "exotic influences" it claims to prevent.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
URE Protecting Our Fair Land A GENTLEMAN who was born across the Canadian border, but who has lived in a suburb of New York for the good part of a f) decade, thought it was his duty to be- ty come naturalized, so that he could vote =< and otherwise participate in the affairs of his adopted country. He was a gen- tleman of education, having been the recipient of a Rhodes Scholarship, and ion in his community was well known and above reproach. In order to become naturalized he had to make a special trip to Newark, N. J. This he did four times, each trip costing him half a day's time and a fee of four dollars in money. The fourth time they asked him a number of questions which most Americans could not answer to save their lives, much less their nationality, but this gentleman gave the right answer to each until they asked him how to amend the Constitution of the United States, To this question his answer was partly right, but incorrect in some detail, whereupon the zealous official told him he would have to make another trip to sce some judge or other. In the meantime, on this, as pn previous occasions, he saw naturalization papers being bestowed upon groups of Italian laborers whose superior claim to United States citizenship were not Progressive Elevator-boy: cosu! RIGHT THROUGH THE ROOF! THAT'S WIIAT I GET FOR WORKIN’ IN ONE 0’ THESE DINKY LITTLE TWENTY-STORY BUILDINGS! apparent, except perhaps to the ward-heeler who knew how they were going to vote. ‘This little story is given merely to show how careful our authorities are to’ protect our fair (and often unfair) land from the corruption of exotic influences. Our Canadian friend docs not want a special movement stated in his behalf. He has become thoroughly disgusted and stoutly maintains that he will throw no more good money and time into such a bad system.