Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 83, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 January 1918 — WHY SO MANY PERSONS ARE ALIENS [ARTICLE]

WHY SO MANY PERSONS ARE ALIENS

When the framers of the 1851 Constitution incorporated a provision granting the franchise to for-eign-born persons, who have declared their intention to become citizens, they laid the foundation for the embarrassing position in which numerous persons born in Germany now find themselves. Such persons have been voting for many years, but they never became fully naturalized, and now they are classed as “alien enemies” by the federal government and are required to obtain permits to go within half a mile of factories filling war orders. A striking case of this character is the new mayor cif Michigan City, who has asked for and received a permit. Of course it should be added that these persons who have not become fully naturalized have only themselves to blame. They have had the opportunity. The 1816 Constitution granted the franchise right only* to “every white male citizen of the United States of the age of twenty-one years and upward, who has resided in the state one year Immediately preceding such election.” But when the constitutional convention met in 1850, It decided to extend the franchise to the foreign-born who had declared their intentions but had not become fully naturalized. One of the results of this extension of the franchise was that a great many foreigners never took any other step than to declare .their intentions. By doing this they obtained the right to vote. The provision granting the vote to those who bad declared their intention to become citizens was so loosely administered that not a few were permitted to vote.even without such a declaration.