state having law or equity jurisdiction in cases in which the amount in controversy is unlimited, and having a seal and a clerk. Only white persons and persons of African descent may be naturalized; Chinese are excluded expressly by law, and this exclusion has been extended to Japanese and other Asiatics. Formerly it was the rule that an alien woman who married an American citizen immediately became an American citizen; and an American woman who married an alien lost her citizenship. In conformity with the modern spirit which asserts the right of a woman to her own individuality and property, an act of Congress passed in 1922 abolished the ancient law that the status of a woman automatically follows that of her husband. It provided a somewhat easy process by which an alien woman who marries an American may be naturalized if she wishes to do

American women who married aliens before the passage of the above law may be restored to citizenship by naturalization; they do not have to declare their intention or reside in the country more than one year before filing a petition for the recovery of their citizenship. Henceforward American women who marry aliens may retain or give up their American citizenship as they prefer; a mere declaration of purpose is all that is necessary.

The leading provisions of the Naturalization Act are as follows: (1) The alien in quest of citizenship must be at least eighteen years old when he files his first application and must be a resident of the United States of at least five years' standing on the date of his admission.1 (2) Not less than two years previous to his admission he must go before a court and in the presence of the clerk declare on oath his intention of becoming a citizen and renouncing his allegiance to all foreign powers. (3) Not less than two years or more than seven years after declaring his intention he must again go before a court, and file in his own handwriting his petition for citizenship, stating that he is not opposed to organized government, is not a polygamist, intends to become a citizen, and renounces his allegiance to his former country. This petition must be verified by the affidavits of two citizens certifying to the residence and good moral character of the applicant. (4) After ninety days have elapsed from the date of filing the petition, the application is heard by the court. The appli

1 An applicant must have resided at least a year in the state or territory in which he makes applica

cant renews his adherence to the declarations made in the petition, and is then examined by the court. This examination may be formal or thorough and searching, according to the standards of the judge conducting the final hearing. Examining judges are required to satisfy themselves that all the provisions of the law have been complied with, that the applicant has behaved as a man of good moral character, is attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and is well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same. When the court is duly satisfied the certificate of naturalization is issued. A large power of discrimination is thus conferred upon the court, and there are some instances of its being abused by judges personally opposed to the political principles expressed by the alien applicants.

The original Constitution contained no provisions defining the suffrage; it left the question to the states for solution by stipulating that voters for members of the House of Representatives should have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature, and at the same time permitting the state legislatures to decide how presidential electors should be chosen. Thus matters stood until the close of the Civil War when the Republican party sought to make secure its supremacy and enable the newly emancipated negro to protect himself against his former master by forcing the adoption of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments.

These provisions, however, did not contain positive qualifications on the suffrage. They left the regulation of the matter to the states subject to two conditions: (1) that "when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such states, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twentyone years of age in such states"; and (2) that the right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The negative character

1 Senators of the United States were to be chosen by the state legislatures.

of these conditions was also reflected in the Nineteenth Amendment providing that no citizen shall be denied the right to vote on account of sex.

Therefore we must note that there is no uniform suffrage throughout the United States. In more than one third of the states tax, educational, property, and other qualifications are imposed; and in a few states we have the peculiar anomaly of foreigners, who have announced their intention of becoming citizens, being permitted to vote for state and even national officers.

The various restrictions operate in such a manner as to exclude thousands of adult citizens, and they are by no means confined to the South. Massachusetts with an educational test, or Pennsylvania with a tax qualification, is legally quite as liable to a reduction of representation as any Southern state with a property or literacy qualification in its constitution. Nevertheless, no serious attempt has yet been made to secure an enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment. Indeed how could it be carried into execution without great confusion since it refers to the exclusion of male citizens and women have been enfranchised since its adoption?

CHAPTER VII

POLITICAL PARTIES AND THE PROCESSES OF

GOVERNMENT

The Place of Parties in Government

Turning from the broad principles of the national system to the actual operation of government, we inevitably confront political parties and party organizations. We may know all the written provisions of the federal and state constitutions and the names of all the legislators and public officers, their qualifications, terms, emoluments, and statutory duties; we may be familiar with the organization of the various departments of administration, local and national, and with the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States on every important point of constitutional law; we may be intimately acquainted with law and juristic theory and yet not understand government as a "going" concern. This is true because a government is not a collection of laws to be found in sheepskin or buckram volumes; it is a large group of persons engaged in making and enforcing laws. Although we speak somewhat pompously of "a government of laws and not of men," it remains a fact that every act of government is an act of a certain person or group of persons. Furthermore since the law is susceptible of interpretation, now narrow, now wide, it follows that we cannot really know the law as fact until we know the character, policies, and conduct of those who interpret and apply it.

Indeed we do not have the whole government before us even when we are in the presence of the legislators and officials who make and enforce the laws. They are but the representatives and spokesmen of the parties and groups of citizens who put them in positions of power. The relations between officials engaged in governing and the group or party dominant for the time being are so intimate and subtle that no one can draw the line separating them and say: "Here the government begins and the party ends." It sometimes happens that the chairman of a national

party committee may dictate terms to the President of the United States, that the chairman of a state committee controls the governor, and that the party leader in a city tells the mayor what to do and how to do it. The chief officials in the government are nearly always leaders if not officials in some party organization; generally speaking, party leaders are men who hold, or have held, or hope to hold political positions.

The influence of party runs throughout the entire government from the capital to the township. In ordinary circumstances, the President of the United States, in the performance of his constitutional duties, is bound to consult the interests of his party, by taking the advice and counsel of its leaders. Theoretically, the President nominates officials with the advice and consent of the Senate; but in actual practice the President does not have a free hand in making nominations. As a matter of fact, the nominations for most of the offices are made in close consultation with the members of the President's party in the Senate or in the House of Representatives. Theoretically, the President should formally consult with the Senate on the making of treaties; practically, many an important treaty is settled at a dinner-table, where the influential party members in the Senate are present. Theoretically, laws are made by the Senate and House of Representatives; practically, they are made by the party in power under the direction of the party leaders, and in the actual process of law-making there are innumerable joint and separate party caucuses.

Indeed the very process of government is set in motion and kept going by the political parties. They formulate policies of government; they nominate and elect candidates; they are agencies for propaganda of various kinds. Public opinion is to a large extent party opinion. The personalities and issues of parties, rather than the principles and forms of government, constitute the staples of American politics. Ordinarily in choosing public officers the citizen in the election booth can only select from among names presented to him by parties. It is through the party that the citizen generally discharges his political duties; his influence on the government is usually brought to bear through party channels. If he aspires to public office other than technical or administrative he can only realize his hopes through party affiliations. Powerful individuals may be inde