INTELLECTUAL EQUIPMENT AND OCCUPATION
As for the intellectual equipment and the general usefulness of the aspirants for citizenship represented in the petitions studied, one may infer something from the occupational range shown in an analysis of the petitions for 1913–14 in seven cities,[119] representing a wide variety of locality. This analysis showed, for each of the 17 kinds of occupations listed, the ratio between the number of naturalization petitions filed by persons in those occupations in those cities in 1913–14, and the foreign-born white males in those occupations in those cities as shown by the census of 1910. Perhaps the most striking fact emerging from this analysis, illuminating to those who have supposed that the naturalization process swept into citizenship the dregs of immigration, is that the smallest percentage is shown in the class of common labor; the highest in the grade of executives, and the preponderance throughout attaching to trades requiring a degree of dexterity and general intelligence and information, if not technical training. It is unsafe, however, to infer too much from these percentages, because of the relatively small numbers represented in some of the classes, and the large proportions accredited to the garment trades and to “retail dealers,” among whom, doubtless, there were many mere peddlers. The distribution of occupations is here set forth in the order of the percentages:
TABLE XXVIII
List of Principal Occupations Represented in Petitions for Naturalization Filed in Seven Cities, 1913–14; Showing Ratio Between Number of Petitions and Total of Foreign-born White Males in Those Occupations in Those Cities in 1910
| Occupations | Number of Petitioners in Those Occupations | Ratio to Foreign Born in Those Occupations |
| Total | 9,930 | 3.0 |
| Managers and superintendents | 154 | 7.1 |
| Chauffeurs | 176 | 5.9 |
| Tailors | 2,120 | 5.3 |
| Clergymen | 67 | 4.7 |
| Bartenders | 248 | 3.6 |
| Plumbers | 193 | 3.6 |
| Barbers | 372 | 3.2 |
| Bakers | 328 | 3.1 |
| Retail dealers | 2,103 | 3.1 |
| Painters and glaziers | 514 | 3.1 |
| Carpenters | 779 | 3.0 |
| Salesmen | 591 | 2.8 |
| Manufacturing and officials | 511 | 2.7 |
| Blacksmiths | 161 | 2.7 |
| Motormen | 92 | 2.4 |
| Brick and stone masons | 219 | 2.2 |
| Laborers | 1,302 | 1.5 |
Analysis of the entire total of 26,284 petitions from which the data were obtained shows a general occupation distribution as follows:
TABLE XXIX
Number and Per Cent of Petitioners in Each Occupation
| Occupations | Petitioners | |
| Number | Per Cent | |
| Total | 26,284 | 100.0 |
| Manufacturing and mechanical industries | 15,335 | 58.3 |
| Trade | 4,427 | 16.8 |
| Domestic and personal service | 2,382 | 9.1 |
| Clerical | 1,388 | 5.3 |
| Transportation | 1,010 | 3.8 |
| Professional service | 1,026 | 3.9 |
| Agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry | 454 | 1.8 |
| Public service. | 170 | 0.6 |
| Extraction of minerals | 40 | 0.2 |
| No information | 52 | 0.2 |