VOTING ON “FIRST PAPERS”
The present state of public opinion in the United States on the subject of the foreign born is very different from what it was in the earlier years of our development; this is largely, though not entirely, due to the emotions and disclosures connected with the war. When we were opening up the vast domain west of the Alleghanies, and there was great need of human labor to clear forests, break virgin land, and help in the beginnings of our industries, the immigrant was a welcome helper, and every inducement was offered to entice him to come and settle on even terms with the native born. One of these inducements was citizenship, for all intents and purposes, on very easy terms.
Prior to 1910 there were ten states in which aliens were permitted to vote on their mere declaration of intention to become citizens—subject, however, to the same conditions of length of residence in state, county, and election district as citizens. These were Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Oregon, South Dakota, and Texas.[112]
That this easy acquisition of the suffrage would act as a deterrent to the completion of citizenship was to be expected, and that it has indeed so acted appears in a comparison of the proportions of foreign-born males of voting age holding “first papers” only, in the alien-suffrage states, with those in states requiring full citizenship as a prerequisite to voting.
TABLE XII
Per Cent of Foreign Born of Voting Age Having First Papers, and Also the Per Cent in States Permitting Aliens to Vote on First Papers, Compared with Certain States Not Permitting Aliens to Vote on First Papers, for 1900 and 1910{1}
| State | Number of Foreign Born of Voting Age | Per Cent Increase | Per Cent Naturalized | Per Cent Having First Papers Only | |||
| 1900 | 1910 | 1900 to 1910 | 1900 | 1910 | 1900 | 1910 | |
| United States | 4,904,270 | 6,646,817 | 35.5 | 58.0 | 45.6 | 8.4 | 8.6 |
| Alien-suffrage states (total) | 716,975 | 857,681 | 19.6 | 59.4 | 52.3 | 12.3 | 9.7 |
| Nonalien-suffrage states (total) | 1,275,162 | 1,645,291 | 29.0 | 67.8 | 53.0 | 6.5 | 7.4 |
note 1: United States Census, 1910, vol. i, p. 1071.
In 1900 the ratio of those holding declarations only was about 12 to 6 in favor Of the alien-suffrage states. By 1910 this difference had diminished to about 12 to 9. If aliens of any race were interested in voting as soon as they had a chance, this interest certainly would have manifested itself in the states permitting them to vote on the “first papers” which they could get, if they chose, an hour after landing.