A study of the figures covering the reasons for denial of the 3,033 among the petitions of 1913–14 here analyzed illuminated special aspects of this matter, showing, as it does, how large a proportion of the denials are for reasons of a purely technical character, or because the petitioners abandoned their pursuit of citizenship after filing the final petition.
The following table lists the races represented by forty or more petitions, in the order of percentage of denials, and shows the percentages attributable to the six principal reasons, respectively: “want of prosecution,” “incompetent witnesses,” “declaration invalid,” “ignorance,” “immoral character,” and “old-law declaration—held to be invalid.”
TABLE XVIII
Racial Distribution of 26,284 Petitioners Denied, 1913–14, and the Per Cent of the Denials for the Six Principal Causes
| Denials | Causes of Denial—Per Cent | ||||||||
| Country of Birth | Number of Petitions | Number | Per Cent | Want of Prosecution | Ignorance | Immoral Character | |||
| Incompetent Witnesses | Declaration Invalid | “Old-Law” Declaration{1} | |||||||
| All countries | 26,284 | 3,033 | 11.5 | 22.7 | 13.9 | 5.2 | 7.2 | 1.9 | 37.5 |
| Greece | 90 | 27 | 30.0 | 48.1 | 11.1 | 3.7 | .... | .... | 3.7 |
| France | 86 | 19 | 22.1 | 15.7 | 26.3 | .... | .... | .... | 42.1 |
| Italy | 3,591 | 646 | 18.0 | 28.1 | 11.1 | 2.9 | 14.2 | 1.7 | 34.2 |
| Turkey in Europe | 92 | 15 | 16.3 | 26.6 | 7.6 | 26.6 | .... | 7.6 | 20.9 |
| Holland | 139 | 21 | 15.1 | 28.5 | 33.3 | .... | .... | .... | 14.0 |
| Scotland | 288 | 42 | 14.6 | 21.4 | 11.9 | 9.5 | 2.4 | .... | 31.0 |
| Denmark | 200 | 29 | 14.5 | 17.2 | 27.6 | 3.5 | .... | 6.9 | 31.0 |
| England | 831 | 120 | 14.4 | 30.0 | 19.2 | 4.2 | 1.7 | 2.5 | 27.5 |
| Sweden | 616 | 80 | 13.0 | 13.7 | 13.7 | 11.3 | 3.8 | 5.0 | 30.0 |
| Germany | 2,305 | 296 | 12.8 | 17.2 | 14.5 | 5.4 | 4.7 | 2.4 | 47.3 |
| Switzerland | 197 | 25 | 12.7 | 24.0 | 20.0 | 4.0 | 8.0 | .... | 36.0 |
| Turkey in Asia | 142 | 18 | 12.7 | 44.4 | 11.1 | 16.7 | 5.6 | .... | 16.7 |
| Norway | 389 | 48 | 12.3 | 25.0 | 27.1 | 14.6 | 8.3 | .... | 4.2 |
| Belgium | 41 | 5 | 12.2 | 40.0 | 20.0 | .... | 20.0 | .... | .... |
| Canada | 385 | 43 | 11.2 | 30.2 | 14.0 | 9.3 | .... | 4.6 | 20.9 |
| Hungary | 2,443 | 249 | 10.2 | 32.2 | 12.5 | 4.8 | 7.6 | 3.2 | 24.9 |
| Finland | 144 | 14 | 9.7 | 42.8 | 14.3 | 14.3 | .... | .... | .... |
| Rumania | 569 | 54 | 9.5 | 7.4 | 11.1 | 5.6 | 7.4 | 3.7 | 63.0 |
| Russia | 7,864 | 744 | 9.5 | 15.1 | 15.7 | 5.5 | 6.2 | 1.7 | 46.2 |
| Ireland | 1,773 | 166 | 9.4 | 27.1 | 11.4 | 3.0 | 1.8 | 0.6 | 46.3 |
| Austria | 3,875 | 347 | 9.0 | 21.6 | 10.4 | 5.5 | 7.2 | 1.4 | 44.8 |
| Other | 201 | 27 | .... | .... | .... | .... | .... | .... | .... |
| No information | 23 | .... | .... | .... | .... | .... | .... | .... | .... |
note 1: Denied because declaration of intention was more than seven years old.
In this table there are 14 countries listed whose per cent of denials exceeds that for all countries. Of these only four supply the “new” immigration. And of the seven showing a lower than 11.5 per cent denials, five constitute the “new” immigration. This would point to greater success on the part of the new races in attaining their naturalization papers. The qualifying fact here, as elsewhere, is that more than twice as many petitioners belong to the “new” races as to the “old.”
The two causes of denial showing the largest per cents for the country as a whole and for most countries are “want of prosecution” and the invalidity of their “old-law” declaration. That so large a proportion of immigrants have taken the trouble to take almost the last steps toward citizenship and then fail by default is symptomatic of waste somewhere along the line. This condition seems to prevail among both the “old” and “new” peoples.