Of the significance and extent of the response to the opportunity for immediate naturalization, the Provost Marshal General says:[134]
One test of the spirit of loyalty among aliens may be found in the number of naturalizations applied for and granted to registrants since the United States entered the war. Such action inspires a sentiment of admiration for their readiness to enter the war in the service of their adopted country. The Bureau of Naturalization reports that the total number of naturalizations in the United States between October 1, 1917, and September 30, 1918, was 179,816; and that since the passage of the Act of May 8, 1918, the number of naturalizations accomplished in camp, up to November 30, 1918, was 155,246. And there were only 414,389 aliens placed in Class I up to September 11, 1918 (including declarants and nondeclarants), and as a large portion of these must have gone overseas prior to June, 1918, it is plain that the opportunity for naturalization found a hearty response from the great majority of aliens to whom it was offered.
AUSTRIANS WHO WERE NOT FOR AUSTRIA
Concerning the technically enemy aliens of the Austro-Hungarian allegiance, the same report shows that when Austria-Hungary became an enemy nation in December, 1917, it affected the status of some 239,000 registrants, and that thereupon the camps were found to contain “thousands of Austro-Hungarian declarants, not deferred on ordinary grounds, and also a large number (probably about 9,000) of Austro-Hungarian nondeclarants who had waived their alienage exemption.”[135]
“A great majority of these men,” says the Provost Marshal General, “were of the oppressed races of Austria-Hungary, and therefore sympathetic with the cause of the Allies and ready to remain in camp.” As an evidence of this the report cites the fact that in one camp, regarded as typical in absence of complete returns called for by the Adjutant General of the army in October, 1918, as to the aliens who desired discharge or were suitable for discharge under the head of enemy aliens:[136]
Out of a total of 1,589 aliens in this camp in October, 1918, only 289 asked for discharge when the opportunity was offered, or less than 20 per cent. Of these aliens, 383 were technically enemy aliens, virtually all being either of Austro-Hungarian or of Turkish allegiance; and 139, or a few more than 36 per cent, applied for discharge. Of the cobelligerent aliens, 1,006 in all, and composed almost entirely of British, Italian, and Russian subjects, only 24 applied for discharge, or a little more than 2 per cent. Of the neutral aliens, 200 in all, 84 applied for discharge, or 42 per cent. These contrasts between the several groups show just such cleavage as we might expect. The general figures indicate how slight was the disposition of these alien groups to withdraw from the opportunity of taking arms against the world foe.
THERE WAS HUMAN WAR-TIME PSYCHOLOGY
It would have been less than human, in the hectic state of public feeling conditioning all the preparations for war, had there not been instances—perhaps very many instances—in which aliens were enlisted in spite or in ignorance of their right to exemption; in which they were virtually forced by local sentiment, displayed in various more or less illegal and outrageous ways, to join the army; but, on the whole, those who either actually or by default waived their exemption were willing soldiers, and their performances were quite equal in fidelity and courage to those of the native-born or naturalized citizens.