OGDEN CITY SCHOOLS Americanization Department W. Karl Hopkins Superintendent F. T. Wiggins, Principal THE NATURALIZATION LAW Raymond F. Crist Commissioner of Naturalization. The law which to-day governs the naturalisation of aliens in the United States was enacted on June 29, 1906. That law for the first time in our history created a Federal agency to supervise and admin­ister affairs relating to the naturalization of aliens. Thus it will be seen that over a hundred years elapsed after our country was found­ed before the strong arm of the Federal Government assumed active participation in that most important function - the conferring of citizen­ship upon those horn abroad who live In the United States of which there are many millions. There is no countryman the world with a like problem. Before the act of June 29, 1906, naturalization was almost entirely in the hands of the courts empowered by law to naturalize. The many abuses arising out of this practice"arid unpleasant notoriety which resulted from wholesale naturalizations-frauds under the old order was the direct occasion for the assumption of'full control of this subject by the Federal Government in 1906. There are three distinct phases involved in the naturalization of aliens. The first step is the declaration of intention to become a citizen, commonly called "first paper". To make a declaration the alien must appear before before the clerk, of the naturalization court where he lives and under oath express his intention to live permanently in this country, and within seven years become a citizen, and to renounce allegiance to his foreign sovereign. The fee for a declaration is $1. The second step is the petition for naturalization. A declarant is ready for this step after he has lived in the country for five years continuously and in the State for one year continuously and holds,a declaration of intention that is over two years old. When this situa­tion exists he should obtain Form 2214 from the public school teacher or the nearest naturalization examiner or from the clerk of court. After supplying all of the information called for in this form, it should be sent to the naturalization examiner whose address appears on it. The declaration must also be sent to the naturalization examiner. The examiner will thereupon get the case in shape for filing the petition and will notify the applicant when and where to appear with his two witnesses, who must be to be applic-