Table XV
Showing Ratio of Declarations of Intention to Petitions for Naturalization, by States, Based on Yearly Average Number of Declarations, 1908 to 1912, and Yearly Average (Weighted)
| ——— | |||
| ——— | |||
| State | Ratio | State | Ratio |
| ——— | |||
| United States | 65.1 | Illinois | 64.4 |
| Wisconsin | 115.7 | Colorado | 64.3 |
| Arizona | 94.2 | Nebraska | 64.0 |
| North Carolina | 93.1 | New York | 64.0 |
| Mississippi | 86.7 | North Dakota | 63.7 |
| Ohio | 78.8 | Oregon | 63.7 |
| Kentucky | 77.5 | Kansas | 62.9 |
| New Jersey | 76.5 | Tennessee | 62.8 |
| Maine | 76.1 | Minnesota | 62.7 |
| Vermont | 75.6 | Iowa | 60.9 |
| South Carolina | 75.3 | Texas | 59.5 |
| Georgia | 74.3 | Delaware | 58.4 |
| Montana | 73.9 | Oklahoma | 58.3 |
| Alabama | 73.0 | Louisiana | 56.4 |
| Maryland | 72.2 | West Virginia | 55.6 |
| Arkansas | 72.0 | Massachusetts | 53.7 |
| Michigan | 71.9 | Alaska | 53.0 |
| California | 71.2 | Florida | 52.5 |
| Pennsylvania | 70.9 | Nevada | 52.4 |
| Connecticut | 69.6 | Utah | 50.5 |
| Rhode Island | 69.6 | Washington | 50.3 |
| Virginia | 69.3 | Idaho | 48.6 |
| Wyoming | 68.1 | Missouri | 45.2 |
| New Mexico | 67.0 | South Dakota | 44.1 |
| District of Columbia | 66.8 | Hawaii | 39.9 |
| New Hampshire | 66.5 | Indiana | 26.4 |
| ——— | |||
| ——— | |||
note 1: The averages are weighted as per the table above, p. 221.
The most important question raised by the results of this calculation is whether it is reasonable to expect that more than one out of every three declarations of intention should thus fail of fruition—that thirty-five out of every hundred aliens who declare their intention to apply for citizenship should fail to do so. The answer to this question, and the reasons for the failure, are not discoverable in the figures themselves, nor in any documents to be found anywhere. The reasons are human reasons, hidden in the bosoms and written in the personal experience, of men and women who started out after the privileges of American citizenship, and changed their minds.
We have some illuminating data, first-hand, from some twenty-six thousand aliens who did follow up their declarations, and afford in the process a good deal of extraordinarily interesting and enlightening information, the study of which is set forth in the succeeding chapter of this volume.