Americans by Choice

Table XVII

Comparison of Causes of Denial for the Years 1908–18 and 1913–19 from Commissioner of Naturalization Reports, and Denials of 26,284 Petitioners Studied

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Causes	Denials
	Naturalization Reports				Cases Studied 1913–14
	1908–18		1913–14
	Number	Per Cent	Number	Per Cent	Number	Per Cent
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Want of prosecution	33,493	31.2	3,856	29.4	689	22.7
Incompetent Witnesses	28,262	26.3	3,982	30.2	422	13.9
Declaration invalid	9,187	8.5	1,148	8.7	1,296	42.7
Ignorance	11,109	10.3	1,147	8.7	220	7.2
Miscellaneous	6,098	5.7	553	4.2	147	4.8
Immoral character	4,269	4.0	588	4.5	59	1.9
Insufficient residence	3,625	3.3	389	3.0	68	2.2
Petitioner’s motion	2,824	2.6	381	2.9	51	1.7
No jurisdiction	2,934	2.7	291	2.2	12	0.4
Deceased	1,123	1.0	174	1.3	11	0.4
Unable to produce witnesses or deposition	1,090	1.0	196	1.5	12	0.4
Already a citizen	1,200	1.1	150	1.1	9	0.3
No certificate of arrival	1,197	1.1	179	1.4	14	0.5
Premature petition	979	0.9	96	0.7	17	0.2
Section 2169 (not a white person)	84	0.1	3	....	....	....
No information	....	....	....	....	16	0.5
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Total	107,474	100.0	13,133	100.0	3,033	100.0
Certificates granted	848,777	....	105,439	....	....	....
Cases disposed of	956,251	....	118,572	....	26,284	....
Per cent denied	....	11.2	....	11.1	....	11.5
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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.”