Secretary of Labor Davis today directed the discontinuance of forms used by his department under the Naturalization laws since July 1, 1929, calling for classification of applicants in terms of race, and not simply as to nationality. This embraces applications for forms for first papers and for final papers as well as for registry of aliens, as to whom no contemporary record of admission exists.
The decision is based upon an opinion of the solicitor of the department of labor, sustaining the claims advanced in an elaborate memorandum filed by Max J. Kohler, Judge Horace Stern and Lewis L. Strauss on behalf of the American Jewish Committee last February, contending that these new forms make an authorized, illegal and confusing requirement likely to prove prejudicial to applicants against whose race officials passing on the case might have some prejudice.
The decision does not bear on racial classification under the Immigration law which is required by express statute and has practical benefit for the aliens in promoting prompt production of appropriate interpreters, segregating possible refugees from religious persecution and enabling immigrant aid societies to promptly identify their protegees.
The National Council of Jewish Women joined in the application of the American Jewish Committee that such naturalization forms be changed, as did also Senator Salus of Philadelphia.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
