Grabbed on Main Street: The Naturalization Fixer and the Senator's Promise
Already awaiting federal trial over the too-quick swearing-in of Russian immigrants, Adam Schmidt was arrested a second time — and Senator Ankeny shook his hand in the street and vowed to see him 'down the line.'
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Adam Schmidt, charged with perjury, was publicly assured by Senator Ankeny this afternoon that he could rely on the senator's support to see him "down the line" in the coming trial, set for next month in the United States district court.
The incident occurred in Main Street after Schmidt had been arrested by Deputy United States Marshal Pugh of Spokane and Captain Bell of the secret service department on a charge of subornation of perjury, growing out of the alleged fraudulent naturalization of members of the Russian colony last June.
Schmidt was arrested about 1:30 o'clock by the officers, and while on their way to Court Commissioner Strong's office they encountered Senator Ankeny. The case was explained by Schmidt, when the senator said, "I will see you down the line on this, Schmidt."
Schmidt was then taken before Court Commissioner Strong and his preliminary hearing was set for tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock, with bonds at $2,500. These were immediately furnished by Senator Ankeny and George Barber.
The arrest of Schmidt on the second charge is the outcome of Captain Bell's visit to Walla Walla to ferret out evidence to be used by the government in the coming trial of Schmidt. The specific charge, it is said, is that Schmidt induced Henry Hamburg, one of the Russians illegally naturalized, to swear falsely to his length of residence in the United States. Hamburg is said to have known that he had not resided in the United States a sufficient length of time to swear his allegiance, but was assured by Schmidt that it would be all right and no one would know anything about it.
“"I will see you down the line on this, Schmidt." — Senator Ankeny, on Main Street”
Then as now, the paperwork of citizenship was a marketplace — a fixer who could hurry an immigrant's papers past the residency requirement, and a United States senator ready to stand by him in the street. Walla Walla's Russian colony was small and dependent on men like Schmidt to navigate federal court; the arrest made their private business the town's front-page news. A century later the question of who gets to swear allegiance, and how quickly, still decides lives.
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