GOOD MORAL CHARACTER. The nat uralization laws require that in order to be admitted to citizenship the applicant must, during his residence in the United States since his declaration of intention, have "be haved as a man of good moral character" ; U. S. R. S. § 2165. What is a good moral character may vary in some respects in dif ferent times and places, but "it would seem that whatever is forbidden by the law of the land ought to be considered for the time be ing immoral within the purview of this stat ute ;" In re Spenser, 5 Sawy. 195, Fed. Cas. No. 13,234. Accordingly, a person who com mits perjury is not a man of good moral char acter, and is therefore not entitled to nat uralization ; id. But a distinction is drawn between acts which are mala in se and those which are mala prohibita; and it is said that a single act of the former grade is sufficient to establish immoral character, but only ha bitual acts of the latter character ; id. It has been held that an alien who lives in a state of polygamy or believes that it may be rightfully practised in defiance of the laws to the contrary, is not a person of good moral character entitled to naturalization ; Ex par te Douglass, cited in 2 Bright. Fed. Dig. 25,
from 5 West. Jur. 171.
Under the English excise laws it was held that the mere fact that a man lived in a state of concubinage was not such an absence of good character as would justify his convic tion under the excise law for making and using a certificate of good character knowing it to be false ; 16 C. B. N. S. 584: "Good or bad character does not depend on what a man knows of himself ; it means his general rep utation in the estimation of Ms neighbors ; . . . the fact of a man's living with a woman without • marrying her may possibly admit of some palliating circumstances ;" id.
As to what is good moral character under the Pennsylvania license law, it was held by Sulzberger, J., that the act "is not to be un derstood as setting up the highest ethical character. It means good moral character as it is used among men in the ordinary busi ness of life, not that high type which ought to form the ideal of every virtuous person." Donoghue's License, 5 Pa. Super. Ct. 1 (on appeal).