Chapter IX: Part II: VIII (1)

RURAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES

The term "Americanization" is used in two senses. In the narrower one it applies to our immigrant population only, and in a broader sense it applies to everybody, natives and immigrants alike. This means the Americanization of America. This broader meaning embraces the whole national life in all its conditions, tendencies, and forms of expression.

When the writer accepted the invitation of the Study of Methods of Americanization to make a field investigation of rural developments from the viewpoint of Americanization, he was certain that the study must be conducted in relation to the immigrant colonies only. The study of the Americanization of America would lead us nowhere, especially in view of the smallness of available forces and the shortness of time. The study must be confined, therefore, to the immigrant elements of the population, and even then it could only be a preliminary survey to reveal the problems to be studied later in detail.

IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION

But the first observations in the field study soon convinced him that a broader scope is inevitable. For instance, inquiry into the conditions of the immigrants in relation to the acquisition of land for cultivation necessarily led him to the general land question in the country, land policies, land laws, land-dealing methods. In even a more striking way did the field study of immigrant education in the rural districts lead to the question of general public education in rural communities regardless of their racial composition.

Education has always been more of a problem in rural districts than urban. Evidence of this is found in the 1910 Census, which shows that for every illiterate person living in an urban community there are approximately two living in rural communities. The higher per cent of illiteracy in the rural districts is even more marked in the states where immigrants are settling than in the country as a whole. In New Mexico, Arizona, and California the ratio is about 250 illiterates in the country to every 100 in the city. Among the foreign born in rural districts in three of these states an exceptionally high per cent of illiteracy prevails. For Texas 35 per cent, New Mexico 34 per cent, and Arizona 37 per cent, of the rural foreign born are illiterate--in contrast to 13 per cent for the United States. With the exception of Louisiana these per cents are the highest in the country and presage a problem that cannot be overlooked in a consideration of land settlement for the foreign born.

Equally significant are the 1910 comparisons of the figures for immigrants' inability to speak English in urban and rural communities. Although the contrast for the country as a whole is not so striking, being 21.9 per cent in cities as compared with 25.2 per cent in rural districts, the differences in the four states where new immigrants are settling on farms are considerable.

TABLE IV

PER CENT UNABLE TO SPEAK ENGLISH, OF TOTAL FOREIGN BORN, TEN YEARS OF
AGE AND OVER, IN URBAN AND RURAL COMMUNITIES[21]
================================================
| Per Cent |
---------------+---------------| Ratio of
| Urban | Rural | Rural to Urban
---------------+-------+-------+----------------
Texas | 41.8 | 64.0 | 153.1
New Mexico | 28.5 | 61.7 | 216.5
Arizona | 48.2 | 62.6 | 129.9
California | 10.5 | 22.4 | 213.3
|-------+-------+----------------
United States | 21.9 | 25.2 | 115.0
================================================

Over 60 per cent of the foreign born in rural communities in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona are unable to speak English. The principal foreign group is composed of Mexicans who come from a non-English-speaking country which has a high per cent of illiteracy. They go into the rural communities of these border states, where there is practically no schooling opportunity either for learning the English language or for learning to read and write. While only 22.4 per cent are not able to speak English in California rural districts, this is more than twice as many as are unable to speak it in California cities. This is a high ratio in the one state in the country which provides public settlement projects. While these situations are perhaps extreme, their existence is manifestly inexcusable in a land which prides itself on educational opportunity for all. There is virtually never equality of opportunity in rural and urban communities, for either native or foreign born, and the immigrant who lives on the land is especially handicapped.

In another report[22] of this study there is evidence which points to lack of educational and social opportunities in rural districts. The average length of time after arrival in the country before petitions for naturalization papers are filed is tabulated by occupation for more than twenty thousand cases. These figures show that, for all occupational groups of any size, agricultural workers take the longest time, about fourteen years, before petitioning. The average length of time for workers of all occupations is about ten and a half years. Back from the currents of life, with fewer opportunities to overcome disqualifications, the farm worker does not become a citizen as quickly as his city brother.

The term "education" as applied especially to the rural population is a very broad one. It comprises everything which helps to elevate the people materially as well as mentally and spiritually. In this direction various educational agencies are working. The most important of them might be classified as follows:

1. Schools:

A. Public:

(1) general.

(2) evening.

(3) home teacher.

(4) vocational (training in agriculture).

B. Private:

(1) general.

(2) church or parochial.

2. Churches:

A. American, service in English.

B. Immigrant, service in foreign tongue.

3. Libraries:

A. Public:

(1) community or town.

(2) traveling.

(3) package.

(4) school.

B. Private:

(1) church.

(2) school.

Among these agencies the public school is the foremost in the Americanization process. It directly influences the children and through them their parents--the adult immigrants.

BRIDGING DIFFERENCES

An observer of the home life of immigrant families finds a marked difference between the parents and the children who attend American schools, as well as between the American-schooled children and their European-schooled brothers and sisters. These differences lead often to friction and dissension in the families, and though each difference may be concerned with a trivial matter, yet in their entirety they represent the variation of the American from the immigrant.

The writer once entered the home of a large Russian immigrant family just when a quarrel between two sets of children was going on. The European-trained children wanted the window shades rolled entirely up, for the sake of more light, while their American-bred brothers and sisters insisted that the shades be left halfway up, as the Americans have them.

Another illustration of these differences is found in the fact that the immigrants are conservative in clinging to their old-country diet. The first breach is usually occasioned by pie--the American national dessert. The immigrant children learn about it and taste it in the school cooking classes and also in the neighboring American families, insisting that their mothers make it also. As a result the pie appears on the immigrant table, though in the poorer families only on holidays.

In the case of language, the parents and their European-schooled children continue to speak at home their old-country tongue and read newspapers and books in the same language. The American-schooled children prefer to speak English and read American newspapers and books, taking a special pride in this. They answer their parents in English, although the latter do not always understand English. They call themselves Americans, in distinction from their European parents and older brothers and sisters. "My father, mother, and older sisters are Poles, but I am an American!" answered an American-born Polish boy of about twelve years when asked about his nationality.

"How do you know that you are an American?"

"I was born here and I speak the American language."

In the Italian colony at Vineland, New Jersey, to give only one instance, there was marked conflict between the children who went to the public schools and their parents over the use of the Italian language. The children wanted to speak English and some even refused to talk Italian, though their parents wanted them to and tried to teach them. The children commonly acted as interpreters between Americans and their parents, especially their mothers. Unfortunately, they did not conceal their contempt for the latter for failing to understand and use English.

Often such differences are so pronounced that the immigrant parents are greatly grieved over the "estrangement" caused by the influence of the American public schools. This dissatisfaction takes an especially acute form among the sectarian immigrants. In San Francisco there are over four hundred families of Russian sectarian peasants--Molochans, Jumpers, etc. Their religion opposes war and military service, and on that account they were exempted from the draft. Notwithstanding this, four or five of their young boys volunteered, in spite of the opposition of their parents and of the whole colony. When the writer visited the colony last year the colonists were much agitated and upset. They openly cursed the American schools and the city streets for ruining their boys spiritually. "If we can't settle on land in the rural districts, then we have to get out of America!" exclaimed the aged leader. In rural districts, they think, they would be able to keep their children from going "astray." The street influence is absent and the school-attendance law is not so severely enforced as in the city, the immigrant leader believed.

In the Polish farming colony centered at South Deerfield, Massachusetts, where the Polish children all attend the American public schools, the children learn English quickly and prefer everything American to everything Polish. The parents are very much distressed over losing their children as Polish people. For this reason the parents stated that they were extremely eager to establish their own Polish school where they could teach their children the Polish language and Polish history. Only lack of money has so far prevented the founding of such a parochial school.

PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS

When an immigrant group is planning either a parochial or some other type of private school of its own, one of its arguments is always that this school will keep the children in its own group, racially and religiously.

The North Middle Western states--Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, the Dakotas, Nebraska--have large immigrant groups. In the rural districts of those states it is a fact that where there exists a private or parochial school, the public school is neglected, poorly equipped, and has a very small attendance.

A county superintendent of schools in Minnesota reports:

One of our greatest drawbacks in attendance is the parochial schools.
These retard the attendance and keep the school terms down.[23]

A county superintendent in South Dakota writes:

In a number of districts the attendance is so small, owing to the
fact that many attend the parochial school, that interest and
enthusiasm are lacking.[24]

Another report from Minnesota states that,

the poorest schools in the country are in communities where there
are private schools in connection with a church.

The children attend these for years at a time, and when they return to
the public schools find themselves behind their former companions.[25]

In 1915-16 there were in the state of Wisconsin 78 rural public schools enrolling five or fewer children, and 445 rural public schools enrolling six to ten children. The state school authorities explained to the writer that the small enrollment in certain public schools does not always indicate that there are not enough children of school age in the district or that the children do not enroll. Very often in the same district there is a well-developed parochial or private school attended by immigrant children. The parents prefer these schools to the public schools for racial and religious reasons, and contribute liberally to their development and maintenance.

In a number of cases where there are public and private schools in immigrant localities, the writer observed an active and intentional neglect of the public schools by the local school authorities. For instance, in some cases where the state gives a certain sum of money for the support of the public schools, the money is deposited in the bank instead of being used for the development of the public schools. Such deliberate neglect of the public schools by the immigrant local school leaders was quite conspicuous in the state of Wisconsin.

[21] _Thirteenth Census of United States_, 1910, vol. i, p. 1279.

[22] John P. Gavit, _Americans by Choice_ (in preparation).

[23] Minnesota Department of Education, Nineteenth Biennial Report, 1915-16, p. 84.

[24] Superintendent of Public Instruction, South Dakota, Report, 1916. Report of Superintendent of Hanson County.

[25] Minnesota Department of Education, Nineteenth Biennial Report, 1915-16, p. 85.

IX

PRIVATE SCHOOLS

One of the greatest negative agencies, and in a large number of cases consciously negative agencies, affecting the Americanization of immigrants in our rural districts has been private schools. Among these--the writer wishes to be entirely outspoken--the most conspicuous have been immigrant Catholic and Lutheran parochial schools and Hebrew schools.

Many of them are run in the spirit of preference for the old country and for the immigrant race or nationality to America and the American nationality. Furthermore, the very spirit and aim of their methods are foreign to America. In their training of children they lay special stress on discipline, obedience, on the form of things, on punctuality, on memory, and on mechanism. All these qualities have been desirable in the "subjects" and in the small "subject nations," from the point of view of the monarchical and aristocratic European regimes, with which Catholicism and Lutheranism have been identified, or of the Talmud, upon which extreme Hebrew nationalism is based.

The authorities of parochial schools, especially the higher authorities, such as bishops, allow themselves to criticize sternly the American public schools for looseness, too much freedom, lack of moral teachings, etc. A prominent German Catholic bishop, who has been for thirty years in America and who can hardly speak English, stated to the writer that the American colleges, high schools, and even public schools are no good, that their aim is to prepare children and students to get easier jobs, to get along in life without labor and effort. Religious and moral teachings are entirely lacking in his opinion and the schools work against these teachings. Especially, the training of girls in America is entirely wrong. They are not educated to be good housewives, but are just reared for an easy and joyful life; in fact, girls are too lazy to do family work or any work. The severely nationalistic churchman was unable to approve the democratic spirit of the American public school with the stress which it lays upon freedom of action, self-reliance, initiative, and imagination in children. He looked upon children as if they were somebody's property or tools, not human beings with individual destinies.

How important the parochial schools are considered to be by certain immigrant nationalistic leaders and high clergy is shown by the speeches delivered at the southeastern Wisconsin district conference of the Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and other states, held in the summer of 1918. Prof. A. Piper stated that,

we must concentrate all our powers upon keeping our hands on our
schools. To hold our schools we must compete with the public
schools, must hold classes five days a week, and must work with all
the strength that is in us. The most important part of all of our
missionary work is the work in our schools.

The importance of concentrating effort on the parochial schools was further emphasized by W. Grabner, Milwaukee, who asked:

What has made Chicago the greatest Lutheran city in the world? [and
replied] I say it was the Lutheran parochial school. It has served
as a nucleus for all Lutheran families to settle about. Round it
all life and activity centered. Our Lutheran forefathers nourished
the little Lutheran schools with all the powers they possessed.

The situation in the rural districts of various states in regard to the private and especially the parochial schools in connection with the Americanization of the children of immigrants born here and abroad is shown by the following field notes and material collected by the writer.

NEBRASKA

The Nebraska State Council of Defense made a report on the foreign-language schools in Nebraska, dated January 14, 1917. The data were secured through the personal investigation of Miss Sarka Hrbkova, chairman of the Woman's Committee, aided by Miss Alice Florer of the State Superintendent's office, and through the efforts of the county chairmen of educational propaganda of the Woman's Committee. Professors Link and Weller and other representatives of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Missouri Synod co-operated with Miss Hrbkova. The following facts indicate the extent of parochial schools in Nebraska.[26]

Foreign-language schools are located in 59 counties of Nebraska.
There is a total of 262 schools in which it is estimated that
10,000 children receive instruction in foreign languages, chiefly
the German. In these 262 schools 379 teachers are employed. Five
thousand five hundred and fifty-four children are attending the
schools of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Missouri
Synod, this number including those in the summer sessions as well.
About 20 teachers give instructions in their homes or in church
buildings. Of these 379 teachers in private schools, 2 give
instruction in Danish, 6 in Polish, 14 in Swedish, and 357 in
German. Less than 2 per cent of the teachers of these schools are
certified. About 120 of the German teachers are likewise ministers
in the German Lutheran parish where the school is located. The
county superintendents of the 59 counties in which the
foreign-language schools are located reported that in only a few
cases do these schools give the equivalent of the eighth-grade
public school. For the most part, the eight years' attendance at
such a school fits pupils for the sixth grade of the public schools.

In certain schools in Fillmore, Cass, Franklin, Gosper, Jefferson,
Pawnee, and Wayne Counties the instruction is given entirely in the
German language. In about 200 of the schools three hours daily is
devoted to instruction in the German language.

In Deuel, Fillmore, and Jefferson Counties the superintendents
report that the German national hymn is sung in certain
foreign-language schools. In Nance and Washington Counties they
report that it was formerly sung, but not this year. In Cedar Creek
District No. 88, Cass County, Reverend Kunzendorf, teacher, states
that they do not sing the American hymn because they do not sing
any hymns at all. The American national hymn is not sung in about
100 of the German-language schools. Over 100 foreign-language
schools lack an American flag. One minister, Rev. J. Aron, from
Wayne County, writes, "We have no flag, but will see to it that one
be put up, if requested to do so." In Madison the minister declared
foreign-language and parochial schools are not required by law to
have an American flag, and therefore he does not display one.

Public schools have been closed and forced out by German parochial
schools in Cedar County, Cheyenne County, Clay County, Colfax
County (No. 36), Gage County (No. 103), 2 in Johnson County, 5 in
Platte County, District No. 99 in Saline County, 8 in Seward
County, No. 38 in Stanton County and Wayne County. In Cedar County
the Bow Valley, Constance, and Fordyce schools are taught by
Sisters. In the following counties there are public schools with
only four or five pupils, because the German-language schools
absorb the pupils: Clay, Cedar, Cuming, Dixon, Howard, Nuckolis,
Platte, Polk, Seward, Stanton, Wayne, and Webster.

The following statement was made by Prof. C. F. Brommer, Hampton, Nebraska, president of the Lutheran Synod of Missouri, at the hearing before the state Americanization Committee held in Lincoln in September, 1918:

I think we have more parochial schools than any other Protestant
body in this state; between 150 and 160, with about 5,000 children
in these schools.

In answer to a question by a member of the committee, Professor Brommer said:

I know of one [public school] district where there is no public
school. There is no need of one, as the children all go to
parochial school. There are a few such cases.

George Weller, of Seward, Nebraska, stated to the same committee:

German has never been taught in our schools [German Lutheran] as an
end, but as a means to an end. We could not teach the old folks
English, and in order to allow the children and the parents to
worship together we taught the children the German language.

J. W. Robb of Lincoln informed the commission that in one district the Germans control the public-school board and they closed the public school two months in a year, and the children are deprived of two months in English schools or must go to a German parochial school during that time.

NORTH DAKOTA

The situation in regard to parochial schools in North Dakota has been and still is, perhaps, more serious than in Nebraska. The writer in his field study in North Dakota was impressed that the public officials were afraid to do anything more than recommend certain desirable changes in these schools; some were even afraid to visit the German counties or sections on public business, such as Liberty Bond or Red Cross drives. Several reasons were given, such as politics, ignorance of the German language, and even care for their own safety. Therefore an English-speaking German woman was engaged to speak for Liberty Bonds in North Dakota German sections. She was successful only because in her German public speeches she praised the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty and condemned the Czechoslovaks in Russia. "Well, she brings home the bacon. For what else do we care!" ironically exclaimed a North Dakota man to the writer.

The State Superintendent of Public Education made the following statement to the writer when he asked for data on the foreign-language schools in the state:

The State Department of Public Education has no authority whatever
over the private and parochial schools in the state. There is no
legal ground for collecting information in regard to them.... There
have been cases when children of immigrant groups, attending a
private or parochial school, had to learn the foreign tongue of
other groups.

A Catholic bishop stated:

The first grades in the parochial schools use German because the
children who enter the schools do not know English, and it is far
better and more successful to start work with them in their mother
tongue as a teaching language. At the same time, they teach them
English. As their knowledge of English gradually grows, the
teaching in the higher grades is transferred to the English language.

To the writer's question whether the non-German children in their parochial schools--for instance, Bohemians and Hungarians--have also to start in German, the bishop said that in some cases this is true, for they are not able to find teachers for each language.

In the bishops diocese there are 37,000 Catholic families. Among these are 2,000 Indian families, about 2,000 Bohemian families, and between 300 and 400 Hungarian families. The rest are German families, over 100 of whom are from Germany; about 2,000 were born in America, and the rest are Germans from Russia.

An American church head made the following statement, in reply to an inquiry about the schools:

Strasburg, Emmons County, has a large parochial school where German
is the only language both for teaching and speaking. The public
school there has only a handful of children. There are plenty of
parochial schools in which German is taught exclusively in McIntosh
and Emmons Counties, and in the western counties (in the town of
New Salem, etc.). Some of the teachers, of whom a goodly number are
Sisters, cannot speak English at all. Children of other
nationalities would also be under German influences. There is
undoubtedly German propaganda in these schools, and American or
other children become Germanized. Every graded school, private and
public, should be conducted in English exclusively. Every teacher
need not be American born; many foreign-born people are better
citizens than some native Americans. But every teacher should have
to understand and speak the English language. No one should teach,
preach, or hold public office who cannot speak English.

The editor of an English daily in Bismarck, North Dakota, said:

The Americanization work is weakest in North Dakota, and yet it is
more needed here than anywhere else, for the population is mainly
composed of foreign elements. Foreign-language churches, parochial
and other private schools, and certain American public schools in
which, as it is in a number of places, the teaching language is a
foreign language, very often German--are keeping the old country
alive in the state. We have a large number of the second
generation, grown-up people born here of foreign-born parents, who
do not know how to write or read English, who do not know anything
about America, but know well the history of Hohenzollern and
Hapsburg dynasties in Europe.

A leader of the Women's Organization, North Dakota Council of Defense, made the following statement:

The Red Cross work, food-conservation work, and child-welfare work
are organized in every county, a wide-awake woman being chosen as
county head. Great difficulty is experienced in reaching the
foreigner. A large number of them, especially women, do not
understand English, and do not know enough about the country, its
traditions, and spirit. Aside from remaining foreigners, they are
in many cases unbelievably ignorant. For instance, the organization
undertook a baby census, which included weighing the babies. The
baby of a German housewife was underweight--that is, below normal.
When its mother learned of this she began to cry hysterically.
After the other people succeeded in quieting her she expressed the
fear that the American government would kill her baby for being
below normal weight.

MINNESOTA

The statistical data on parochial and other private schools in the state of Minnesota for 1918, compiled by the Department of Public Instruction, are as follows:

TABLE V

ENROLLMENT AND LANGUAGE USED IN PAROCHIAL AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS IN
MINNESOTA, 1918
=============================================================
Number of parochial and private schools 307
Number of pupils enrolled 38,853
Number of teachers 1,359
Number of schools using English only 94
Number of bilingual schools in which the teaching is in
English and German 195
English and Bohemian 1
English and Dutch 1
English and French 4
English and Norwegian 1
English and Polish 10
English and Danish 1
___
Total 213
=============================================================

The Isanti County school superintendent reports for 1915-16:[27]

The poorest schools in the county are in communities where there
are private schools in connection with a church. The children
attend these for years at a time, and when they return to the
public schools find themselves behind their former companions. We
wish arrangements might be made so that these schools could not
teach the branches unless the teachers were as well equipped as the
public-school teachers and that the children could be sent to them
only at the confirmation age for two years.

The Martin County superintendent reports:[28]

Parochial schools should be required to report to the county
superintendent the names of their teachers, length of term, etc.
The teachers should be required to make monthly reports and be
subject to the same supervision of inspection as those of public
schools. Their certification should also be subject to state
approval. Failing this, the pupils should be required to attend the
public schools for at least eight full years, or until they
complete the regular eighth-grade work.

Near St. Cloud, Minnesota, there is a Slovenian colony of about fifty to sixty families. Near by there is a much smaller German colony with a German parochial school in which the teacher, at the time of the writer's visit, was a German and the teaching language was German. Quite a number of the Slovenian families sent their children to this school, where they were Germanized instead of Americanized. A Slovenian family head explained to the writer that those Slovenians who are sending their children to the German school do it for a practical reason. They expect some time to visit their native Austria, where German is the state language. The man claimed that about one tenth of the settlers do not understand English, and that only about one fifth of them can speak and write English, although the colony was founded in America about fifty years ago.

MICHIGAN

The following statement made by the Superintendent of Public Instruction in the state of Michigan to the writer, September 11, 1918, shows the situation in regard to the private schools in that state. Parochial schools exist as follows:

One hundred and sixty-six Catholic; 124 German Lutheran; 19
Adventists; 22 Christian Reform. There is a total of 331. Of these,
190 maintain as many as eight grades, and 62 maintain more than
eight grades. In the grades below the high school there is an
attendance of 43,836, and in the high schools, 2,813. There are
employed about 1,200 teachers. Eighty-six schools use German as a
medium of instruction, German partly; sixteen use Polish; 5 use
French. Only 2 schools in the state give no time to the teaching of
the English branches. Seventy per cent of all the schools use the
English language only as a medium of instruction. The census of the
state contains 892,787 children of school age, five to nineteen
years, inclusive. There are enrolled in the public schools of the
state, 635,020. We regret that we have not yet the data from
Saginaw and Detroit. The city of Detroit alone would perhaps show a
parochial-school attendance as large as the parochial-school
attendance of all the rest of the state.

In a Finnish colony in upper Michigan the writer found three one-month religious summer schools, well attended. One of the leaders of the colony stated that they have only Finnish teachers in these schools and the teaching is in Finnish. The program contains mainly religious instruction and a limited amount of Finnish history. The expenses are paid by the church treasury. The people want these schools for maintaining their religion among the children as well as for sentimental nationalistic reasons. The schools are conducted in the public-school rooms during summer vacations.

In the same section of the state the writer visited an old and comparatively large Polish colony, located at Posen. His field notes supply the following information: There is at the church a four-room parochial school, housed in a substantial brick building, with five teachers, including the priest. The school year lasts ten months. Teaching is in English, except that an hour each day is devoted to the Polish language and Polish history. The priest admitted that the teaching of religion is in Polish. The school program is the same as in the standard public schools of eight grades. The same textbooks are used. Although the law does not require examination of the children, nevertheless to appease the county officials and show the efficiency and value of their school they send the children to the county board of education for examination, and the county board has always expressed great satisfaction with the advancement in education of the children of the Polish school. The teachers are all Poles, appointed by the bishop, candidates being presented by the priest.

The need of this school the priest explained as follows: It Americanizes the children more quickly than the American school--that is, it is more efficient in teaching the children the American ways of life and American history than the American public schools, for the teachers are all Poles, know their people and their psychology better than do the teachers in the public schools. During a later discussion the priest admitted that the church service is in the Polish language and that the Polish school exists rather for sentimental reasons of a racial character than for practical reasons. The settlers also claimed that the Polish school and the church service in the Polish language are needed, for the reason that they like this better; they complained that the expenses are too high; they would have the county or state help them. Sometimes a few adults come to the school, but they are irregular in attendance.

The priest explained that the issue of the immigrant schools in the state has become practically a political issue, and to his mind it ought not to be, at least not in such a sharp form. Prohibition of these schools would have a bad effect on the foreign-born population. The schools might be modified and reformed and the state might exercise some sort of control and supervision over them, but only so far as it is agreeable to the colonies themselves. In this way the schools would be a valuable asset to the education of the people. They would work toward Americanization, better than the ordinary public schools, for they can reach the depths of the soul more easily than the American schools. He believed that his school would be an ideal means to this end.

The writer observed in this colony that the majority of the colonists are of the second and third generations. Not many families are foreign born. The colony is on the way to Americanization. The main causes holding it back are as follows: the colony is to a large degree isolated from the outside world; the Catholic Church and its schools are keeping the Polish language and the racial characteristics very much alive. The writer heard in the town grown-up people talking Polish. All the people the writer met spoke English fluently. In the street he noticed several groups of children playing; some spoke Polish, some English. Two boys were talking together, one speaking Polish, the other English. In watching and hearing the boys, the writer felt the influence of the Polish church and school over them. The faces and build of the people have a specific Slavic character. Otherwise their appearance is American.

At Holland, Ottawa County, Michigan, there is a large long-established Dutch colony, the vast majority of the settlers being already of the second and third generations. The colony is far advanced on the way to Americanization. The writer found the town and farming districts surrounding it almost the same as any native rural district. He did not hear any Dutch spoken in the streets, stores, or public offices. Yet the Dutch language was the language of the service in the churches and the teaching language in the parochial schools up to recent years. In regard to this fact the local church head explained to the writer:

Aside from a number of lower parochial schools, there is one
parochial high school and one parochial college, Hope College. The
high school is a preparatory school for the college. The college
prepares ministers for the village churches. The language used in
the high school and college was formerly Dutch. They taught Dutch
history, literature, and mainly religion--Bible study. But during
late years English has become the teaching language, and the Dutch
language has remained only as a subject of study. Up to this time
the leaders of the colony have been working toward Americanization
unconsciously, but now they have awakened to the fact that the
Dutch are rapidly Americanizing. They accept this fact as a
desirable one, and are now working consciously toward the end of
Americanization. They realize that even if they would like to keep
the Dutch nationality alive in the colony, they would not be able
to do it, so that they yield to the inevitable. The activities in
the church and parochial schools have now to be turned more toward
Americanization.

In a German colony at Au Gres, Michigan, the writer learned that the colonists have a parochial school in which the teaching is in German. They teach the German language, the Lutheran religion, and the rudiments of sciences. The church is composed entirely of Germans. Both ministers are appointed by the German Synod. The Congregational church has Saturday and Sunday school. The Saturday school lasts from nine until twelve in the morning, and the Sunday school from nine until ten in the morning. The teaching is in German; the subject is Bible study, and also the learning of the German language and the singing of hymns. The meaning of these schools was explained to the writer by the settlers as follows: The parents would like to have their children know the German language, be able to read and write German, and be instructed in religious matters, for neither German nor religion is taught in the American schools. The local native settlers stated to the writer that the German parochial school ought not to be there. It is a Germanizing school, opposed to America and Americanization, they argued.

WISCONSIN

The Superintendent of Public Education of the State of Wisconsin told the writer that there is no law enabling the public authorities to supervise or inspect the private schools or even to collect information in regard to them, except in a roundabout way. There is a law requiring that the county boards keep records of school attendance and this law enables the county boards to learn the attendance of every school in each county. The enrollment in private and parochial schools in Wisconsin was as follows:

TABLE VI

ENROLLMENT AND TEACHING FORCE OF PRIVATE AND PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS IN
WISCONSIN, 1914-15 AND 1915-16[29]
=========================================================
|1914-15|1915-16
-----------------------------------------+-------+-------
Number attending private or parochial | |
schools only--counties |24,370 |25,373
Number attending private or parochial | |
schools only--cities |21,736 |18,556
Number attending both public and private,| |
or parochial schools--counties |34,335 |34,958
Number attending both public and private,| |
or parochial schools--cities | 1,441 | 3,276
| |
Teaching force of private and parochial | |
schools in counties: | |
Men | 288 |
Women | 600 |
Total | 888 | 909
=========================================================

There was a case in Wisconsin in 1918 of a German father sentenced to five years in the penitentiary for persuading his son to evade the draft. An editorial commenting on the case said:

This man, though German in every sense of the word, was born in
America. Yet when he was on trial he had great difficulty in
understanding questions put to him in English. Born in America,
educated in American schools, nearly fifty years old, yet "he had
great difficulty in understanding questions put in English!" Why?
Because in the German--not American--community in which he was
raised the education of American citizens was conducted in German.

A rural postmaster of German descent in a small backwoods town in Wisconsin, who claimed to have lost long ago his faith in "the Kaiser's Fatherland," as he put it, stated that there are thousands and thousands of such victims of the German parochial schools in the state, who, though born and brought up here, are unable to converse freely in English. This is especially true among those who live on farms in a German colony and go only to a German school and church.

Now these people suffer and are ashamed of themselves. But who is
responsible? I think both the German clergy and other leaders for
victimizing these people, as well as the American public for
allowing such mischief.

SOUTH DAKOTA

In regard to the situation in South Dakota, the Federal Bureau of Education reports (Bulletin, No. 31, 1918) that,

some counties, Hutchinson, for example, are largely peopled by
German stock. A large portion of the school population attend
German Catholic and German Lutheran parochial schools in which
German has been used largely as a medium of instruction. (Recently
stopped by order of the State Council of Defense.) In this county,
and in Hanson County, the German-Russian Mennonites still live the
quaint community life brought with them from Russia. German, not
English, is the language of the villages, although in most of the
schools English is the medium of instruction.

CALIFORNIA

The California Commissioner of Public Education stated to the writer that the state authorities have no right to interfere in any way with the private and parochial schools and that he is not legally able to collect any information in regard to these schools.

Even the leaders of the Russian sectarian peasant colonies maintain some sort of a private school of their own. The San Francisco colony has classes for children two evenings a week, in which they are taught reading and writing in the Russian language. In Los Angeles the colony leaders explained that their children learn the Russian language in their homes, where Russian is spoken exclusively, and that they learn Russian reading and writing in their Russian private evening schools, one hour each evening. The peasants themselves teach them. The parents have to pay certain small sums to the teachers.

The leaders expressed a keen desire that the city should provide them with a Russian school, for they would like to have their children able to read, speak, and write the Russian language. If they should not be able to settle in America on the land they would be compelled to return to Russia. The leaders of the Russian colony at Glendale, Arizona, said that they are attempting to teach Russian to their children in the evenings and other spare time, but owing to lack of time and proper teachers they have not made much progress.

HEBREW SCHOOL IN NEW JERSEY

The local manager of the Hirsch fund in Woodbine, New Jersey, a Jewish colony, stated that there is in the colony a Hebrew school supported by individuals and to a certain degree by the Hirsch fund. It is a Hebrew school connected with activities of the synagogue, maintained for religious purposes. It corresponds to the parochial school of Christian churches. About sixty pupils attend this school.

OPINIONS ON BOTH SIDES

It goes without saying that during war-time excitement, with its heightened suspicion, the statements made by the defenders of the foreign-language schools and their opponents do not always correspond to the reality. It has been the writers impression that the defenders were inclined to diminish the negative influence of these schools, while their opponents in a number of cases saw these schools darker than they really were.

For instance, it was a usual experience of the writer, when he arrived in an immigrant colony and explained either to individual leaders or to a meeting of the whole colony the purpose of his inquiry, to receive at the outset the following answer: "Well, we are all Americanized; we are all Americans; we understand and speak the American language and love the country; we are not a colony at all, but just plain American people of a certain old-country stock," etc. When it developed that the language of their church service and the teaching language in their private schools was their old-country language, the leaders began, with certain embarrassment, to admit that the old folks and the late arrivals do not understand English, and therefore the mother tongue of the parents becomes the home language for both the young and old. And since some settlers intend to return to the old country, and do not like to lose their former nationality--their old-country tongue is used in the churches and taught in the schools.

Perhaps the Polish settlers were most outspoken in their attachment to their nationality, while the German settlers were either silent or denied their preference for the German nationality; their main argument in favor of the use of German in their churches and schools was based on purely religious grounds. It was solely on this religious ground that they explained the higher proportion of German-language schools to the number of German immigrants than obtains in any other immigrant national group. The Jews claimed that their racial characteristics, such as diet, moral conceptions according to the Mosaic laws, and study of Hebrew history, were really contributions to America. They justified on this ground the cultivation of their racial differences, maintaining that there is nothing in this opposed to American ideals, but that, on the contrary, it is in accord with what this country stands for and fosters.

On the other hand, the opponents of foreign-language schools often viewed them as the sole hindrance to the better understanding and acceptance of American ways and institutions, the creators of disloyalty. They would close all foreign-language schools in the country at once, without any further consideration.

As a result of the war-time revelations and excitement, certain changes have taken place in these schools. In a number of states the use of a foreign tongue as a teaching medium and even as a subject of study in the common schools has been prohibited. In a number of places the immigrant leaders themselves have voluntarily changed their teaching language to English under the pressure of both public opinion in general and that of the members of their own group. "It is an injustice to our own people if we teach them a foreign tongue instead of the language of this country," stated a Lutheran pastor to the writer.

But in many cases the nationalistic leaders expressed their dissatisfaction with the changes "enforced" upon them. They expressed the opinion that after peace is established their people would have things their own way through their votes. Many of them are already naturalized and still more are going to be.

TEMPORARY USEFULNESS

The elementary foreign-language schools undoubtedly perform a service in preventing the disruption of families and are justified to this extent. The question arises, however, whether much more cannot be done to assist the parents, through evening schools and home teachers, to learn the language and customs of the country. If this work could be adequately done, it would not be necessary to hold the children back by teaching them a foreign language, only to be used to bridge a temporary gulf in their homes.

The justification for foreign-language elementary schools does not apply to the higher institutions. In the Dutch colony at Holland, Michigan, the writer was struck by the fact that while the people were largely Americanized and English had become their home or mother tongue, the colony leaders insisted on the Dutch language in their high school and college. The only explanation given was that this was done unconsciously. During recent years they had become conscious of the need and the inevitableness of Americanization, and, as a result, had substituted English for Dutch in their higher schools.

The Jewish colony in Woodbine, New Jersey, had a Jewish agricultural college, supported by the Hirsch fund. To the writer's inquiries as to why there was need of a special Jewish agricultural college, why the Jewish boys cannot enter American agricultural colleges, receiving scholarships from the Hirsch fund if need be, the answers of the authorities were varied: They had to follow the will of Baron de Hirsch; in a special Jewish institution the Jewish boys are kept from "going astray"; teaching and training can be better adjusted to the peculiarities of the Jewish boys, etc.

NEED FOR REGULATION

There is no question that the foreign-language private schools have done great harm to the country as a whole and to the immigrants themselves. The question is, What has to be done?

The parochial schools must be regulated by the following measures: All elementary private schools should be licensed or registered in the office of the public-school authorities; all should meet the same requirements as the elementary public schools in regard to the qualifications of teachers, school terms, program, teaching language, and inspection and direction by the public-school authorities. Exception might be made to permit religious instruction certain definite hours during the week to the American-born children in English and to recently arrived immigrant children in their mother tongue as well as instruction in their mother tongue as an extra cultural subject. The lessons should be given by a duly qualified teacher.

In another volume[30] of these Studies there is a further discussion of a successful experiment along this line. The parochial schools of New Hampshire have co-operated voluntarily with the state authorities. Progress toward regulation and the establishment of a minimum standard in all schools in the state has been made. Only through some such provision can this country insure equal opportunity to its potential citizens.

[26] Report of the Nebraska Council of Defense, January 14, 1917.

[27] Minnesota Department of Education, Nineteenth Biennial Report, 1915-16, p. 85.

[28] Minnesota Department of Education, Nineteenth Biennial Report, 1915-16, p. 92.

[29] C. P. Cary, _Education in Wisconsin, 1914-16_ (1917), p. 93.

[30] Frank V. Thompson, _Schooling of the Immigrant_, chap. iv.

X

IMMIGRANT CHURCHES

Immigrant or foreign-language churches are needed by the immigrants so long as they have not learned to understand the English language. But for those immigrants who have been long enough in this country to know English and for the immigrants' children born in America no foreign-language churches are needed. If the church authorities conduct the church services and activities in a foreign tongue for those immigrants who understand and speak English, they then do this for racial or nationalistic reasons--as a service to the old country or to a nationality other than the American nationality. That this is often the case is shown by the fact that certain foreign countries have been financially supporting churches here for their people who have come to America; for instance, the former Russian monarchy gave liberally for the establishment and upkeep of Russian Greek Orthodox churches in this country.

In the use of foreign language in nearly all the rural colonies visited by the writer where there was an immigrant church, the language used in the church services was the old-country tongue, although occasionally the services were bilingual, both English and the foreign tongue being used.

In North Dakota an American minister described the situation as follows:

Most of the German Catholic and Lutheran church services are in
German; some are bilingual. The Lutherans almost entirely have
all-German services. In the western part of the state a Bohemian or
a Slav can get only the German tongue. Scandinavian churches also
use their own tongue. All foreign churches here use their own
languages. Quite a number of foreign ministers are foreign born.
Some can scarcely speak English.

At a hearing before the state Americanization Committee in Lincoln, Nebraska, held in the fall of 1918, a large number of the priests and pastors of immigrant churches testified as to the use of the old-country language in their church services and pleaded for its retention. It was apparent from the testimony that the foreign-language church service was prevalent throughout the state in the immigrant churches. Practically every priest or pastor claimed that the majority of his congregation could not understand services in English.

The following extracts from the testimony are characteristic. Peculiar emphasis was laid by the church authorities upon the fact that although the people might understand and speak English fluently in their everyday affairs, yet they could not understand church service or religious instruction when these were given in English.

Statement of H. F. Hensick, Madison, Nebraska, pastor of German Evangelical Lutheran Church:

In my own congregation in Madison there are thirty-six who are not
able to understand the religious instruction in English; they are
those who were born in this country or who came here years back.

Statement of Richard Kuehne, Lincoln, Nebraska:

We have in Lincoln about eight thousand German-Russian people; the
most of them cannot follow an English sermon at all.

Statement of M. Lehninger, Plattsmouth, Nebraska, representing Evangelical Lutheran General Synod of Wisconsin and other states:

While there are a good many people who do understand English well
and speak it quite fluently in everyday conversation, they all have
had their religious instruction in German, and they understand a
German sermon where they cannot understand an English one. The
people of my church have come partly from Germany and partly from
Canada, and many communicant members are native-born American
citizens, and still it is a fact that perhaps only half a dozen
members of the two hundred and fifty communicant members will have
the full benefit of an English sermon.

Statement of Vic Anderson, Minden, Nebraska, Swedish Lutheran:

It is my judgment that 35 per cent of our people do not understand
preaching in the American language. They can do business in that
language, but when it comes to understanding the interpretation of
the Bible, they would like to have it in the Swedish language
because that is the language that their fathers and mothers taught
them in.

Statement of John H. Steger, Plattsmouth, Nebraska, St. Paul German Church:

Half of my congregation cannot understand the English language.

Statement of C. F. Brommer, Hampton, Nebraska, Lutheran pastor:

In every congregation, but mostly in the congregations of the city,
we have people who understand the English sermon as well as the
German sermon, and then I think the majority speak, read, and write
English, in common, everyday life, perfectly, but they still would
derive greater benefit from the German than the English sermon, and
I think there are probably nearly 98 per cent of our congregations
and people who do not understand the English sermons and never will
learn to understand them. These are mostly old people. When they
came here they did not have the time nor the opportunity to learn
the English language.

Statement of Adolph Matzner, Lincoln, Nebraska, representing the Nebraska district of the German Evangelical Synod of North America: