The Northman., April 29, 1920, Page 8, Image 8

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April 29, 1920
THE NORTHMAN
8
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Foreign Language Press
From the Oregon Voter.
<_______ _ ___________________________ .___ /
[C. C. Chapman, editor of the Oregon Voter, is
one of the best known writers and publicists of
Oregon. He has for many years been engaged
in constructive, civic and political work in the
development of the state and his publication is
widely accepted as an impartial review and re­
ference work on men and measures touching the
public welfare.]
E confess that seldom in a quarter century
of experience in listening to public adresses
W
have we been as deeply impressed as we were
recently in hearing Haakon J. Langoe before the
Portland Press Club. Mr. Langoe is editor of
Pacific Skandinaven, a foreign language news­
paper of Portland. With an eloquence born of
intense feeling and a diction that could have been
acquired only by familiarity with English classics,
he pleaded for the Americanization of the foreign
language press in the manner prescribed by the
much-discussed Norblad law hastily enacted at
the recent legislative session. While Mr. Langoe
did not convert us to the conviction that the law
was completely just or fair under all the cir­
cumstances, he presented a viewpoint which for
lofty Americanism and high principle commanded
our profoundest respect.
Heart interest was imparted to his remarks
by his simple relation of the parting admonition
of his father when the young man left Northern
Norway at the age of 19 to seek his fortune in
the land of the Free. The fact that the day
before the address, the speaker had received a
cablegram announcing the death of this beloved
parent, lent tragic emphasis to the personal
incident he related.
“My father’s last words to me at the steamship
dock when I was about to part from my native
land were: ‘My son, be a good citizen of the
country to which you are going to make your
home.’ And again, at the same dock after I had
finished my one return visit to my birthplace, he
repeated almost the same words: ‘My son, re­
member; always be a good citizen of the land in
which you have made your home.’ ”
That the speaker had endeavored to live up to
this ideal was felt by every listener to his burning
words. All felt that except in birth he was as
genuine an American as any citizen of this
republic could be, and that in the intensity of his
patriotic ideals he was setting an example which
all of native birth could take to heart as an
inspiration to better Americanism.
A conception that was new to us was conveyed
by him in clear language with reference to the
obligations conferred by American citizenship.
“We must eradicate”, said he, “the erroneous
belief that being law-abiding alone constitutes
the essential qualification of citizenship in
America.”
■ He told of the applicant for naturalization,
who in his contact with the machinery whereby
foreign born are transformed into American
citizens, gained the notion that the one supreme
obligation of conduct as a citizen was to “obey
the law.” “In other words,” as he put it, “to keep
out of jail,—by not committing a crime an
American is as good an American as is required
by his naturalization oath, aside merely from the
renunciation of old allegiance and the vow of
new allegiance. To keep out of the clutches of
the police or the sheriff—that is what to his
mind is the embodiment of the essential qualifica­
tion.”
“American citizenship has a deeper meaning,”
he declared with fervor, “and confers a fuller
obligation and duty than mere obedience to law.”
Mr. Langoe also analyzed the situation with
reference to what he characterized as “com­
munities within communities,”—meaning the
communities of foreign-born people, with their
foreign ideals perpetuated in the midst of the
broader American community from which they
separate themselves mainly by failure to realize
the duty of adapting themselves to the full point
of view of American citizenship and its deeper
obligations.
“While the mind of the American public during
every day that passes finds itself confronted with
many new problems, political and social, that
must be dealt with,” said he, “there is one
problem that stands foremost and must not be
confused with other issues. That problem is the
Americanization (not mere naturalization) of the
foreign born.
“Out of the war struggle has come to the
American consciousness a deeper meaning of
citizenship. With this there has been the growing
conviction that a thoughtless policy has been
pursued heretofore in permitting and encouraging
the establishment of racial and nationality com­
munities within communities. These communi­
ties within communities must be absorbed into
the larger community of American nationality.
“As a step, the foreign language press in
America should be discouraged rather than
encouraged. The true conception of the duties
and qulifications that are vital to American
citizenship will not be conveyed to a foreign born
citizen in a publication printed in his native
tongue. This true concept can only come to a
man who learns to understand them through the
language of this nation—the American language,
as I prefer to call it.
“To make of America one nation in its deeper
meaning, the community within a community
must forsake its identity in language. Its broader
activities,' social and religious, must take on the
language of America in order to discharge its
obligation. The America of today must move
towards a more conscious conception of national­
ism than that which has marked its past if the
American institutions and form of government
given us by birth or adoption are to be preserved
and transmitted as a heritage to future genera­
tions. /
“Efforts to control the freedom of the foreign
language press in America, as set forth in the
King bill in Congress, were defeated on the
ground that the measure was infringement of
rights of free speech and free press as guaranteed
by the constitution. This defect has been
remedied in spirit in the Norblad bill, enacted at
the recent special session in Oregon, whereby it
is proposed to regulate the foreign language
press in this state by making it compulsory upon
such publications to present in each issue a true
translation of its contents in parallel columns.
“This bill is to be tested as to its constitu­
tionality at the instance of those who oppose its
enforcement. In its defense it will be urged that
while a state may not abridge a constitutional
right, it may regulate any business that claims
its protection, and this measure is entirely
regulatory.
“It is unfortunate but true nevertheless that no
particular qualification has ever been considered
a necessary requisite for a foreign language
editor in America other than he had an education
in his native language obtained in his native
country. Conduct of so vital an American insti­
tution as the press entails special responsibilities
when a publication is written, edited and printed
in a foreign tongue. Such publications, assum­
ing to teach American ideals and American spirit
to foreign born in their foreign tongue, may
rightly be regulated as to the form if not the
substance of what they publish.
“The treasured cultural values we of Scandi­
navian birth brought with us from our native
soil—the traditions of the races and nations of
our origin—will be better preserved and under­
stood when we adapt ourselves in our press to
the American language. Then we shall never
again have to explain in translation our stand on
issues affecting the American people and the
attitude of our people towards the same.”
Mr. Langoe has made a strong case in behalf
of the feature of the Norblad bill requiring
translation in parallel columns, although the
wisdom of adopting such a drastic measure with­
out public hearing or discussion may properly be
called in question. To another feature of the
Norblad bill, Mr. Langoe so far as we are aware
has not addressed ' himself in justification—that
is, the prohibition of the “display or sale” of a
foreign language paper which may have been
printed outside the State of Oregon or even out-
A SAGA OF ORKNEY.
Many men of the A. E. F. may have
occasion to recall the port of Kirkwall,
in the Orkney Islands. It was a
strategic point in the naval affairs
of the allies and particularly Eng­
land. In historical interest the old
town of Kirkwall ranks with those of
first importance in the world. A
series of Sagas of the Orkneys center­
ing in Kirkwall will appear in The
Northman beginning in an early
issue.
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side the United States, unless it is published with
the translation in parallel columns. It must be
obvious that this requirement, strictly enforced,
would shut all European newspapers, magazines
and pamphlets (other than English), out of the
public news stands of the state. We doubt
whether the framer of this hastily prepared bill
had any such object in mind or that Mr. Langoe
would advocate prohibiting the display and sale
of the principal literary, art and scientific maga­
zines and pamphlets of the non-English world
on the public news stands of Oregon. True, these
are details compared with the major issues so
inspiringly stated by Mr. Langoe, but it is by
detail that severe irritation is inflicted, and the
errors in the Norblad bill deserve acknowledg­
ment by its friends and correction at the next
legislative session.
ks to the major issues raised by Mr. Langoe,
thu people of Oregon and the Nation should
address themselves to them—not in a spirit of
bigotry and certainly not with hasty and ill-
digested restrictions of a drastic character.
Deliberation is essential to justice, and haste
with best intent too often is the instrument of
injustice, tyranny and oppression. The question
is as big as Mr. Langoe proves it to be,—far too
big for the arbitrary solution offered by the Nor­
blad bill.
THE COMMON STOCK.
Dr. Frank Crane
We are told by gentlemen with a scien­
tific flourish and a professional cocksure­
ness that we are never going to get fine
humans until we breed for fine men as
carefully as cattle are bred to get fine
beeves. Our race is demonstrated to be
running to cretins and riminals because
brides and grooms are selected by moon­
light and by holding hands, and are not
nominated by the state board of health.
But somewhere in the chain of reasoning
which is supposed to carry the conclusions
of the shorthorn pedigree book over into
human nature, somewhere there is a miss­
ing link.
For, as a cold, unscientific fact, the best
stock of the human race is the common
stock- For some reason when the great
man arises he always grows out in the
woods-pasture and never in the hothouse.
Instances: Napoleon, Lincoln, Wagner,
Beethoven, all the artists from Giotto to
Whistler and all the writers from Homer
to Kipling.
TEACH THIS TO THE BOYS.
This incident occured before the war on
a ship coming home from Europe, but the
point and lesson it contains was not de­
stroyed in the conflict:
Australian lady was bringing her son
to America to be educated. It was thought
strange that she should want the boy
brought here for an education, with so
many world-famous institutions of learn­
ing in Europe, on being questioned, she
replied:
“I want my son to be taught considera­
tion for women.”
After having observed conditions in
several countries on the continent, one
might well understand the reason of this
high opinion of American chivalry.
Ridicule and abuse are not argument.
They are resorted to only in the absence
of argument.
THE NATION BUILDERS
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Not gold, but only men, can make
A people great and strong;
Men who, for truth and honor’s sake
Stand fast and suffer long,
Brave men who work while others sleep—
Who dare while other fly—
They build a nation’s pillars deep,
And lift them to the sky.