November, 1922.
7
THE WESTERN AMERICAN
desirable padrone and steamship agent have easily
secured their papers.
I The report states that one of the most gratifying
results of work done by the committee has been the
spirit of co-operation manifest by many of the for
eign born priests. In many cases the long-standing
separation between public and parochial schools have
been broken down for this good purpose and classes
of foreign born men and women are being taught
the American language in their own parochial
schools by teachers sent by the Board of Education
and paid by the Americanization Committee.
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■ On the subject of language instruction, the Cleve
land Americanization Committee submits the fol
lowing:
■ It would be absurd for Americans to deceive them
selves as to the success of their efforts up to this
lime in teaching the American language to for
eigners. It is a most astonishing fact how little the
school has actually helped. The census of 1910 in
dicated that of the foreign born who came here in
the years from 1904 to 1910, hundreds of thousands
learned some American. The same source of infor
mation tells us that of those that did learn Amer
ican, less than one-half of one per cent learned it in
school. Cleveland with 150,000 who speak little or
no American has reached during the present year
less than 3,000. Boston has reached, during the
past year, a scant 1,200 or 1,500. Other great cities,
like Detroit, Chicago and Buffalo, have, up to this
time, proved themselves no more able to cope with
the situation.
■ This failure is not due to the lack of interest on
the part of the immigrant himself. He has every
reason to want to learn our language. He knows
weir that the learning of the language of the land
.means a better job and more of the comforts of life.
But after a few lessons he fails to make the progress
which he has expected and feeling that he is too old
to learn, he falls back into his foreign surroundings,
speaks and hears nothing but his native tongue and
to him America has largely ceased to exist.
■ The problem of teaching the language on a scale
which will actually meet the need has not yet been
solved in Cleveland or in any other city of the United
States. The non-American speaking man must be
Reached in his work. The factory class method is
best. In teaching him, we must first put force and
energy into the process. We need technique, energy
and understanding. We must apply to the teaching
some of the energy that has made it possible foi'
America to excell the world in high-speed production.
■ Most non-American speaking foreigners are used
to a paternalistic form of government. Many of the
peasant class which came here were bom and brought
up under a landlord system of rented farms. Be
sides renting the land, the owner or landlord serves
as their banker, lawyer, storekeeper and general ad
visor. He buys their crops and sells them their
goods. Consequently they are in the habit of going
to one person for most all their dealings and advice.
Transplanted in this country they seek the same kind
of a leader and there has grown up here in Amer
ica a class of individuals that seeks to take the place
of the old country landlord. But this position is
sometimes sought not in the light of helping to
Americanize their countrymen but rather to keep
them in ignorance and fear of our institutions in
order that these leaders may make personal profit
and gain.
Information as to what American banks and other
public service institutions stand for and the service
they can render to individuals will help in the gen
eral plan of securing the interest of the newcomers
and help lead them into American ways.
LIFE’S GREAT BLUNDERS
C OME of the disgruntled elements we frequently en-
counter today, proponents of certain vague isms,
should ponder over some of the “blunders” five hun
dred men have written down as contributing causes
to failure in life:
“Reading worthless books.”
“Did not stick to my trade.”
“Did not stick to anything.”
“Did not take care of my money.”
“Beating someone out of money.”
“Careless about my religious duties.”
“When I left my church and mother.”
“Not saving money when I was young.”
“Refused a steady position with a good firm.”
“The greatest blunder of my life was gambling.”
“Was to fool away my time when I was at school.”
“Thinking that my boss could not do without me.”
“Would not harken to the advice of older people.”
“Not keeping my position, but grew slack with
my work.”
“When I left school before I was past the fourth
grade.”
It is a striking coincidence that the present “Amer,
ica for Americans of native birth” movement of in
tolerance and religious bigotry, that is sweeping the
State of Oregon, has absorbed an abundance of peo
ple who, like most of the I. W. W.s, have never done
very well, neither as businessmen, professionals
or as politicians. Anything to give them a lift into
the heaven of ease, comfort and influence, political
and in business, is therefore, as an alternative, as
welcome to them as the proverbial “flower in May.”
THINK THIS OVER
From a Card of Good Advice
No man ever pushed himself forward by patting
himself on the back.
Character is the result of two things, mental atti
tude and the way we spend our time.
Think twice before you speak, and then talk to
yourself.
Every duty well done makes the next easier.
HOW TO BEGIN THE DAY
From Marcus Aurelius
D EGIN the morning by saying to thyself: I shall
meet this day with the busybody, the slanderer,
the ungrateful, the arrogant, the deceitful, the en
vious and the unsocial. All these things happen to
them by reason of their ignorance of what is good
and evil. But I who have seen the nature of the
good, that it is beautiful, and of the bad, that it is
ugly, cannot be injured by any of them. No one can
fix on me what is ugly and I cannot be angry with
my neighbor nor hate him. We are made for co
operation. To act against one another, therefore,
is contrary to Nature—working against the neigh
bor and against self. I must therefore command
myself to forgive, understand, love always.