FEBRUARY, 1925
THE UNITED AMERICAN
Page Eighteen
ican official cannot be bribed and that it is a serious some remote mountain. But in our democracy we have
thing to do to offer an official money in exchange for need of the presence in every school, near at hand, of
special grants and concessions. Had he done this he those who help the teacher and parent to carry this
would have been minus all the excellent publicity he highest gift from one generation to another, — the
received, which may or may not prove to be a means Muses of our Mother-tongue, the Parts of Speech. It
to advancement, but his would have been the satis is their presence that I would invoke for those who
faction of knowing that the Austrian colony in teach the adults of alien tongue as well as those who
Clifton would now be having a still deeper respect for teach our own children:
Uncle Sam, attaching that sense of security, trust
0 Parts of Speech, who preserve our laws so that
and confidence which constitutes the foundation upon
which honorable and upright citizenship may be built. they are written as on tables of stone; who remember
what is forgotton even by our bodies, by the pictures
The brass-knuckle method as a means to teach that fade and by the cairns that crumble; who can ex
jthe aliens the meaning of the American law is press thoughts so subtle, so profound, so exalted, that
an attempt to revive also this antiquated system of no artisan, no artist or musician even can translate
old Europe, an importation that should be knocked them; who can endow the human voice with a speech,
out of our system wherever it appears in disguise as small and quite, yet mightier than that of the hurri
an American virtue. Without it we will lose nothing cane, earthquake or fire; whose syntax can work
of our firmness and the principle of self-government, changes more wonderful than the achievements of
which rests on the individual’s natural reactions in synthetic chemistry; whose etymology is more dis
support of the law, will retain its hold on those millions cerning of human spirit than is analytical chemistry
who are citizens in the making as much as on those of earthly elements! May your declensions, inflections
who are naturalized or native-born.
and conjugations in our schools be as the rites of a
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sacred service in which life has its most useful, fullest,
The means which Mr. Thomas admittedly used to highest utterance!
accomplish his sensational capture of the alien fisher
folk who are alleged to have tried to corrupt his
morals, leave much to be desired. Whether it is
legally a case of entrapment we are not at this time
in a position to say, but certainly it is morally a case
that has all the earmarks of a cruel entrapment.
What naturalization examiner is there who cannot
tell any number of incidents where aliens in some
for the following brands
awkward manner have approached them with a similar
purpose? Their dignified and corrective responses
have had a most wholesome effect, though they missed
the publicity that Thomas gained. If Thomas’ method
of handling this situation is right in the sight of all
Mt. Hood Overalls
America, then we are not Americanized, and what’s
more, we are not anxious to be.
Mt. Hood Shirts
Believing, as we do, that Mr. Thomas, in a show
University Overcoats
down, will, himself, stand arraigned in public opinion,
we submit the prima facia evidence for public con
University Mackinaws
sideration, and invite the people of Oregon, in the
interest of a higher standard in citizenship, to take an
Jenny & Joe Play suits
interest in the alien people in this state and demand
¡that they be given the help they need in Americaniza
Columbi-Ann
tion so that repetition of such scenes as these enacted
House Dresses
in Astoria under the direction of Mr. Thomas shall
never occur again.
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Ladies’ Night Gowns
Poor misguided people of the fishing hamlet!
No one had told them that it was a felony and
penitentiary offence to offer an American official
A Warranty Bond with Every Garment
money for a favor not strictly within the law.
“Attempted bribery” is one of the horrible Ameri
can expressions the fishing folk at Clifton have learned
to understand since this trouble swept in on them like illllllllllllllllllllllllllllilUlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllUlllllllllllllilllllltllllllllllllHIIIIIIIII
a tidal wave.
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