The united American : a magazine of good citizenchip., June 01, 1925, Page 6, Image 6

Page Six
THE UNITED AMERICAN
THE
UNITED AMERICAN
H. J. LANGOE, Editor
Associate Editors
Wm. Chandler Smith, Chief, Immigrant Education, New York
Chas. M. Herlihy, Supervisor Alien Education, Massachusetts
Robert G. Deming, Director State Americanization, Connecticut
R. E. Dugdale, Dir. Extension Dept., Bd. Education, Toledo, 0.
Geo. A. Green, Director of Citizens’ Bureau, Cleveland, Ohio
A. C. Strange, Superintendent Public Education, Astoria, Oreg.
EDITORIAL
IN A FIELD OF NATIONAL INFLUENCE FOR
THE AMERICANIZATION CAUSE
T"' 0 SERVE the cause of Americanization the United
1 American came into being. The extent of its useful­
ness in this great movement may best be judged from
the decision taken last month by the Editorial Board
of the Interstate Bulletin to consolidate that publica­
tion with the United American in a special Adult Edu­
cation and Americanization issue for the Annual Con­
vention of the N. E. A. The endorsement of the de­
partment officers is likewise an acknowledgement of
this journal’s leadership in this cause.
This issue is the first of its kind ever published in
America—containing a national review and analysis of
Americanization progress prepared by the leaders and
directors of the work in every state where public ap­
proval and support have made it possible.
To educators, teachers and students this issue will
be of especial interest inasmuch as it contains valuable
summaries of the activities in every state and in every
city of importance.
It is only fitting that for the occasion all the avail­
able space should be given to the contributing super­
visors and directors whose articles are of much greater
importance for the purposes they have been prepared
than is any other matter, editorial or otherwise.
If the cause of adult education, citizenship training
and Americanization in general shall be advanced as
a result of this issue, the effort put forth shall not have
been in vain.
THE AMERICAN OF TOMORROW
N SPITE of all discouraging and distracting isms
1
that confuse and confound the people, we main­
tain, and with good reason, that we are making a
steady advance along the higher levels of human pro­
gress. Our standards of justice are built higher, the
public conscience is growing more sensitive, the pro­
vision for general education is being constantly in­
creased and strengthened, and it is regarded as a re­
proach to wealth not tô be associated with philanthro-
phy and constructive community charity.
Viewing these evident tendencies and aspirations,
these increasingly exacting requirements in the code of
social, business and public life, it is obviously not
necessary to worry over the strain of blood that courses
in the citizenship behind it.
It is unmistakably plain that we are not a degen­
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JUNE 1925
erate nation. Were it otherwise there would be cause
for alarm and even consternation. Our chance for
salvation is good indeed, if we just apply ourselves.
It is conforting reflection that the nations which
have degenerated have generally done so from a homo-
genious and primal stock. We should felicitate our
selves that we are in no danger of such fate under
similar conditions, and that our nation is a composite
ensemble of many racial strains.
We have today many types of Americans. At some
future time there will be evolved a new type and a
more distinctly national one than we have ever
known. It will be a still more interesting composi­
tion, a blend of our many nationalities and racial
strains. We have for quite a while been gathering
the material for it. It will be a product of environ­
ment, opportunity and the survival of the fittest
Perhaps the “good old stock” will continue to leaven
it, but to do so it must, like the new element that
will enter into it, develop upward and not downward.
If we will divest ourselves of pur prejudices, we shall
find our pessimism largely following them. It is a
patriotic as well as an optimistic and national belief
that the ultimate world’s American will be a splendid
product of the world’s civilization, worthy of all the
traditions and struggles through which came these
nationalities, and in our citizenship lies the solution of
the future problems of this republic and in its civic
conscientiousness the fate of the glorious America that
is to be.
INTERSTATE COUNCIL ON IMMIGRANT
EDUCATION
rF HE GENERAL rule of principles for adult educa-
1 tion and Americanization work as outlined by
John J. Mahoney, president of the Council on Immi­
grant Education, should be made applicable everywhere.
No success is achieved without proper organiza­
tion and an orderly arrangement of so vast a subject is
absolutely essential to progress.
The Mahoney outline is like a chart, simple to under­
stand and easy to follow. The United American has
given the entire page four to a typographical display
of every one of the Mahoney points and principles.
Keep it for reference and use it as a guide and the
educational problem will solve itself.
THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE
F EVERY nationality, by origin or transplantation,
1
in America should begin to lay claim to the cultural
contributions of the land of their forefathers or o'
their birth, which have been added to the culture of
America, and give such contributions foreign names,
the protest would be general.
The language which we speak, the servant of our
thoughts and the vehicle of our expressions, may be
acknowledged as of English origin, for the Pilgrim
Fathers brought it, but that was a long time ago and,
surely, the lingual progress we have made, with three
hundred years back of it, should give us a reasonable
right to call the tongue of America our own, without
feeling inclined to apologize to anybody if we started
calling our language the AMERICAN LANGUAGE!
The fact of the matter is that the language o:
America is no longer English. This discovery wai
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