JANUARY 1926
THE UNITED AMERICAN
“The Unfortunate Native Born
By Marion E. Yeatman, Director of
PERHAPS the present stage of the
Americanization movement is too
early to give sufficient perspective for
an estimate of achievements.
Such
summaries, too, are apt to be unsatis­
factory, depending as they must on
facts and figures for the effectiveness
of their appeal. To determine just how
definite a place immigrant education has
assumed in our social structure would
be extremely difficult, and it is not
possible to analyze its bearing on pres­
ent-day thought.
Yet| occasionally
there is brought forcibly to one’s at­
tention straws which may be taken to
indicate the drift of the educational
wind. Sometimes these indications of
public sentiment give a quite unex­
pected angle to the situation. One
wonders, for instance, just how preva­
lent is the feeling illustrated by
following criticism:
An Americanization teacher, re-
turning from her class, engaged in con-
versation with a citizen of her com-
munity who showed a keen knowledge
of and interest in the school which she
represented. After a discussion of the
progress of the various departments of
the organization, he made the rather
blunt comment: “Well, this is all very
well, of course, but I can’t say that I’m
very strong for the Americanization
school.”
Now Friday night at the close of a
hard week’s teaching is not a propitious
mement to tell a teacher she is wasting
her time. Perhaps some of her very
natural indignation was manifest in the
tartness of her reply. At any rate, the
critic made haste to explain his posi­
tion.
“It isn’t that I object to the Ameri­
canization movement itself,” he con­
cluded. “Something' of the sort is
necessary, I’ve no doubt. But when I see
the amount of money, time, and trained
teaching that are being put on these
foreigners I can’t help asking the
question, ‘What is being done for the
man who is so unfortunate as to have
been born in this country?’”
There was more to the same effect.
Attention was called to the young man
of the rural districts who “before he is
thirty comes to a standstill” as far as
educational progress is concerned. The
speaker deplored the waste involved
under, such conditions and wondered
what might be done to prevent it.
The line of argument is not import­
ant. And perhaps there was a failure
on the part of the critic to recognize
certain values that loom large to the
Americanization teacher. But the in­
cident, if it is at all indicative of pub­
lic sentiment, is assuredly not without
its significance.
In a final reckoning will it not be
found that the effort to educate our
foreign born has had unlooked-for re­
sults? What are we doing for the de­
scendants of those who decreed that
education should be a cornerstone of
Americanization, Crockett, California,
our democracy? What, indeed! Per­
haps the most vital service that can be
rendered them. Is it not possible that
in our attempt to interpret to those of
other races our institutions and culture,
we are awakening our own people from
a stultifying self-complacency? It is
quite conceivable that the eagerness the
foreign born shows in accepting the op­
portunities offered him may serve to re­
mind the “unfortunate native bom
born ” ’ of
his own ancient and honorable birth'
right.
UNHAPPY F8!
In Northwestern Life Linei
Weep to the tale of Willie T8
Who met a girl whose name was K8
He courted her at a fearful r8
And begged her soon to become his m8.
“I would if I could,” said lovely K8
“I pity your lonely unhappy st8,
“But, alas, alas, you’ve come too 18.
“I’m married already. The mother of 8.’J
“EPPY-TAFFS1
Erie Motorist.
Here lies the remains of Percival Sapp;
He drove a car with a girl on his lap.
Lies slumbering here, one William Blake,
He heard the bell, but had no brake.
Beneath this stone lies William Rains:
Ice on the hill; he had no chains.
John Smith lies here without his nose,
He drove his car while filled with booze.
Here’s Mary Jane, but not alive
She made her car do forty-five.
Ed Jones is lost to earthly wiles,
He tried a curve at fifty miles.
Beneath this turf lies William Meak,
He used a match on a gas tank leak.
Johnson occupies this bunk,
He tried to drive while he was drunk.
Beside this brook sleeps Willie Bass,
The bridge was' narrow, but he tried
to pass.
She stalled her boat on a railroad track.
She’s gone very far and won’t be back.
Here lies the remains of .Ollie Pid,
He thought he Wouldn’t skid, but did.
Here lies the bodies of both the Drakes,
They trusted too much in their 4-wheel
brakes.
To this narrow bourne rushed poor Pat
O’Shean,
He mixed his liquor and gasoline.
Heaven help women like Mary La-Mar,
She took one lesson then drove her
Own car.
Rest, Michael O’Toole, — ’twas a fearful
crash,
When you missed the brake and stepped
on the gas.
Shed a tear for Al McGluck,
He missed a Ford but hit a truck.
Page Seventeen
LIFE
Anon.
To the soldier life is a battle,
To the teacher life is a school.
Life is a “good- thing” for the grafter
It’s.a failure to the fool.
To the man upon the engine
Life’s a long and heavy grade;
It’s a. gamble to the gambler;
To the merchant, it’s a trade.
Life is but a long vacation
To the man who loves his work
Life’s an everlasting effort
To the ones who like to shirk.
To the earnest Christian worker
Life’s a story ever new;
Life is what we try to make it,
Friend, What is Life to you?
fame.
name
The happiest heart that ever beat
Was in some quiet breast
That found the common daylight sweet,
And left to Heaven the rest.
The Benefit of the Doubt. Quizzing
a boy is not always so easy as it seems.
Here is an instance in which a New
Yorker came out second best in a passage
of repartee with a lad named Richard
who looked after the hat room in a well
known cafe.
The diner started out of the cafe after
his meal and was seized, as Richard
handed him his hat, with an impulse to
quiz the lad.
“Is this my hat?” he demanded.
“I don’t know, sir.”
“Well, then, why do you hand it to me
if you don’t know whether it is my hat
or not?”
“Because it is the one you handed to
me when you came in,” said Richard.
— Kansas City Star.
Among the Missing. Two farmers
met at a certain town a day or two after
a tornado had visited that particular
neighborhood.
“She shook things up pretty bad out
at my place,” said one, stroking his
whiskers meditatively. “By the way,
Hi,” he said, “that new barn o’ yourn
get hurt any?”
“Waal,” drawled the other, “I dunnoo.
I haint found it yet.”
— London Weekly Telegraph.