Page:Norwegian immigrant contributions to America's making.djvu/101

 Norwegian Lutheran Church of America some so-called leaders who like many other leaders in reality are followers of what they at the moment conceive to be the winning side, and easily join in the cry for false Americanism, just now so prevalent in many places.

The higher institutions of learning established by Americans of Norwegian birth or ancestry owe it to the people whose money has built these schools and who have done their share in building America by conquering the wilderness, by clearing and cultivating the land, to give in their curricula a prominent place to the intelligent and intensive study of Norwegian literature and history. They owe to themselves as American institutions to hit back and hit hard, at the ignorance and arrogance which dare to call everything "foreign" that does not conform with the narrowest conception of Americanism. They owe it, in true understanding of the idea underlying the Norwegian-American institutions of learning, to our glorious America which they want to make more glorious and rich in good things by doing their share, by contributing what the Norwegian element has that is worth while to the sum total of America's spiritual, intellectual and moral values.

This has been the great glory and the real justification of these educational institutions. When this view of the general aim of these institutions no longer prevails, and they lose their individuality, they will also lose their special appeal and run the risk of becoming superfluous in the large company of American, Christian and Lutheran institutions.