Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/282

 teaching. The writer of this article taught for many years in one of these vacation schools, the purpose of which was simply to impart a knowledge of the language; the advanced reader he used was a history of the United States, while another contained articles on the Declaration of Independence, on George Washington, Benjamin Fraklin, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. In Nebraska they have gone so far as to prohibit the use of a foreign language in public addresses.

The Bohemian people have resented this action in both states for the following reasons:

1. They protest against any action which places them in the same class with disloyal Germans. They have been consistently and wholeheartedly loyal, and it must be a very stupid individual indeed who would criticize their resentment at being ranked with those who have been openly disloyal, or at best made a half-hearted pretense of being loyal.

2. They object to being made the victims of designing politicians who are seeking to appease the German vote. There is no question that this has played a large part in the agitation of this subject in both Iowa and Nebraska. The Germans knew that restrictions would be placed upon them, but they found special comfort in the fact that other, wholly loyal citizens, like the Danes and Bohemians, should be made to suffer with them. Their pleasure was all the more keen, because these people were loyal and because they were hated by the Germans, from whom they have suffered much injustice, both in Europe and in this country. A prominent German of Iowa made the statement, in the presence of the writer, that some of the foreigners, like the Danes, were well-satisfied as long as restrictive measures were aimed at the Germans, but that they cried out, when they themselves were included. He showed the animus of his kind, when he added that “what was good for the goose was good for the gander.” Such restrictive measures, if they had any honest purpose, were aimed at disloyal Germans. Why should loyal Danes or loyal Czechs be included with them?

It my be added that the Bohemian people regard as a mere subterfuge the statement, also coming from the politicians, thtthat [sic] there was much disloyal work carried on through the medium of languages other than German, and that therefore they should be suppressed. Why not include the English as well, for of course English was employed more than any other language in promoting treason. Morever, there is not a trace of evidence to show that Danish, Bohemian, Polish and other languages spoken by perfectly loyal foreign-born citizens, were used at any time for disloyal propaganda.

3. They found that restrictions placed upon the use of foreign languages interfered seriously with much of the patriotic work done by the Czechs of this country during the war. There are still many of the older people who have difficulty in following an argument in English, and it was possible to reach them much more effectively through the medium of their own tongue.

There are those who criticize these older people (the children of course all speak English) for not acquiring a thorough knowledge of English; but have they considered that we have done practically nothing to help them? How would a mature man or woman who had come to us from a foreign land go about it to learn English? They are past school age and would not be received in our public schools, even if they were able to overcome the natural aversion to being classed with children. Moreover, most of them work for a living during the day and could not attend day schools. With the exception of a few large cities practically no community has made provision for evening schools for such people. Their employer seldom takes trouble to teach them—he is more intent on getting increased production out of them. One brilliant newspaper correspondent suggested that since foreigners as a rule learn to swear fluently in English they might as well learn the rest of the language. He forgot that the facilities for learning in the former case are much better, for the unfortunate workman usually hears a string of oaths, if he fails to comprehend the directions of his employer or his foreman. We have no right to blame these people for any shortcoming in this direction so long as we have not provided means of instruction and assistance.

One Iowa editor, criticizing the Bohemians of Cedar Rapids for continued use of their language said that they had no need of it, since the colony was seventy years