The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-06-19

Jews in New York, almost wholly on
Manhattan Island. and their number Is
even put as high as 100000 by other
estimates Of well-informed statisticians.
Commissioner FRANcoL1NI at the meet
ing Of the Board of Education on Wednes-
day estimated the number OF Italians az
present in New York at 325 900, an Italian
community which is increasing rapidly
for the immi grafton of that nationality
Is now greater than that Of any other
The next census will probably put the
German element in the second, II not
the third, place in New York, and the
Irish, now little less than the German,
still further below.
Commissioner FRANcoL1NI asked, with
pertinency, why, with $4,000 Italians IN
New York, public school instruction in
the German language should be consid-
cred more than instruction in Italian.
Commissioner CoNNERY had reason
also for asking, in view Of our great
Spanish-speaking colonial population,
If the schools ought not to teach the
Spanish language il they are to teach
German. Latin races are becoming the
majority in our foreign-born population.
Why should not their languages be
taught if any foreign tongue is taught?
The great problem before New York is
to assimilate these foreign races, as
social and political necessity. For our
schools to teach the foreign languages OF
the majority Of the population is to re-
tard, if not to defeat, that necessary
assimilation First Of all, we must make
homogeneous population out OF the
greatest compound Of race elements in
the history of mankind.
Moreover, the public schools cannot go
beyond instruction In the English Ian
guage and in the elementary branches
without impairing their efficiency in that
instruction. The course Of study needs
to be simplfed, for all the pupils except
a comparatively small number have only
Il very few years to give to schooling
preparatory to going out to work for
their living. For instruction in the
English branches alone the period is too
short for the best results.
III herman parents Ut JIose VI any
other nationality desire for their children
instruction in other languages than
English ought they not to provide for it
outside of schools supported by taxa
ton of the whole people? Was not
Commissioner BARRETT right in arguing
on Wednesday that no foreign language
should be compulsory on the scholars
and that none can be made compulsory
without conflicting with necessary public
policy and the rights of the whole body Of
citizens, no matter whether the language
taught is German, French or another?
The Board Of Education, moreover,
has not given occasion for the some
what violent protest made by certain
German bodies. 1t simply has modified
the curriculum. Heretofore, elementary
pupils were permitted to study German,
at the request Of their parents, as an
extra, for two hours week for two and
a half years. Under the new rule the
study is optional in all the schools for
one year, with five hours week, as an
alternative to French. Latin or stenog-
raphy. If the board had gone further
and abolished the instruction altogether
the violence of the protest could not have
been greater, though that policy would
be justified by considerations We have