The sun., 1903-06-20
The Making of Americans.

The fifty-first commencement OF the
College OF the City Of New York, the
free public college of New York, held at
Carnegie Hall on Thursday evening" was
notable in several ways.
In the first place, the new president OF
the college, DR.. JOHN HUSTON FINLEY,
has given to the institution new dis
tinction because of his eminence in the
field of science and education. Next,
to use the words Of Mr. EDWARD LAUTER-
BACH, who spoke as a representative OF
the board of trustees, there is soon to
be " a realization of the dream of the last
fifteen wears in the erection of imposing
and suitable buildings for the college, on
noble site Seven stately buildings
as Mr. LAuTERBACH described them,
d" second to none in magnifcenoe, will
be erected on the four blocks situated
between l3Sth and 140th streets and
Amsterdam avenue and st. Nicholas
Terrace, and on the lst of October next
the ceremony of laying the cornerstone
of the main building will bc conducted,
with the hope, il not the expectation
that a year thereafter the building will
have been completed
Still another notable circumstance
was that of the 1873 graduates who re-
ccived the degree Of bachelor Of arts and
of the iifty-two that of bachelor of
science. at least three-fourths are
Jews. OF the prizes for special pro-
ciencv in various studies and branches,
nearly all we're carried off by Jews. 1t
NAV be said here that among the Young
women graduates from the Normal
College there was similor preponder-
ancn of Jewish names. and in the list NJ
the apteet pupils Of the public schools
generally the Jews also arc more nu-
merous than anv other rToe.
Jnasm,,ch MS the Jewish population
of New York is now about one-sixth of
the whole. and on Manhattan Island
must be toward a quarter OF the whole,
it is rot surprising that Jewish names
should be numerous in the schools and
colleges Of the town. On the Fast Side.
in the region of tho Ghetto. the names
of the schoolchildren are almost eSclu
sively Jewish, Of course, but we observe
that in the schools of parts of the town
where the Jewish population is still rela-
lively small those names are many and
proportionally are more than those of
any other race.
! Dr.. BUSHELS report of social factors
in Boston spoke Of somewhat similar
condition as existing there, though the
Jewish population Of Boston is actually
| nf o1l ha
there. he found hat the Jews are quickest
to take advantage Of the public schools
as means of pushing ahead their chill
dren in an American environment. and
he found also that these children are
especially remarkable for their facility
in arithmetical calculations and for their
taste for them; and we observe that the
prize winners in the higher mathematics
at the College of the City of New York.
on Thursday, are Jews. More note
worthy was the winning of prize there
in metal working by Jew. Among
Others. Jews also carried off prizes in
French. German and Spanish, in moral
philosophy, history, logic and botany.
Jewish parents in New York take more
interest in our public education than
those of any other race. and they are
more careful than any other in seeing
that their children attend the schools
and studiously improve their advantages.
Herein We get one explanation OF the
rapid progress Jewish families are max
ing in New York. They may come with
much larger percentage of illiteracy
than other races. with the exception Of
the Italian, but they are full OF ambition
for the American education of their
children; and, intellectually, even the
poorest and most apparently degraded
Russian Jew has an equipment which
makes him an apt learner and an espe-
cially clever scholar.
The language spoken by the great mass
OF the Jewish immigrants now coming
here in volume 80 large. is the Yiddish
jargon and they cling to it with pride
as badge of their race. Already there
are hundreds Of thousands of these Yid-
dish-speaking people in New York, yet We
do not hear Of any serious demand among
them for the teaching Of their jargon in
the public schools, though it has been
ironically suggested that il there is to be
teaching of foreign languages in the ele-
mentary schools Yiddish ought to be in
cluded, OF right. These Jews, wise in
their generation, send their children to
school to learn English as a necessary
means Of getting ahead in an English
speaking community, though, unques-
tionably. the training thus received by
the younger generation tends to establish
somewhat painful gulf Of separation
between them and their parents.
Tho generation Of Jews brought up