Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-07-26
AMERICAN POPULATION

| A CALCULATION made by an east
| n ern magazine with a view to per-
"A fecting plans for a campaign Tor
national circulation has given such ex-
traordinary results that the magazine
has made them public, and we think
has thereby rendered a great and time
ly service. Ignorance of social condi-
lions in the United States is the mother
of a multitude of evile, and it is high
time we were beginning to look at
! things as they are, at conditions as
they exist. The unpleasant fact is,
while we have a larger population
than any other English-speal1ng coun-
! try, it is grayely to be doubted whether
we have much bigger English speak
ing and English-reading population
than the United Kingdom. The Wom-
ans World says there are 40,000,00
adults in the United States, but that
! Of one-fourth of these it can be said
! they are either unable to read English
: or to read at all.
This condition is fostered by the most
extraordinary fact which can be men
| toned in connection with American
immigration. The vast multitudes of
; continental Europeans who are added
to our population every year are not
required to learn the language of the
country. With enthusiastic tolerance,
our government allows these foreigners
TO form foreign settlements. Even as
there is an Oriental quarter in Los An
geles, where the merchants signs are
printed in Chinese, so in many big east
ern cities there are from one to half
dozen foreign quarters where the in
| habitants are allowed to muddle along
in contented ignorance of Americanism,
and where the boss system in politics
is developed to perfection, the I'M
American and ultra foreign Greeks of
Chicago being managed politically by
a Greek boss" the Russians of New
York by a Russian, etc. We have
picked out the Russians and the Greeks
because they do not even use the Latin
alphabet, and therefore in appearance
their languages are as remote and as
distinctly different from ours as are
| Chinese and Arabic.
This is a free country, and man
has a right to know the language of
his forefathers, but he has no right
to make of himself n perpetual for
eigner in the United States by neg
lecting to learn our language. Yet the
neglect of thousands of Europeans is
fostered and helped by the fact Yid-
dish newspapers are published and
circulated in the Yiddish quarters of
| New York, and are the only papers
read. Italian papers supply the ltal-
ian uuarter-what opportunities have
the Italians to get into sympathy with
the United States?
The Greeks have their own papers,
and some of the German newspapers
of the east, published in the German
Language and the German alphabetical
characters, have very large circula-
tions among people who only by
stretch of courtesy that in an emer-
gency might be deemed foolish are
called Americans" or German Amer
leans" WHEN THEY DO NOT
LEARN THE LANGUAGE, THEY
ARE NOT OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.
THEY ARE GERMANS IN AMERICA
And as the Woman's World sadly
noints out to publishers inspired by the
vast population of the United states
70 seek vast circulations, about one
fourth of the adult population of our
country cannot be reached by publ
cations in the lawful language of the
| Rennhlici