Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-06-13
English Leads.

| or 81 : per cent. of the total NUMBER
of the organizations, and us per cent
of the total membership in continent
al United States. English ana so'he
foreign languages were used III ''oo
organizations. with 3,371.62S memoers'
while foreign languages only are use"
in the church services OF 1888 organ
izations with 5,O22, sol members OF -
! nor cont of the organizations. ana -
| per cent. of the membership or per
| cont or the estimated population in
| 1906.
Tie census of 1906 was the 1rst III
which an attempt was MADE 10 secure
| .onnIete reports from the various de-
combinations as to the languages used
IN the conduct of religious services.
This was considered i'm the report ioi
1880 an important element in the state
ment of the work of the churcles' eS-
| peciallv among the foreign population
hut there was in the 1890 report no
| general enumeration or classification.
| although summaries, recognized as ap-
proximate, were given of the IAN
| puaces used in the Lutheran bodles
and the Methodist Episcopal Church,
and mention was made of those uscd
| in other bodies.
1t is stated in the present report
| tina. the total number of organizations
reporting was 204,26S. or &c. per cent
of the grand total A considerable
| number of organizations which mace
| no report apparently. it is asserted
| took it for granted that it would be
understood that English was used. 1t
| follows. therefore. according to the re-
mort. that the record of languages used
| i'm church services is reasonably com :
| plete.
| With reference to those using for
eisn languages only the report points
out that as approximately 100000 M
migrants, using foreign languages, en-
tered the United States during the
wears 1905 and 1906 it is evident that
i the adoption of English by these lnlmi-
grant communities has progressed rap
| idIv. II should be noted. the report
states that bv no means all of these
immisrants are identified with church
| life.
| The bodies reporting the largest
number of organizations using for
eign languages only are naturally
those most largely made up of immi-
grants. OF those most closely Identified
with church work among immigrants
IN tie Lutheran bodies 7242 orGaniza :
| tions with 227 1851 members report TIC
use of a foreign language only; in the
| Roman Catholic Church 2176 orSanlza !
tions with 3,C64,4 members; in the
Methodist Episcopal Church les or
carnations with $3.50 members, and
in the German Evangelical Synod OF
POI 131 members. The average mem
| bershp in organizations using foreign
languages only is smaller than that
of organizations using English and a
foreign language. except in the Ro-
| man Catholic Church, where some very
large parishes are reported Thus q
| French parish in California reports
$500 members. and an Italian and Por-
tugucse parish so15 members; while in
Illinois % Polish parishes average
3S23 members each. and . Bohemian
! parishes 1884 members. There appear.
therefore. to be large non English
speaking communities provided in each
case with a single church whose nu-
merous services meet the wants of the
people.
The number Of languages reported
| is A. though two of them. Austrian
| and Scandinavian. are probably Ger
man and one of the three scandinavian
languages The list includes. aside
from the well-known European Ian
| guages, Arabic Armenian. Chinese.
t,sthonian Gaelic, Modern Syriac, Let
fish. Montenegrin. Wendish, and Yid-
dish.
Scarcely less significant than the
| number of languages are the comb
nations as reported by local organiza- :
| tons. Some are natural. as Slavic and
| Servian, the former the language of the
| liturgy and the latter that of the adj
dress: or where they are coSnate Ian
guages. as Norwegian, Swedish. and
| Danish Such combinations. however,
as German, Italian, Scandinavian.
and English" Chinese. Greek. Mag
var. Polish, Slovak. and English" or
| armenian. Chinese. Hebrew. Italian,
/ and English" illustrate very wildly
the cosmopolitan character of the con
| SreSationS.
1t appears from the report that Ger
| man. aside from Austrian, is reported
by - denominations; the American