Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1913-08-21
SCANDINAVIAN IN THE GRAB,
AND COUNTRY SCHOOLS!

Prof. j. N. Lenker d. D., of Min
neapolis, linguist, orator, publicist,
author of ''Lutherans in All Lands"
and translator of "Luther's Works
into English, delivered a masterful
lecture at the city hall in Warren
On Tuesday evening on :sThe Lam
guaee and Culture of the North of
the Old World for the North of he
New World DR.. Lenker is a gift
ed speaker as we'll as a deep think
er and for nearly two hours he held
the Wrapt attention of his listeners
by his delineation and comparison
OF the civilizations of the Mediter-
ranean and the Baltic seas. Among
other things, he said there has al
ways been contention between the
civilization and culture of the south
and the civilization and culture Of
the north of Europe. The Latin
people looked uponl the races of
northern Europe as barbarians. Gil
mate has great deal to do with
the character developed in nations
and language to large extent re-
fleets their character. The Romans
forced their language upon the peo-
pie they conquered, and the devel-
opment of that language was there
for largely mechanical. The Ian
guages spoken in northern Europe
grew with the people who spoke
them, represented their feelings
and aspirations, hence were more
intimately the peoples language.
History has demonstrated that the
civilization of the north has prov
ed the stronger and most virile and
Its Influence in championing and
extending civil and religious free
dom and the rights of the indiv dual
has been tremendous. Its con-
tributions to science, literature and
art have blest the whole world. The
languages spoken by these people
are worthy of being studied and
preserved. The English, German
and Scandinavian languages are f
one family, so alike and related that
pupil of any of them learning a
second will soon acquire a third.
English and Scandinavian did not
unite to form German, nor did
English and German form Scands
navian but German and Scandi-
. navian did unite to form English
and are therefore in basic sense
related to English as none other.
Scandinavian and German Ameri-
can Farmers.
Three-fourths of our 669,556 for
elgn-born white farmers according
to the census are German and
Scandinavians; 3O7,S74 Germans in
the broader sense, including Aus
trian, Swiss, Holland and Russian
Germans; 155,570 Scandinavians,
(67,453 from Sweden and Norway
59,742; Denmark 2s,375); British and
Irish rank third, 1888 England
39,72S, Ireland 1880, Scotland TO-
220, Wales 4,l10; Romance nations
only t6,446 qtaly 1854, France s.
932); considering their numbers the
Irish and Italians furnish few far
mers. Sweden and Norway have
been drained of. their best blood to
furnish settlers to. develop our
great Northwest. Now when Vik-
ing child forgets his mother tongue,
his head is not changed into an In
dian and his blood will not be New
England blood, but his character
will be Viking still. Why should
he not have an opportunity to study
his mother tongue in the schools?
The mother is the greatest Ian
guage teacher in the world and her
work supplemented by that of 4he
teacher will furnish more mental
discipline than will the mere book
study of dead language like Latin
or Greek The mothers method
educates the ear and tongue of the
child, the organs Of the body for
language, and music, which are sad
ly neglected in our present system
of education. The language and
music. talent of the child can be
better developed by learning two
languages than by learning only
one. And the study of language as
well as music should be commenced
early in the child's school life, in
the lower grades, because then both
are more easily acuired- almost
without effort. IF postponed until
the high school is reached, the re-
suit will be of little practical value.
The spirit of indifference to mo-
dern language teaching in element
aPy education the Scandinavians
have acquired since IN America, be-