New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-27
The Foreign Language Press
Blu Samuel Strauss
From The Villager

period sprang not from the circumstance OF
the language in which the newspapers were
Printed but from the fact that they were or
CANS for opinions unrepresented in the vasS
field of English printed journals. This Is the
great difference-the raison d'etre OF inc
early foreign language publications was the
language, and nothing else; the raison detre
of the latter development was the opinions
obtainable nowhere else.
The war not only opened our eyes to THIS;
it quckened the pace OF the tendency away
from American ways Of thinking, and we
found ourselves suddenly confronted with
ody OF frankly antagonistic feeling. with
press that was no longer merely alien put
alienated and alternating German papers
informed US that they were not only outward
" but essentially German. Papers OF other
languages unreservedly undertook to foster
the qualification prejudice by which certain
LAYERS Of the worlds population are linked IN
defiance of the claims Of nationality.
The danger of the foreign newspaper lies
in the psychologist attitude of the reader
The Freudians tell US that mans true Ian
cuage is that in whAh he dreams. No mat
ter how far one may be removed from the
tongue to which he was born, he inVariaoiy
returns TO it in crises and in periods OF high
Il.
German American might have read his Ger
man newspaper without being in the least
influenced by the difference in language. But
when the critical hour comes, sight OF the
rative TYNE is like an electric wave sent down
into what the psychologists like to call his
| "subliminal self" The word that Is NOT
American suddenly awakens, out of long quiet
depths, the feeling that is not American; ~
calls TO the surface national prejudices and
interest. dormant and forgotten, even IN
terest, that the individual fancied he had
consciously and sincerely discarded
Not a Prussian Method
We hesitate before the thought OF abolish
ing the foreign language press because tna'
seems TO US the Prussian and therefore the
wrong way of going about it. We have no
sympathy with the supprsssors OF POLAND
and even yet We cannot hold back tears TOT
Daudet's Alsatian schoolmaster, chalking on
the blackboard his French farewell. Bu'
the difference il, obvious. Prussia aims to
force complete nationality on protesting
PEOPLES. Our aim is to make full part OF
ourselves those who have come to US volun'
tarily.. We have no wish to destroy Ian
| guage. On the contrary, we need the cult.
ural value Of every separate speech; We need
4
our art, our philosophy; but for our political
| life we can have but the one. The Declare
ton of independence and the Constitution
Of the United States are written in English;
they can be read only in English.
| That some of the newspapers printed out
side our tongue are good and some are bac
has nothing to do with the main contention
| It has been finally demonstrated that the in
! stitution itself has outlived usefulness and
| become potentially harmful. Always when
this happens the innocent must go along
with the blameworthy, the virtuous along
with the vicious. II it were practicable to
draw line between information and opinion
| it might be that the foreign language press
could be reformed. But TO any one familiar
with the making of newspapers the sheer
impossibility of drawing such line is clear
Unity Of political language is essential to
the safety of the Republic. The foreign Ian
guage newspapers must go.