Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1918-12-30
Foreign Languages in Nebraska.

oxford. Neb., Dec, 26.-To the
Editor of The Bee: After the war
is over and people had about for
gotten that Governor Neville had
ever appointed such a thing as an
Americanization committee, a part
of that committee has, over their
signatures. given to the public the
results of their cogitations for IA
long weeks.
Boiled down to plain English that
report means Your committee dare
not at this time recommend the re-
enacting of the Mockett law or that
we should allow foreign language to
take the place of the American Ian
guage in our schools. We make
bold. however, to crawl under the
cloak of religious freedom and rec
ommend that it is perfectly right to
use foreign language, especially
German, in any and all of our
churches where the preacher thinks
God can understand his prayers bet
ter in that language.
I'VE also slip in an extra recon-
mend that children may be taught
foreign language in school where it
10 lpullil llSNtSSalS lIlcI liIEy may
understand the foreign preaching
We further~Tecommend that you be
tolerant and kindly persuaded to.
ward any group Of foreign language
spouters that may block your
streets or your places of business,
remembering they enjoy it and your
feelings don't count"
This committee takes an under
hand swipe at the State Council Of
Defense by quoting some isolated
instance where their rules had been
misunderstood or misenforced, but
they give that council no credit for
making Nebraska a more patriotic
and better state to live in during
the war. They point out a single
case where overzealous citizens
might have been a little too radical
in dealing with foreign language
preachers, but they never hint that
the council found many disloyal
preachers, and that our prison rolls
prove the justice Of their findings.
This committee met last Septem-
Der and gave a hearing to the for
eign language prOpagandists of the
state at a time when we were in
death struggle with the most bar
barous and cruel nation that ever
cursed the earth. That nation had
counted on those foreign language
prppagandists to not only keep us
out of war with Germany, but to
embargo arms, ammunition and
food from the allies. This bunch
that the committee heard so pa
tiently at Lincoln was the same that
had struggled through the damnable
Mockett law and the law to fleece
the taxpayers for publishing legal
notices in the foreign language press
and they had been live wires In
getting results from these laws |
They were angry at the council of |
defense for securing the repeal of
the former law and the submitting
Of an amendment to our constitution
to prevent foreigners from voting. |
They hated the council because it |
had set about in a statesmanlike way |
to AmericaniZe those whose ideas |
were foreign to our country's well |
fare in that critical period by en-
them to use the Ameri-
can language, think American
thoughts and do American acts.
The council had exposed the fall
lacy of the foreign language wor-
shippers contention that this COM
mittee seems to have swallowed as
true, /. e., that though citizens had
been here 80. and in some instances
40 years, and could do all kinds of
business and vote in the American
language, yet they could not under
stand a preacher or make God I'M
derstand their prayers only In for
eign tongue. This committee plainly
wishes to make itself solid with the
foreign language press as well as the
preachers: and recommend that we
do not worry, as the government IL
censes this press, hence weeds out
the bad papers. The reverse is true
and editors Of these papers well
know that thorough Americaniza-
ton Of our citiZenry would kill their
trade. Is there any dupe in Nebraska
who believes this committees report
that these editors are working for
Americanization? The preachers
bread and butter rests on the same
and like those editors
spells Reorganization Of commune
ties A. c. RANKIN.