St. Paul tidende. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1902-1928, 1919-07-25
reprint from The American Scandinavian Reviews July
August issue

49, ~
says, somewhere that in order to
love our country thoroughly we
should endeavor to make it worthy
of love. Patriotism, then, should
burn with a. clear and steady flame;
it should illuminate, not sputter or
flush into great fire that burn rath-
'er than warm. During the late
war the flame Of American-patriio-
tism burned with splendid and
sustained light; it was understood
that our men and women were
brave and courageous and full Of
fortitude, because they loved the
beauty Of their own land, and felt
that this beauty must be preserved,
even at the sacrifice Of all they
valued on this earth. But, at the
same time, there was and is a cert
ain amount of the suffering kind
of patriotism. Now that the crash
and thunder Of the conflict is gone,
this kind Of patriotism shows itself
in a foolish gentleness, in a foolish
tolerance Of the very despots who
were responsible for this war and
who would begin # agar. if circum-
stances permitted. s.
There is, too, a petty and almost
equally foolish determination to de-
prive ourselves Of all the value of
what, before this war, we conside-
red good in German culture. Moth
ing could be more absurd, more
short-sighted than the outcry OF
narrow-minded persons against the
use of the German language and
the study of the best German lite
nature and of the best German mu.
sic in our institutions devoted to
education. As to the teach
ing of German in the secondary
schools, as a merely secondary
that is a. matter which
JHsr.E&- EH-E-i-e 49,
to depend on utility rather
than on sentiment. If the use Of
the German language tends to per.
petuate among German immigrants
the evils of a~utocracy or the equally
grave evils Of the left wing Of the
Socialists, Of the spurious disciples
of S%partacus. or of the new Mill
ism, no preponderating voice in
politics--local or otherwise-ought
to be accepted as an excuse for the
teaching of that language in the
schools, where another secondary
language might be more useful. In
communities where disintegrating
opinions prevail it should be barred
out. In most communities to-day,
when it comes to utility, Spanish
is, however, a more valuable langu-
age than any ether. Our business
men have suffered in Mexico, in
Central and South America, in.
Brazil where Portuguese is spoken,
through their agents knowing no
language but their own or, perhaps,
a %smattering of German.
Leaving aside the question Of
utility, there is no reason why the
Of the fatherlands of our
various ~naturaiized fellowcitizens
should not be preserved, not only
to increase the interest Of the child
rem of these foreign citizens in the
.literatur Of the countries of their
parents, but to give young Ameri-
cans the chance of broadening their
minds-much too insular, since our
English traditions, valuable as they
are, make us more or less provincial
by acquiring the knowledge Of a
new world. It is time we. learned
in these United States that every
is badly educated who
cannot speak and read another
language in addition to his own. If,
in New England, a French Cana
dian child OF a Portuguese-speaking
child comes to the United States to
be a citizen Of this country, he.
must be taught English first; but
the foundation Of a foreign
language in which a great literature
exists, he should be assisted, in the
interests Of the best culture, in
acquiring a knowledge Of the langu-
age and literature which are re-
sp%onsible for any greatness the
country Of his ancestors possesses.
is, no reason why the child
of the Portuguese farmer in Mas