The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-04-16
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
Blu REAU
FREDERIC ]. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington. D. C
STUDYING THE IMNnGRANT
washine:ton. D. c

STUDYING THE IMMIGRANT.
Washington, D. c., April IA
gre. light has dawned upon those per-
sons and organizations engaged in the
task of making good Americans out
of the foreign-born. They have
reached the conclusion that they do
not know their business.
Furthermore, they are acting upon
this conclusion Courses in American
ration have been established in a
number of universities, including
such strong ones as Harvard, and the
universities of Wisconsin and Mime
sofa. Here the prospective rAmeri-
canizer will learn the language. the
racial peeuliarities and something of
poses to teach. He will also learn
some of the things he is supposed
to teach them.
For years, people have attempted
in their own unframed way to COM
vert their foreign neighbors into
l.Americans, but the work has been
largely Intellectual We still have
immigrants getting up and declaring
upon Interrogation in our naturaliza-
ton courts. that Lincoln was our first
president and that the greatest man
in America is Jane Adams.
Beginning this year, the campaign
for Americanizing immigrants, is to
be waged on almost as large scale
| as the war. A whole army of civil
ians, and a long list of institutions,
including chambers of commerce, uni
versities and women's clubs are
pledged in it. All of the tremendous
prohibition organization, VIII C h
worked SO vigilantly and effectualIy
to put the national prohibition
amendment thru congress, will now
take up the cause of Anericanization
All of the women's committees which
made surgical dressings and knitted
socks for soldiers during the war. and
which are now suddenly without any
eating immigrants. All of the'
women's clubs, the Four Minute
Men, and the various committees
amalgamated under the council of ma
the united war workers and sold
liberty bonds, will now America nize."
1t was the universities that wisely
called attention to the fact that If all
these workers were to be placed in the
field, they would have to be properly
trained for their work.
They also assert that the night
school as a means of AmericaniZing
immigrants has conspicuously failed
not because it has lacked earnest and
willing workers, and not because it is
not sufficiently interesting in itself,
but because the immigrants, after
working hard all day. are not capable
of sustained night effort.
1t is generally agreed that the best
places to teach Americanism to for
eigners are the factory and the home.
According to the best authorities on
the subject, what is needed is an army
of tactful. well-trained women to visit
the immigrant women in their homes.
and an equally tactful and well-trained
body of men to educate the industrial
workers in our factories. These two
methods are already being used to
considerable extent. The work of
AmericaniZing immigrant factory
workers has been greatly aided by en-
ployers who are anxious to have their
ployes turned into good, English
speaking Americans. Thus, many
factories thruout the country have re-
Gently established schools where their
employees may remain after hours and
be taught; some have permitted, their
men to receive their schooling partly
in their working time, and still others
have gone so far as to let them take
the entire course out of the firms
time.
Teaching the immigrant mother to
become an American is usually more
difficult than teaching her husband
in the factory. He is continually COM
ing in contact with other men, all of
whom unconsciously add something to
his education, while his wife remains
could best help her to understand the
mysterious ways of this new country.
She has no incentive to learn English,=
as has her husband to whom it IS
necessary in order to get on" and so
hundreds of immigrant women are
found speaking only a few words of
..ngNsh after they have been in this
country for fifteen or twenty years.
1t is usually this immigrant mother
who longs most ardently to return to
the old country because she is COM
pletely unable to understand the new.
The task of the home worker in Amer
icanization is not only to give the i'm
migrant woman some knowledge of
English, but to teach her American
ideas on the bringing up of children,
the preparation of foods, economy in
buying provisions, and certain facts
about community life in which she is
entitled to have and ought to have a
part.
The Americanization courses differ
in various universities, but the general
outline is the same. 1t includes a
study of the natural and social sci
ences, a thoro grounding in the essen
tials of anthropology, one or possibly
two modern languages, history, psy-
GEOLOGY, special study of the immi-
grant woman, housing problems, ele-
mentary bacteriology, American form,
OF government, race leaders and pro-
grams, American literature, family n.y.
giene, child welfare, food economics,
an eugencies. No one pupil is ex-
pected to take all of these subjects,
but selections are made to fit the in
dividual for the particular field of
work chosen.
Another reason advanced by the
universities for having our American
ization teachers better educated is that
many of the foreigners who attend the
night schools established in our cities
are anything but illiterate 1t is not
uncommon to find erudite professors
and the editors of newspapers sitting
side by side with factory workers and
Japanese walters. in our metropolf-
tan Americanization classes. Many a
tea cher has found herself embar-
raised by the inability to answer some