Omaha daily bee., 1919-02-12
LOVER BRANCH
HEARS DEBATE
ON LANGUAGE

plant of conditions in her COM
munity, which she described as
a German colony. About so per
cent of the crowd. which was drawn
from all parts Of the state, and
which has swelled the number of
legislative visitors to Lincoln to a
multitude, was made up of persons
of German birth.
The bill under discussion was
Senate File No. "A, introduced by
Senator Siman.
Rev. Erik Opens Discussion.
| Discussion was opened by Rev. H.
Erik of Leigh, representing the Mis-
souri, Synod of the German Evangel-
icat Lutheran church. He said he
was in hearty sympathy with the
| Americanization program for secular
instruction in the schools but said
he was against a law which would
prohibit the teaching of religion in
the language spoken by the mothers,
He said children of foreign-born
parents speak, think, play and quar-
rel in English and it is the language
in which they make love.
Eventually the German and all
other foreign languages will die a
natural death in this country. But in
certain fields where family prayer is
said there must be bi-lingual instruc-
tion and the teaching of religion in
foreign languages is essential to
completing the spiritual unity of the
family, in binding the parent and
the child.
The same views were expressed
by Rev. Mr.. Fruehling, of South Au-
burn; Rev. c. F. Brommer, Hamp-
ton; P. H. Buehring, Hebron, presi-
dent of Hebron academy; Prof. G.
Weller, Seward, and Rev. Mr.. Matz-
ner of Lincoln, all the same de-
nominations, and all of whom earn
estly represented themselves as
Americans and patriots.
Appears for Jews.
Harry Monsky of Omaha APP
peared in behalf Of the Jews and said
that in the synagogical schools of
his people Hebrew is not taught as
a language, but as the sacred tongue
in which the ritual of the synagogue
and the lessons of the Bible are in
terpreted, as well as the prayers re-
cited.
Jews are enjoined to teach the
Hebrew language to their children
and if this law were passed they
would be placed in the dilemma of
having to violate the religious in
junction or the injunction of the
state. He counseied the committee
to confine the prohibitions of the
bill to the use of foreign language
for secular instruction.
o. c. Oleson, Omaha, represent
ing the Danish Lutheran church,
and Rev. RichardaP. Kuehne, speak
ing for the Russian Lutheran church,
both opposed interdicting foreign
languages for religious instruction.
Rev. Mr.. Kuehne said; "Our fam
lilies will run from 5 to IS children
to the family. We send them to the
public schools, where they learn the
English language exclusively, and it
soon becomes the language of the
home. We want our children, how
ever to learn to pray in the Ian
guage of their parents that the FAM
lily unity may be maintained while
Americanization is in progress.
Joseph H. Reznicek, Dodge, Neb.,
appearing for the Bohemians, said:
Don't try to eliminate foreign
languages forcibly. harshly or dras-
tically. Germany tried that with
Bohemia and after 400 years of
language repression the ancient but
forbidden Czech tongue was the
language of Bohemia. Had there
not been prohibition of the use of
Bohemian it is possible that Ger
man would have been the language
Of the Czecho-Slovak states today.
Albert NJ. Buster, made a plea
for the Polish tongue, representing
the Poles of Duncan.
Prof. P. S. Wig of Blair spoke for
the Danes, saying that Germany's
prohibition of the use Of the Dam
ish language in the conquered Dan
ish states Of Holstein and Schleswig
had made these provinces more and
more Danish.
R. B. Howell of Omaha eounseled
moderation in prohibiting language
instruction on certain lines.
Only one Catholic priest appeared
and he spoke for the German Catho-
lie congregations. He was the Rev. !
Mr. Tucker of Atkinson, Neb., who |
said that had not this question |
arisen at time of patriotic fervor
and enthusiasm the introduction of |
a bill like the Siman bill would be |
looked upon as bigoted intolerance
and would not have the support of
sound public opinion.
Miss o'Shea Starts FURRY.
The one furry that was raised |
during the hearing was by Miss !
Frances O'Shea of Petersburg,
who described herself as an Irish |
Catholic and engaged in the bank !
ing business.
"Ours is a German community"
said she, "But not over a dozen live
there who do not understand Eng
llsh. Yet up to the time of the sign
ing Of the armistice, and while this
country was at war with Germany, |
German was the language used ex- |
clusively by the priest in reading the |
gospel and preaching the sermon. |
He also conducts the teaching of |
the parochial school in German.
After the srnistice was signed |
and | returned to attend divine SER
vices ! found that the priest was !
still reading the gospel and preach
ing. the sermon in the German Ian
guage. 49,