The New York herald., 1920-01-11
KILLING BOLSHEVISM AT ITS
SOURCE BY TEACHING ENGLISH
TO ALIENS IN TWENTY MINUTES
Interesting Details of Indus trial Amercanizaton Plan at
Schenectady Where 2 1000 Are Employed
Demonstration A ids Citizenship

one begrimed workman would turn TO
another and nod comprehendingly.
AS climax TO the meeting Fred Rindgc.
Jr., industrial service worker. who -
assisting the management in getting the
campaign under way. astonished both the
officials of the company and the men
themselves by actually teaching tham tn
speak and understand five sentences OF
English inside Of twenty minutes.
Teaching an utter foreigner the diff
cult English language in so short time
sounds so much like a miracle OF the
olden days that for the benefit of the
readers of this article a word Of explana~
tion will not be without a certain interest
Teaching the Language.
Grouping fifty Of the men in front Of
him Mr. Rindge selected five simple
words-see. find, awake, look and arise
Clearly pronouncing each word he asked
his hearers to repeat them after him
See, find, awake, look, arise; see, find,
method for perhaps three minutes, the in
structor suddenly stopped and the on
lockers were surprised 10 hear his class
say the words alone.
Now" he said, we'll have our first
lesson. A lesson on getting UP in the
morning"
Here the speaker yawned and strc-sned
his arms Getting up in the morning
he repeated.
Now, altogether, repeat after me. II
(pointiug TO HIMSELF, "T' T. II Now.
awake awake Frrm sleep, from
sleep, from sleep. From sleep Alto
gether j awake from sleep I awake
from sleep" experimenting this SEN
tence with mimic action and encouraging
l,;g 10 dn
brought them 70 d point whore they re-
peated the sentence unaided.
He next tc ,k other sentences-I open
my eyes. ! look for my watch. I ser
what time it is.
Well within the twenty minute limit,
officialy we're surprised 10 hear the
majorit> of the fifty students repeat the
whol. thought, II awake from sleep.
tppen my eyes. look for my watch. ]
see what time ii is.'' And what is more
the men understood what they We're Gay
ing. There was no doubt OF that.
Without attempting TO carry the lessons
further Mr.. Rindge went on to explain
how the idea could be easily extended to
any OF a score of subjects touching the
everyday life Of the men. Il wash my
hands" II put on my clothes" Il go
down stairs al eat my breakfast" IL
90 to work and so
You can readily perceive" he said
"how constant repetition Of these thoughts
would in time give the men working
knowledge of our tongue
"The AmericaniZation OF our foreign
population" says Mr.. Emmons, lis OF
great importance and is having the spc-
| cial consideration of all employers OF
1 labor. We do not fully understand our
foreign workers. Let US be frank ana
admit it, On the other hand, our for
eigners do not understand US. we need TO
know each other better. ] believe that the
widest publicity should be given to all
! Americanization plans so that every en-
ployer can know and understand what
every other employer is doing in this di-
rection. The question. however, goes be-
yond this. II touches the whole BODY
polite. 1t is the business of every man
and woman to know what is being done.
/, for IL is one of the most effective ways
OF staying the spread OF Bolshevisrn. Our
present programme is confined to our
works in Schenectady In our other plants
/. Americauization work OF some kind has
/; alreadS been undertaken
i A local Anericanzatiop committee has
, been formed. charged with the duty ~
carrying on the campaign and acting u
an advisory capacity in connection with
: the specialized activity of the American
ization secretary and his staff. This com
r mittee consists of n representative OF m"
management as chairman, the manager -
, the Industrial Service Department, tn
manager of the Welfare Department the
electrical superintendent and the Amer
r Icanization secretary.
Statistics on Aliens.
T.. B. Merriam. manager OF the com
, pany's Industrial Service Department.
has compiled some highly interesting
statistics on the aliens employed in the
Schenectady works.
or 1900 factory employees, not includ-
/, ing the office force, engineering depart
ments, &c. 2,i0o are aliens. OF this 2.lcV
1000 are Italians and 100 Polish, so thaL
moro than seventy-five per cent Of the
aliens are OF these two nationalities. Tho
= remaining twenty-five per cent. like the
ten per cent who attended the American
ization meeting, are OF other nationalitice
Three hundred and fifty-seven OF the
= 600 Italians, the records indicate. neither
, read nor write their own language ana
, do not speak. read or write English. Three
/. hundred and sixty-tyTo. while reading sud
writing their own language, havo no read
ing or writing knowledge OF English. Thc
remainder are considered familiar Wit
, italian and English and have rcce.vod
various kinds of education. very few. how
Q ever, extending beyond the gramma
Y school period. OF the GOO Polish, f79 ucithe
, read nor write the Polish language ar'
: they do not speak, read nor write English
e while 23i arc as yet unfamiliar with Ems
I lish in the sense OF being able TO read OF
write.
Although there are night schools con
= Quoted by the city OF Schenectady, man,
2 of the men can best be reached through
: tho company organization. This, however
does not hold good with tho families OF
Z the men. In many cases II has been founc
: that the children OF foreign employe
learn TO speak and write English long be
fore their parent The influence OF the chit.
dren with their parents can generally be
: counted on to advantage.
Appealing to the pride OF the men not
20 be outdistanced by their children has
! in many cases proved effective. II man
. feels that no is more ignorant In English
than his own family ne not infrequently
y begins TO take new interest in American
J ization plans OF his employer.