Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-03-15
Sban;sh Gusts German

! n TOT all the penalties Germany is paying
| ~ for the war can be listed in terms of
currency, or Of coal, iron and steel
! These are practical indemnities Germany
may discharge i'll time, the period depending
| largely on her own efforts. But there Is a
greater loss Germany has suffered which
many years may not serve to obliterate, a
| loss no amount of mere toll and efforG end
dollars can make up. That Is her prestige
as 4 nation among nations which was the
fruit Of centuries of careful building and
which all but persisted when the order to
| cease firing was flashed along the western
| front November II, 1918.
By small things may be Judged some
times the standing Of nations as Of indivld-
uals. Thus there is 70 little food Tor
| thought in the statement that only eight
hundred and sixty-eight pupils in New York
high schools have chosen to study the Ger
man language, as against twenty-nine thou
sane seven hundred and seventy-four IN the
year 1916 These students are confined
wholly to the seniors; junior high school
students to the number of between sixteen
and seventeen THOUSAND who had the option
Of studying German, all chose another Ian
guage Not one selected it for his course.
For some years prior to the war the cities
of the United States contained thousands OF
fathers and mothers who looked upon the
! German language as the most desirable to
! be acquired, next to their own. To their
! children they bequeathed that view. The
| study of German all but outranked the study
of Greek and Latin in high schools and col
leges Whether this was caused simply by
the tradition that Germany was the most
advanced of nations in the pursuit of knowl-
| edge, or by the fact that Germany was push
ing herself at full bent into the commercial
markets of the world, or by deliberate in
tent by that much misused word "propa-
ganda, "-matters little now. The fact re-
mains that, until the war, German was the
most popular of living languages in Anglo
Saxon United States
Now mark the change. When the Unit
ed States arrayed itself on the side of the
Allies, the study of German was abolished
in practically every school where it had
hitherto been taught. Only a few have sin>e
reinstated it. The Atlanta high schools are
an instance of institutions where German
once flourished and is now never heard or.
New York, despite popular prejudice, re-
stored German to the high school curriculum
the autumn following the signing of the arm1-
stice, but though more than year has
elapsed, it is the least sought of any language
course offered.
Indicative of the way the wind blows Is
the statement that Spanish has taken Ger
mans place in the student regard. More
than forty thcusend pupils in New York
high schools are studying Spanish, about the
same proportion to the student body as a
whole as the German students held prior
to the war. The study of Spanish was not
advocated among them by any propaganda
or campaign. The idea simply prevails now,
as it did regarding German once, that Span
ish is the language that will stand in best
stead the boy or gil who seeks success in
the commercial world of the future.
It may be that the time will come when
| German and Germany will regain their old
TO ting. But it will not be very soon. The
popular favor is not something to be wol
in a night or in year. And in FORGETTING
that favor Germany has paid in coin which
may be far more costly to her than any OBJ
legations the Allies have imposed