Evening star., 1925-04-25
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

The Americanization School Associa- :
ton of the District of Columbia cele-
brated the coming of Spring a few
evenings ago with an entertainment
program and dancing. There was an
attendance of some / 200. mostly men
and women of foreign birth, represent
ing "a nationalities, but with a falr
commingling of native Americans who
are interested in Americanization OF
| the immigrants.
1t was an evening of unusual in
cident. including a folk dance char
acteristic of Southern Germany-a
| weird combination of grace and bois-
| ferrous vigor, in which the men ieaped
| like wild animals while the ladies cir
cled about in silent whfrling-but
since the entertainment 1t has been
proposed that, pleasing as was the
| folk dance, there will be none in the
| future, because they bring memories
! of the old countries rather than of
America. In the same spirit, Miss
Maude E. Alton, the enthusiastic and
very efficient principal of the Amer
| icanization School, was waited upon
recently by the pupils, who requested
| that she remove from the school the
| flags of all nations, and retain only
| the American flag, for they wanted
| AmericaniZation only, and would
cease antagonistic riValries of their
| former homes.
Were there many representatives Of
| the legations present? None, for 1t has
been found that the presence of diplo-
mats from enemy nations brought
forth old rivalries and antagonisms,
which have no place in an American
| iZation school.
X X 4
Yesterday the Poles in Americ 4
formed a national organization in De
troit, and one of their first acts was
| to vote to raise S1,000,000 as a per-
manent fund, the interest of which
will be used to support Americaniza-
ton of Poles in this country. In prac-
| tically all present Americanization ef-
fort no segregation Of nationalities is
made-all aliens are schooled together
into Americanism.
The key to the sentiment of the
students of the Washington school
| lies in their recognition that one and
all of alien birth want to become true
Americans; that desire is q tie be
tween all, regardless of the countries
of their respective origins. They
cease to be of this or that nationality
of the Old World, and are all Amer
icans-not hyphenated Americans
all eager to comprehend American
ideals and American institutions
Just as many a new convert in rel-
gion is often more Jealous than the
preacher or priest, so the new allen
Americans" are far more apprecia-
| tive of American ideals than are
many natives of whom less than hall
cast their ballots as Sovereign citi-
Zens" in the choice of the representa-
| tives who make and execute our laws
| The very zeal with which the aliens
inh &c nY,@
charge the duties of citizenship en-
hances the Importance that they get
the true direction to their enthu-
| siasm OF the 10000 alien-born In
| the District over 1900 annually at
tend the Americanization school.
X X X
Many of us Americans commend
ourselves for our ideals of liberty and
generosity toward the rest of the
| world We have no prejudices; we
have travelled; we are intelligent; we
are liberal; we wish well to the
struggling peoples of the whole world
and thank God that we are not like
| other men. 1t is charged that we are
sometimes too condescending toward
those who speak United States
with a foreign accent. The accent is
| confused with illiteracy.
After an Armenian had read an
address at the entertainment, visit
| ing lady commended his English and
spoke with approval of his ability to
| "put words together" He received
the flattery with due modesty, not
mentioning the fact that he speaks
and writes six languages f1uentiy and
is a university graduate. He has
| been in the United States only four
years and has added English to his
polyglot attainments since his ar
rival.
There was another-a 13-year-
Russian boy--who recited poem ex-
pressing deep patriotic sentiment to-
ward America. He spoke with posi-
lively no trace Of foreign accent. He