Evening star., 1933-04-15
E SOIR, Brussels.-When one does
not have the occasion to speak
it, one very promptly forgets any
language, even a language ma


terial. Such phenomenon is
particularly noticeable In the United
States of America the formula there
now is more than ever one country, one
language, one people. With the virtual
stoppage Of immigration, the diverse
races there are fusing with CORE
spondingly increased rapidity in the
great American crucible. The parents
may speak yet their Polish, their
French. their German, their Italian, but
their children speak only English, and
take into no account the odds and ends
of the parents tongue which they per-
haps may be able to gibber. The OFF,
spring then generally finish up by
marrying an American having in most
cases no knowledge whatever of a for
eign speech or dialect, and so their last
association with an ancestral vocabulary
goes by the board.
Due to this same abatement in i'm
migration, newspapers published In a
language other than the English are
fast disappearing, too. In spite OF
their best efforts, periodicals in Ger
man. French. Polish, Italian Yiddish
Swedish, Yugoslavian and Dutch are
losing most Of their clientele. Some
are disseminating. Foreign languages
in America are on their way It is
only a question of time until English
alone is heard and written. The young
er generations, regardless of their an
tecedents. are all Americans. They
think and live like Americans and re-
member no more the land or speech of
their parents or grandparents "Ubi
bene ibi patria" c'Where it is well with
you, there Is your country!'), said the
old Roman. Americans, native or for
eign-born, thus initiate, and emulate
the Romans.
Herein is seen for the United States
one and perhaps the greatest benefit
Of the depression, for we are beginning
to see that there have been some bene-
fits in the depression. The checking OF
the torrential immigration from abroad
has given that land chance to assimi-
late more completely all the varied and
oftentimes mutually discordant elements
which meet upon her shores. Had these
portentous invasions not been drastically
restricted the whole character and des-
tiny of America might have changed
and not changed for the better It is
apparent, even without any disSimula-
ton Of the present facts, that the pres
tige and idealism of that Nation have
been brought not to more elevated
| and progressive sphere, but rather low
red and deteriorated in the striking
OF new averages.
4 X \
MarveIs of Baptist
Mission Farm Told.
Bangkok Daily Mail-A Sino- Baptist
farm colony in Siam, where the soil is
miraculously fertile, where even the
pariah dogs grow to terrifying size and
where both children and grownups. un-
der the auspices of the local Baptist
| movement, are so fat and healthy that
they have no difficulty in holding the
dogs, was described to the members OF
the Bangkok Rotary Club at the weekly
luncheon meeting yesterday by the Rev
Adam GrCesbeck of the American Bap-
tist Mission. Mr. Groesbeck Is stationed
in China, but Is visiting Bangkok in
connection with the property matters
concerned with the Baptist Church in
Ssmperg.
The only way those people down there
can grow rice he said, lis by making
| dam across the 'crick' that runs
through the colony land, but the trou-
BILE Is the dam won't hold the 'crick
back after it's been raining for or lC
weeks, because they don't have any
stones or rocks or anything-only this
rich soil-to make the dam stronger
with, and so, if any of you architec-
| turally minded men could draw a de-
sign for a dam that would hold the
water in the crick' after the rainy sea-
| I'll do my best to put it into Chinese
| and I can assure you it will be boon
to those people down there in solving
their problem"