The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-07-07
pr. cOveIIO Emphasizes Value of Foreign Lan.
 guages to Students

1mmlBEautS--W 4Uuuu INV America.
 From the dawn of civilization, humanity has been incessantly on the move. Restless, dissatisfied, curious, man has ever sought, bee yond the fer horizon, rest. con. tentment and peace. The records of his travels are the epics of hiss tory, Among them are the wand- erings in the wilderness Of Moses and the twelve tribes of Israel and the barbarian invasions of the Roman Empire. These were the quests of whole peoples for new homes under fairer skies. And to these st ories should be added the epic of America--the discovery of e continent, It's exploration, and the founding there of Q new ila- tion upon which the hopes of the world have rested and towards which millions have turned their wandering feet during the past three hundred years.
 Fully 70 million people came to seek their fortune on tho North American continent during the one hundred years between 1920 and 1920. Up to 17e3, when the colonies achieved their indepeEl- dence of Great Britain, only about 3 million persons had formed the population of the new nation and these were scattered along the At- lantic 50 aboard: but, after more than c century of nation. building on . gigantic scale, the thirteen colonies have grown into q great union of forty.eight states with practically c continent as ita physical background and with . population of over l22 million people.
 If one be disposed to doubt the importance of the immigrants role In the national affairs, 1t is necessary only to consult recent statistics. The United States cen- sus of le3o reveals some very sig nificant facts. It shows that one- third of the total population of the United States is of foreign stock, 50 that in the forty eight states there are 70 million people who are either foreign born or the American.born children Of immigrant parentaRe.
 Facing Problems
 America faces c basic problem in relation to these foreign born people-particularly in those irl- migrant communities that have become isolated and almost sui. ticient unto themselves. The ques. ton Is how to transform these communities of the foreign.born Into an integral part of the larger American community to which they should belong fully anG hap. pily, for the good of oil concerned To accomplish this, it is necessary first to allay the distrust and the antagonisFl that have arisen ouI of misunderstanding and indif' ference. These disruptive forces must be replaced with Q spirit oI friendliness and intelligent co.op' eration in the building of whole some social and civic relation ships. There must be c spirit oi tolerance and of mutual give and take between the immigrant and his children and the native.born and his childreYa, The ilnlmigraflt and his children must possess Q sense of status and security that comes from feeling that they "be- long" to America. They must be made to realize that America does not regard them as interiors and that all that is not American iS not inferior nor Is 1t to be scorned. They must be encouraged to feel that "a knowledge of and Q pride in" their foreign cultural heritage is natural and just something desirable both for themselves and for the America of tomorrow.
 Four Problems
 Read Lewis, Director of the Foreign Language Information Service, Q keen and Sympathetic student of the problems of the foreign.born, divides the problem of the non.assimilation of the immigrant into four well.defined categories:'
 l-Adjustment of the immigrant
 to his new environment and
 the protection, education and
 assimilation of the foreign
 born.
 2-The second generation: the
 problem of making children
 of foreign.born parents fa-
 miliar with, and proud of,
 their inheritance and of acc
 quainting their parents with
 new customs and attitudes
 amid which their children
 are growing into maturity.
 3-The attitude of older Amer.
 jeans towards the newcomer
 and hls children: the prob-
 lem of intolerance and dis-
 elimination on the ono hand
 and of mutual understanding
 between the different ele-
 ments in the population on
 the other.
 4-Cultural inheritance: the
 problem of preserving and
 incorporating into his Amer
 ican inheritance sucl. part
 of the immigrants traditions
 and culture as will enrich a
 common life.
 '"Immigrants and their chil- dren": Social Work Year Book 1885.
 How can these four adjust ments be brought abouts Essen tiaily the solution belongs, I think. to education. The problem is to assimilate this foreign stock into the larger life of America. It must be done not through coer- cion but through mutual respect. mutual understanding. mutual understanding. mutual friendli- ness. Out of t must come nation- al unity and national stability based upon the happiness and