Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol4, 1920.pdf/121

with about eight states under his direction confessed to the writer that he had no idea what Americanization was nor had ever had dealings with the foreignborn, let alone devoting even an hour’s study to their needs or problems. Yet he jumped at the chance to be “Regional Director of Americanization” and would as soon have thought of cutting off his own nose as to refuse the appointment. No American ever admits his lack of fitness for a job. Versatility or the assumption of it is a truly American character. That the bluff succeeds frequently does not make it any the less a bluff.

Not only are these hundreds of Americanizers to a great degree guiltless of any knowledge of immigrant backgrounds, but many do not even have a broad American knowledge of United States conditions into which they blithely undertake to fit the foreigner.

The persistent confusion exists in the popular mind that no one can be an American who does not readily understand, read, and speak the English language. Senator Kenyon’s bill (S. R. 3315-entitled “Americanization of Aliens”) provides for the expenditure of $12,500,000 annually after June 30, 1920 and for “the compulsory teaching of English to illiterates and those unable to speak, read or write the English language.”

Senator Lane in his report to the President says: “Twenty-five percent of the 1,600,000 men between 21 and 31 years of age who were first drafted into the Army could not read nor write our language, and tens of thousands could not speak it nor understand it. To them the daily paper telling what Von Hindenburg was doing was a blur. To them the appeals of Hoover came by word of mouth, if at all. To them the messages of their commander in chief were as so much blank paper. To them the word of mother or sweetheart came filtering in through other eyes that had to read their letter.”

While the Secretary’s pity for some of the foreignborn may not be amiss, it certainly cannot aply to those who could speak, read or write some other language than English. It is absurd to suppose that because many of the men were ignorant of English, “the daily paper telling what Von Hindenburg was doing was a blur.” Thousands of those men were diligently reading in another tongue, to be sure, eevry move made in the theatre of war. They knew, moreover, the very territory over which the armies were moving and had a far more vital interest in the success of the Allied Armies than many of the native born in this country could ever conjure up. Else why did tens of thousands of Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Jugoslav, (Croatians, Slovenes, Serbians,) Italians and others enlist in the United States Army and not wait for the draft? It is an actual fact that Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Colfax County, Nebraska, and other typical communities, were not compelled to excercise the draft because of the large number of enlistment on the part of young men of Czech stock. Among the first 500 enlistments in the United States Army in Chicago it is reported that over twenty-five per cent were men of Czechoslovak blood.

The largest single Red Cross Chapter in Cleveland, Ohio, consisted of over 500 Czech women many of whom could not speak English, but they understood what it was to be an American, for they felt and thought and acted the American part and were in perfect sympathy with the spirit of our land.

A most enlightening commentary on the response of the various nationalities in the United States to the Liberty Loan is shown in a report of the Treasury Department on “The Foreign Element in the Third Liberty Loan”. This is based on a report of the Foreign Language Division of the Federal Reserve Districts. It shows that the total amount subscribed by Americans of foreign descent is $741,437,000 representing forty one and one half percent of the total number of subscribers in the entire country. The huge sum was subscribed by 7,061,305 individuals of foreign groups. The Czechs, while representing only one and seven tenth percent of the general foreign population bought nearly twelve per cent of all the bonds bought by persons of foreign descent or seven times as much as was their proportionate quota. In precise figures, the Czechs, consisting of 539,392 invividuals and composing one and seven tenths per cent of the foreignborn population of the United States, purchased $31,750,550.00 worth of bonds.

It is quite pertinent, too, to point to the fact that during the months of January and February of the present year the Czechoslovak Division of the Foreign Language Information Service of the American