printing our literature and explaining in Italian and Hungarian languages that the night school is entirely free to foreigners. "In my judgment we will not get the results we wish to secure until we have compulsory attendance. My whole study of this question for the Commission on Emergency in Education representing the N. E. A., goes to show that we have approximately in this state 600,000 non-Englishspeaking, reading and writing foreigners. Plenty of these have been in our state for a long time, and, as you probably know, do what reading they are able to do in the language of Europe, herding together so as to continue in this country the social customs, practices and traditions which they brought to this country with them, educating their children by the thousands in elementary schools where the teachers themselves are unable to read, write or speak English. My own view of the matter is that any topic, secular or religious, civic or social, which cannot be taught in the English language is an unfit subject for the consideration of decent people and should be distinctly barred from public and private schools of all grades. "I feel that what we need is legislation which will give constituted school authorities power to (a) compel attendance of all foreigners of all ages to attend some kind of organized school which will teach them English and the principles of this government; (b) that after a definite number of years in this country every foreigner who has not learned the language must leave it; (c) that within a given period newspapers may be printed in any foreign language, but after that period in English only, unless printed in English and the foreign language given in parallel columns; (d) that English alone shall be the language used in all public and private elementary schools for the purpose of instruction. Personally, I believe that anything religious or secular which cannot be taught in the English language is unfit to be taught in any language, especially in America." Letter from P. J. November 17, 1919: 19. Lancaster Zeilman, Superintendent of Schools, "Last year we had a class for adults of foreign birth and we had enrolled three Italians, four Spaniards and one Austrian. The Austrian attended with exceptional regularity and made good progress. The attendance of the Spaniards was poor and that of the Italians was good. One made exceptional progress. This class was conducted in connection with the evening school. This year we again offered the course, which included reading, writing and citizenship, and only three presented themselves. I advised them to attend at Depew where there are large classes organized. They took my advice and are now enrolled at Depew. "I am of the opinion that the only way to make America safe for Americans is to make Americans of all who make this land their home. From my observation only a small percentage of those coming from Europe have any desire to become truly American, and it will, therefore, be necessary to compel attendance upon our institutions of learning or upon classes conducted in the shop. With the eight-hour day, it seems to me that no great hardship would be worked if adult illiterate foreigners were required to receive instruction in English and American ideals for at least four hours each week. It matters not whether the instruction is given in shop or school, but it must be under control of the educational authorities of the states. "The mass of foreigners cannot be reached unless their job depends on it. This is the opinion given me by one of their number." 20. Lockport Data furnished by Emmet Belknap, Superintendent of Schools. The population of Lockport is approximately 21,000, and the foreign part of it is estimated somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000. Steel, glass, paper, automobile parts, concrete construction are the principal industries employing foreigners. Last year some effort was made to conduct factory classes for foreigners, but it was not successful. The steel plant offered room for classes to be taught by school authorities, but we did not get them organized. The epidemic in October interfered. We have about forty foreign-born students enrolled in evening classes, and we expect more. Their attendance is regular as far as hours of employment will permit. We use the best qualified day school teachers that are available. Men directors receive $3.50 per night; women teachers, $2 and $2.50. We are Evening classes are held three evenings per week. hoping to organize classes for women which may be held in the afternoon, and possibly some classes for men in the industrial plants between four and six in the afternoon. We hope for more co-operation from the industries. Large announcements of the opening of the evening schools for season of 1919-20 appeared in the Lockport newspapers. The text of the announcement of citizenship classes appears below: "PUBLIC EVENING SCHOOLS "AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP CLASSES "will be held at West Avenue and Clinton Street schools, Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings, beginning October 15. "These are for attendance of men and women who wish to be able to speak, read and write the English language readily and to learn about the rights, privileges and duties of American citizens. "Full preparation will be given to get final citizenship papers. Those who thus prepare and are certified by us do not have to take examination by the naturalization judge. All who attended last year and all others who wish to come this year are invited to come. "Afternoon classes will be held for women if they wish. "EMMETT BELKNAP, "Superintendent of Schools." Except in the citizenship classes, an entrance deposit of $2 will be required as evidence of serious intention to attend regularly and continuously to the end of the school term or until such attendance, for good reason, becomes impossible. The deposit fee will be returned at close of term to all who have attended at least three-fourths of the evening sessions. It will be returned at any time after the first six weeks, to any who, for satisfactory reason, stated to the director, find themselves unable to further attend. Letter from Emmet Belknap, Superintendent of Schools, October 23, 1919: "Please report that our projected evening school, including the vocational school, has started well with accessions still coming in; that we hope to get a larger interest and attendance in the classes for foreign-born men and women men is small. "The children of foreign-born parents in this city have for some years regularly attended public and church schools and are being universally educated. We are hoping to have also some assistance from people especially interested in this work from the city of Buffalo." 21. Malone Data furnished by Superintendent of Schools. The population of Malone is 7,690, the foreign part of which is the French Canadian. The paper mill is the chief industry employing foreigners, but they have no classes. We plan to open a night school, and we will pay the teachers $2 per hour. 22. Mount Vernon Data furnished by W. H. Holmes, Superintendent of Schools. The population of Mount Vernon is about 40,000, and the foreign population is as follows: The foreigners are employed chiefly by the shirtwaist factories, silversmiths, optical company, motor companies, etc. None of these industries conduct classes. We have from 75 to 100 foreigners in our night schools, which are open four evenings each week for at least 20 weeks. The attendance is about 70 per cent. and the average age is 25 or 26. We require teachers of foreigners to be at least normal school graduates or its equivalent. We pay from $3 to $5 an evening of two hours. Evening school teachers succeed each year in getting many foreigners to take out first papers. Letter from C. O. Thompson, Principal, Evening Commercial School, November 19, 1919: "We conduct an evening school at the present time in which English to foreigners is taught. There are four classes in session four evenings a week from 7:30 to 9:30 for about six months during the year, beginning in October and closing about the first of April. At present there is an attendance in these classes of between 60 and 80 with an enrollment of 94. During the year we enroll about 200. In addition to the four classes in which English is taught to foreigners, there are a number of foreigners who speak some English, attending other classes. Some are registered for machine shop, some for automobile repairing and some for drafting. Where they do not speak the language well enough to get along particularly well in the industrial arts classes, they are assigned to classes where English is taught for two evenings a week, and on two evenings a week, they receive instruction in the shops. "We make an effort to reach just as many of the nonEnglish speaking residences of this city as we can, and influence them to attend evening school, and those who attend are encouraged to take out their citizenship papers. "In the elementary department we offer courses in English and civics, read some history and current events, and in the advanced classes we give a little time to arithmetic. Citizenship and Americanization are our main topics for general discussion and we recruit each year many who take out their first and some their second papers." 23. New Rochelle Data furnished by Albert Leonard, Superintendent of Schools, November 17, 1919: The education and Americanization of adult foreigners in the City of New Rochelle. The population of New Rochelle is 40,000. The foreign population is 9,000. This is divided approxi mately among the following nationalities: |