According to the daily papers, the United States Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, has recently made an important decision, namely, the language question in the lower grades of schools, a question in which many of us are interested. No less than five convictions in three different states were set aside by the Supreme Court and those who were sentenced were given a clean slate. These convictions were over the use of the German and Polish languages in the lower schools. The Hollanders, it seems, during and after the war, have nearly everywhere sacrificed their language and cowed down before lesser officials. The Germans and Poles in many places did not follow suit. Hence the arrests and convictions of German and Polish teachers in Iowa, Nebraska, and Ohio. The Supreme Court has brought to naught all the convictions and its decisions were in accord with those convicted. The opinion of the Supreme Court finally gives the right to different religious organizations, and individuals, to teach religion and other subjects in languages other than English. This means that we can now 2instruct in the lower schools in all the courses in Dutch or German or Polish or any other language. A courageous decision! Hurrah for American Liberty! May she live long. We are not for Dutch schools exclusively. That would not only be impossible, but it would be a crime against our children. It would be ungrateful to the land. It would be unpatriotic and therefore the American language should be first in our lower schools. But we do not want to be bullied and bulldozed by certain school boards who tell us how our children should be raised and what should be taught them. The Dutch have too much backbone for that. They want to be led and convinced, but not browbeaten. They want to be good Americans. They do not want to separate themselves from the nation. Instead, they want to share their gifts and blessings with the nation. But we will not throw our children head over heels into the maelstrom. The Dutch want their children to be as themselves and to maintain a spiritual tie with their ancestors, as long as the period of assimilation may last. They also want to leave to their children their spiritual treasures. In order to do this, they need as an instrument their own language. They wish their children to understand their language and to be able to give them the training of church and home 3as they have promised to God. That is why it is also a crime against parents who need the Holland language to raise their children, to take it from them, and most of them who come here are in advanced years and they need it whether they admit it or not, whether they are ashamed of the Dutch(as is often the case with that sort of people) or not. They need it to give to their children in the home a Christian and Calvinistic training. There is also another difficulty. There are many, especially if we deal with unwilling teachers, who say that they need all the time to teach English. My eldest son attended a German Christian school for several years. Since his second year, he has studied German. The children had to study hard and had homework every evening. At home the boy learned, through the maid who is largely responsible for his upbringing and also of his father, Dutch, and at school, German and English. Now in our Holland Christian school, his standing in English is 97 1/2. Where there is a will, there is a way. We must become Americanized,without a doubt, with heart and soul, but we must also hold to our spiritual tie with our forefathers. I am therefore happy because of the 4decision of the Supreme Court. As an example of the arguments of the Supreme Court in its exceptional and interesting decision, we give here the main case that was brought before the court. A certain teacher in a parochial school in Nebraska by the name of Meyer, taught the children of his class in the German language. Meyer was convicted by the courts of Nebraska for the unlawful teaching of reading in the German language to a child of less than 10 years of age and who had not yet passed the eighth grade. The accused and the other convicted teachers with identical cases appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States on the grounds that instruction in this language was necessary to the child for its spiritual well-being. Appeal was also made to the 14th constitutional amendment, that is, it is unlawful to bereave anyone of his life, freedom or willbeing, without lawful due process of law. The Supreme Court ruled against the courts of Nebraska and agreed with Meyer that knowledge of the German language in itself was not detrimental, and that Meyer had the freedom to instruct in that language and parents have the right to teach their children thus. The high court upheld the right of the state to supervise teaching and to see that good Americans were made. In this we also agree with the court.

Van Lonckhuisen