The struggle against German language classes in the public schools of Chicago will be renewed in a few weeks, if not sooner, depending upon the steps taken by the persons most concerned with the movement. The matter is coming to a head now that the decisions concerning establishment of German language classes are about to be put into effect. These decisions will take effect on January 31.

The decision concerning German language classes in the public schools, ratified by the Board of Education on October 17, 1917, upon the suggestion of Superintendent of Schools Shoop, reads as follows:

"German language classes will be discontinued in the fifth and sixth grades.

French, German, and Spanish will be offered as elective subjects in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades of the so-called 'Junior High Schools' if a sufficient number of students register for such classes.

"The same foreign languages will be offered in the high schools as before."

Polish and Bohemian leaders, who had already protested to the Board of Education against the teaching of the German language through Board member Anton Czarnecki, claim that the abovementioned ruling which takes effect on February 1 will not change the situation in the slightest. According to the ruling, it will be left for the students to decide which of the three languages they wish to study: French, Spanish, or German. It is an established fact that there will be a much greater registration for German classes, since there are but few Spaniards or Frenchmen in the city. The situation, then, will remain unchanged.

According to statistics and figures supplied by the foreign consulates and other reliable sources, the foreign population of Chicago is as follows:

Frenchmen--2,500; Spaniards--250; Germans--400,000; Bohemians--250,000; Poles--350,000; and Italians--150,000.

It is also strange that the Board of Education, if it desires to make any cardinal changes concerning foreign language classes in the public schools, does not give at least as much consideration to Polish and Bohemian rights as to German; for, as the above figures show, there are 400,000 Germans, and 600,000 Poles and Bohemians.

V. A. Geringer, editor of the Bohemian paper Svornost and leader of Chicago Bohemians, is highly indignant over this action of the school authorities in Chicago.

Among the organizations that will continue the struggle in the Board of Education against such action are the Polish National Alliance, the Bohemian National Alliance, the Czechoslovakian Fraternal Association, The Czechoslovakian Union, the Bohemian Club, the Polish Roman Catholic Union, the Polish Falcons' Alliance of America, and the Bohemian Falcons' Alliance of America.

All of the above-mentioned organizations are insisting that foreign language classes be offered on an equal basis in the Chicago schools and that all foreign elements be given equal rights. These same organizations took active part against the project of naming a school in Chicago after Bismarck and against the "Kaiser memorial page" in the school books.