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O U R P E O P L E O F
F O R. E. IGN S P E E CH
Our People of
Foreign Speech
A handbook distinguishing
and describing those in the
United States whose native
tongue is other than English
With Particular Reference to
Religious Work among Them
By
SAMUEL McLANAHAN
::::::::: *:::::::::
:*-*. Tº
2. --------.
Filmillilullû, mſ;
LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
Presbyterian Home Missions
I 56 FIFTH Avenue NEw York
Fleming H. Revell Company
New York CHICAGO ToRoNTo


Copyright, 19 O 4, by
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
New York : 158 Fifth Avenue
Chicago: 63 Washington Street
Toronto: 27 Richmond Street, W
London : 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburgh : 30 St. Mary Street
--~t
3.
§
º
3§
Preface
O the Greek the men of other nations,
however diverse among themselves, were
all alike barbarians. To the Jew the man
of another race, no matter what, was simply a gen-
tile. In the Orient to-day every European or
American is a Frank. So to many of us, all those
in our land who use other tongues than English
are classed together in an indiscriminate mass as
“foreigners.” We know that such people are here,
casual observation and current periodicals inform us
that their number is increasing; but, cut off from
them as most of us are, by language, residence and
employments, we know little of who they are and
how many, of whence they come and where they
settle. We fail to note any distinctions which may
exist among them in speech, in intelligence, in
social customs, in morality or in religion.
In a few places some Christian workers have
accurately informed themselves concerning the
foreigners in their own localities. The general facts
about certain nationalities throughout the country
are easily accessible. Each denomination is in-
formed regarding its own work. But the writer has
not been able to find any single source of informa-
6 . Preface
tion covering the whole field and yet so distinguish-
ing and describing its parts as to afford an intelli-
gent comprehension of it. Appointed to secure
such information, by a recent conference of men
directing home mission work, he found its collection
from many scattered sources a work of unexpected
magnitude and difficulty. These circumstances,
coupled with a profound impression of the impor-
tance of the subject and the call for enlightenment
upon it, which was created by his investigation,
have led to the preparation of this manual.
The extent and perplexity of the subject and the
limits of time and space, were there not other rea-
sons, would forbid any claim to completeness or
adequacy. But he has sought to include all the
principal elements and factors, and to be accurate in
that which is stated.
He has drawn on the census and immigration
reports of the United States Government, and the
reports or other publications of the several denomi-
nations for his statistics. Many independent cal-
culations and comparisons have, however, been
included. The grouping upon linguistic lines
followed in general, has been set aside in some
instances for practical considerations. Of necessity,
the race titles and groupings of the Immigration
Reports, which are popular and convenient, rather
than scientific, have been used.
The book is issued in the hope that it may prove
a handy reference for all engaged in work for people
Preface 7
of foreign speech, a text-book for Missionary Study
Classes, a source of information for the general
reader, and for all, a means of stimulating missionary
interest and activity on behalf of the class of which
it treats. Reliance for attaining these results is
placed upon the interest and the logic of facts.
Thanks are due to the officers of the Mission
Boards and other religious agencies and to many
private persons for information furnished, also to
Messrs. Doubleday, Page & Co. of the World’s
Work for charts appended.
S. McL.
Lawrenceville, AVew jersey.
II.
III.
IV.
VI.
Contents
THE GREAT MIGRATION tº © gº
Its Numbers—Its Fluctuations—Its Recent
Change—Assimilation the Ideal—The
Public School and Religion as Factors—
Analysis Requisite.
THE TEUTonic GROUP
I. Germans. f
2. Scandinavians—Danes.
Norwegians.
Swedes.
3. Hollanders.
THE FINNS AND MAGYARs (HUNGARIANs) .
THE SLAvic GRoup . sº gº tº &
I. Bohemians.
2. Slovaks.
3. Poles.
4. Lithuanians. (?)
5. Russians.
6. Ruthenians.
7. Croatians and Slovenians.
8. Dalmatians, Bosnians and Herzegovinians.
9. Bulgarians, Servians and Montenegrins.
THE Jews
THE Romance Tongues
I. Roumanians.
2. French, (European and Canadian.)
3. Spanish.
4. Portuguese.
5. Italians.
I I
17
34.
59
62
1 O
Contents
VII.
VIII.
IX.
XI.
XII.
XIII.
TONGUES OF THE LEVANT . g tº *
I. Turks.
2. Syrians.
3. Armenians.
4. Greeks.
THE CHINESE AND JAPANESE & tº tº
SOME OLDER RESIDENTs . tº e e
I. American Indians.
2. Mexicans or Spanish-Americans.
3. Welsh.
ARE MISSIONS IN THESE LANGUAGES NEEDED
Gospel Unknown—English not Understood
—Present Agencies Inadequate—Difficul-
ties—Encouragements. .
AGENCIES WHICH MAY BE EMPLOYED
The Printing Press—Colporteurs and Vis-
itors—Kindergartens and Schools—The
Sunday-School—Churches and Ministers
—Training Schools for Workers—Spirit
and Motive. -
TABLE OF THOSE WHO Could Not SPEAK
ENGLISH, (Census 1900).
DIAGRAMS SHowING RELATIVE NUMBERS AND
DISTRIBUTION OF PRINCIPAL NATIONALITIES .
75
8o
85
93
97
Io?
IO4.
I
THE GREAT MIGRATION
THE greatest migration of people in historic
times has taken place within the memory of
persons now living. Its principal Its
goal has been the United States. Numbers.
In the years of recorded immigration from 1820 to
1903 twenty-one million (21,092,614) have come,
and more than one half of them (II,395,14I) since
1880. Every one has not settled here permanently,
but the vast majority have done so. If the census
taker of 1900 had destroyed every one whom he
enumerated in the New England States, New
York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the total
immigration noted above would have repeopled
these states and Nevada besides. It could have
put two people for every one found in 1900 in the
nine South Atlantic States from Delaware to
Florida, and five for every one found in the eleven
Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast States and
Territories, with Alaska and Hawaii added. It has
included more people than dwelt in the whole
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in
I82O, when our statistics begin, and almost as many
as were in the whole United States in 1850 (23,191,-
876). - .
II
12 Our People of Foreign Speech
The only parallel suggested is the great move-
ment of barbaric tribes which overran Europe and
The only finally submerged the Western Roman
Parallel. Empire. There are some interesting
analogies and there may be prophetic teaching for
us in that movement. The same great races are
involved, and in the same general order.
But the contrasts are far more striking. The
migration which peopled modern Europe was a
matter of centuries, ours of decades; for them a
river, a mountain chain was a barrier; in our case a
continent, an Ocean is not an obstacle. All esti-
mates of numbers for that movement must be un-
certain, but over against the figures given above
put this statement of a recent historian who, while
intimating that the numbers were larger earlier,
says regarding the fifth century: “The highest
estimate for the whole Burgundian nation is 80,000.
The Vandals counted no more. The Visi-Goths,
when they conquered Spain, hardly exceeded
3O,OOO warriors.” "
As the tides from all habitable continents and
islands lave our eastern or our western shores, so
Its has this tide of humanity come from
Fluctuations well-nigh every nation under heaven.
Like the tides of the ocean, too, its height has
varied greatly at different times, determined in part
by economic and political conditions abroad, but
much more by financial and industrial conditions
1 W. M. West, Ancient History, p. 487.
The Great Migration 13
here. As the tide finds its way into every bay and
estuary and stream of the coast, but is measured by
scores of feet in the Bay of Fundy, and at other
points only by inches; so immigration has in
Some measure reached all parts of our country,
but it has been by no means evenly distributed
through it.
Unlike the water of the tides, however, immigra-
tion has recently undergone great Recent
changes in the elements of which it is Changes.
composed.
Earlier immigration was chiefly from north-
western Europe; recent immigration is chiefly from
southern and southeastern Europe.
The British Islands, Germany, Scandanavia and
Canada together furnished percentages of the total
immigration for decades as follows: 1851–60,
ninety-one per cent.; 1861–7O, ninety-one per cent.;
I871–80, eighty-two per cent.; 1881–90, seventy-
five per cent.; 1891–1900, forty-one per cent.
In contrast, the percentages furnished for the
same decades by Austria-Hungary, Italy, Poland
and Russia together were: 1851–60, four-tenths
per cent.; 1861–7O, one per cent.; 1871–80, six per
cent.; 1881–90, seventeen per cent.; I 891–1900,
fifty per cent. Since 1900 the ratio has risen to
over seventy per cent. Over half a million persons
from these countries arrived during the last year.
The earlier immigration was mainly English-
speaking and Protestant; the great majority of the
14 Our People of Foreign Speech
present immigrants do not speak English and are,
at least nominally, Catholic.
The ideal must be always and everywhere to
make of these diverse elements One new nation,
Assimilation one not only in territory and institu-
the Ideal tions, but one also in speech and
in Spirit. This is being accomplished, and is to be
accomplished, not by enforced legal prohibition of
that which is alien and forcible imposition of that
which is American, after the manner in which
Russia has been “Russifying ” her dominion; but
by the Secret, genial, and yet mighty influences of
our national life. This is facilitated by the fact that
immigrants generally come hither, not in organized
communities, but as families and individuals. The
lamented Russian admiral, Makaroff, could not
force the ice in the Arctic even with his great ice-boat,
Yermak, whose power he thought invincible; but
the iceberg dislocated in the Arctic and floating into
milder climes, quickly dissolves under the effect of
the warmer air and water about it. The silent
forces of business, social and political life constantly
and promptly tend to Americanize and blend those
of foreigh birth and speech with the body of the
nation.
The greatest single agency directly at work to-
day to unify the diverse nationalities among us is
The public the public School. Here the children
School are learning in our common language
the same great lessons. While there need be no
The Great Migration 15
prohibition of other schools, or even of the teach-
ings of other tongues, the public school should be
cherished and held free from all sectarian or racial
control, and dedicated to its one great work of
preparing, in the English tongue, young Americans
for American citizenship.
Speaking only from the standpoint of its effect
upon men, religion is a prime factor, if it be not the
prime factor, in uniting or disrupting Religion a
communities. Certainly most of those Prime Factor.
who may chance to read this will agree that this
nation has been, and ought to continue to be,
pervasively Christian and Protestant. American
Catholicism itself has profited largely by contact
with American Protestantism. To continue and
to develop what is called home missions is
the present requisite to anything like national
religious unity, for in an increasing degree the
immigration which is coming to us is without
the essential elements of evangelical Christianity as
understood and practiced hitherto by the great bulk
of American Christians. Ideally and ultimately the
churches of America, like the schools of America,
should be English-speaking churches.
But analysis is often the condition of synthesis.
One must separate the sticks in the irregular,
indiscriminate pile of kindling before he can lay
them all one way, side by side, in the compact and
orderly rank. The metallurgist must separate his
ores before he can combine them in desirable and
16 Our People of Foreign Speech
useful alloys. To know anything about the actual
character of recent and present immigration we
must distinguish the many and very diverse ele-
ments of which it is composed. To deal effectively
with these several elements religiously, we must
accommodate ourselves to their several localities and
conditions.
The succeeding chapters are devoted to furnish-
ing information to these ends.
II
THE TEUTONIC GROUP
SINCE our English tongue belongs to the Teutonic
family of languages, it is a matter of congratulation
that, after those of English speech, the greatest
total immigration heretofore has been of those
using the tongues next of kin. Taken together, the
latter practically equal the English-speaking immi-
grants from over the sea during the eighty-four
years of record. From Great Britain and Ireland
the total is 7,061,7 Io, and from Germany, Scandi-
navia and the Netherlands, 6,846,437. The latter
figures do not include those of German speech from
Switzerland or Austria.
GERMANs.
The total immigration from Germany alone since
182O has been more than five millions (5,100,138).
This is nearly five times the number
from any other non-English-speaking
country.
In 1900 there were in the United States 2,666,990
persons who had been born in Germany. They con-
stituted one-fourth of all the foreign born. There
were over three and a half millions both of whose
parents were born in Germany, and a million and a
Number.
I7
18 Our People of Foreign Speech
half more, one of whose parents was born there. Of
these nearly a quarter of a million (241,722) over
ten years of age could not speak English. They
comprised eighteen per cent. Of the non-English-
speaking foreigners. To get the total of those who
use only German speech it would be necessary to
ascertain in addition the number of those born in
this country of native parents, who do not speak
English. For this we have no data. All born
in Germany are not Germans, but nearly all are,
and, practically, all understand German. Fur-
ther, many Germans come from Switzerland and
Russia, and about one-tenth of recent immigration
from Austria-Hungary has been German. More
than one-half of those of German
parentage (either themselves born
abroad, or born here of parents born abroad), were
found in the North-Central States of the Mississippi
Valley. Taking separate states, New York had
over a million, Illinois over three-quarters of a mil-
lion, Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania over half a
million, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota and
New Jersey a quarter of a million or more. Indi-
ana, Nebraska, California and Texas from one to
two hundred thousand.
Immigration from Germany reached high-water
mark in 1882, when over a quarter of a million
Recent came in a single year. Fluctuating
Immigration, somewhat, it has shown a general de-
cline down to 1897, when only 17,000 came; since
Location.
The Teutonic Group 19
then it has been slowly increasing. Over 40,000
came in the year ending June 30, 1903. Of these,
one-eighth were Poles. Eliminating these and
members of other races, but including those of the
German race from Austria, Russia and Switzerland
and elsewhere, 71,578 Germans came last year.
This number was only exceeded by the Italians,
who were three times as many; and by the Poles,
Scandinavians and Hebrews, who exceeded them in
the order named, but only by a few thousand each.
So that, although it has lost its relative place, Ger-
man immigration is still a large and important ele-
ment. The destination given for the largest num-
bers of immigrants last year was : New York, I 5,- .
491 ; Pennsylvania, I 3, I42; Illinois, 6,447; New
Jersey, 3,985; Wisconsin, 3,27O; North Dakota,
3, 147; Michigan, 2, I I4; and over I,000 each to
Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota,
California, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Persons of German parentage were found in 1900
in large numbers in cities and towns, e. g., New
York, 658,861 ; Chicago, 363,319;
Philadelphia, I 59,223; St. Louis,
I54,735; Milwaukee, I 24,210 (proportionately the
most German city); Cincinnati, IO7,146. But
probably a larger proportion of Germans are en-
gaged in agriculture than of any other considerable
element of our population, with the possible excep-
tion of the Scandinavians.
In recent immigration, after the English, the
Occupations.
2O Our People of Foreign Speech
Germans furnish much the largest number classed
as professional, after the Hebrews the largest pro-
portion classed as skilled labourers, and only the
Japanese exceed them in the proportion of farmers
and farm labourers taken together.
In recent years the Germans have shown a
slightly higher percentage (four per cent) of il-
literacy than the Scandinavians (one
per cent), and the Bohemians (two
per cent), but it is safe to say that they constitute
as a whole as intelligent, moral and thrifty a class
of immigrants as come to our shores. It has re-
cently been alleged that the Germans in this coun-
try have not kept pace with the intellectual develop-
ment of those in the fatherland. That commercial-
ism rather than intellectual pursuits has engrossed
their attention.
The census of 1900 in Germany gives 35,000,000
Protestants and 20,000,000 Catholics. No definite
Religious information is at hand as to the pro-
Attitude, portion these two classes have had in
immigration. But it is believed that the earlier im-
migration was predominantly Protestant, and that
the Catholic element has increased, if it does not
predominate now, in the total immigration of the
German race from all countries.
There has been much free thinking and not a
little materialism and infidelity prevalent among
them. But if we have had what one of their own
writers calls “stomach Germans,” certainly we have
Character.
The Teutonic Group 21
also had what he calls “soul Germans.” If the
former element are more noisy and prominent, the
latter are more numerous and more influential.
The Roman Catholic Church finds a large element
of its strength in this country among the Germans.
They are somewhat restive under the work of
dominance of other nationalities in Denominations.
that church. The Catholic Directory for 1903
names as German Catholic papers, two dailies,
twenty-eight weeklies, fourteen monthlies, one bi-
monthly and one quarterly. As examples of the
Catholic work, there are in New York eleven Ger–
man Catholic churches, and numerous additional
chapels, with which more than fifty clergy, half as
many lay brothers and nearly one hundred sisters
of various orders are connected. They have pa-
rochial Schools with hundreds of pupils, and various
institutions distinctively German. Chicago has
twenty churches, with over fifty priests and over
2OO sisters, besides lay brothers and teachers,
while in that diocese outside the city there are thir-
teen German churches.
There are at least 4,800 churches connected with
the various Lutheran bodies in this country, in
which the German language is used. They are
served by over 3,500 ministers and report nearly
90O,OOO members."
The Reformed Church in the United States (Ger-
man) has two German Synods. The Mission Board
* Lutheran Almanac, 1904, pp. 80, 81.
22 Our People of Foreign Speech
of this Church maintains a missionary at Ellis Island
to meet and assist incoming German immigrants,
particularly those who are commended to him from
abroad.
The Methodist Episcopal Church has ten German
Conferences in this country, and reported in them
in 1903, 747 ministers and candidates, 62,648 mem-
bers and probationers, and 864 church buildings.
Its Mission Board appropriated $41,000 for Ger-
man work.
There are in affiliation with the main body of
English-speaking Baptists (1904), 264 German
churches with 24,323 members, distributed in
twenty-seven states and Canada. The Baptist
Publication and Home Missionary Societies carry
on German work.
The German Department of the Congregational
Home Missionary Society reports over 142 churches
and nineteen missions with more than 7,000 mem-
bers. A German department is maintained in con-
nection with Wilton College and Chicago Theo-
logical Seminary, and Church and Sunday-school
papers are published in that tongue.
The Presbyterian Church has about 150 churches
and missions with II,000 members. It maintains
two German theological seminaries, one at Bloom-
field, N. J., and one at Dubuque, Iowa.
The Evangelical Association, the United Breth-
ren and other denominations also have German
churches.
The Teutonic Group 23
THE SCANDINAVIANs.
Under this common race title are classed those
who come from the three countries of Norway,
Sweden and Denmark. In the census General
of 1900, they aggregated over a mil- Characteristics -
lion and constituted more than one-tenth of our for-
eign-born population. Their general character-
istics are the same. Fewer (one per cent) are illit-
erate than of any other class of immigrants. They
are largely farmers. As a rule they are quiet, in-
dustrious and thrifty. They assimilate readily with
American communities and become active and
valuable citizens. In 1900 eighty-five per cent. Of
the Norwegians in this country and sixty-five per
cent. of the Danes and Swedes were found in the
north central states of the Mississippi Valley.
From the time of the Reformation the Lutheran
Church has been the established church in all three
countries, and until within a half century no other
denomination was allowed by law. The Scandina-
vians have accordingly almost all been trained in a
churchly and exclusive form of Lutheranism.
They have very largely established for themselves
churches of their own order. Two distinct tongues
are spoken : Swedish by the Swedes; and Danish,
with difference of dialect, by the Danes and Nor-
wegians. In consequence the latter are frequently
combined in churches.
Scandinavian immigration has increased rapidly
24 Our People of Foreign Speech
in recent years. From 1900 to 1903 over 175,000
Increased came in. New York, Massachusetts,
Immigration. California and the far Northwest have
gotten larger proportions of this later immigration
than heretofore.
Of the I54,284 natives of Denmark, found here
in 1900, 17, IO2 were in Iowa, I6,299 in Minnesota,
I6, 17 I in Wisconsin, I 5,686 in Illinois,
and 12,53 I in Nebraska. Over eight
thousand could not speak English. The Danish
Evangelical Lutheran Synod, organized in 1872,
and the Danish United Synod (1896) together
number 152 ministers, 263 churches and I6,OOO
members. There is a Danish Theological Seminary
at DesMoines, Ia.
Of the 336,855 natives of Norway, there were
IOA,895 in Minnesota, 61,575 in Wisconsin, 30,206
in North Dakota, 29.979 in Illinois,
25,639 in Iowa and 19,788 in South
Dakota. Of these 40,876 could not speak English.
Five independent Norwegian Lutheran Synods (the
earliest organized in 1846 and the largest and latest,
but one, in 1890) together number 903 ministers,
2,813 congregations and 279,213 confirmed mem-
bers. There are three Norwegian Theological
Seminaries in Minnesota, connected with as many
Separate Synods.
The Methodist Episcopal Church has two Nor-
wegian-Danish conferences with ninety ministers
The Danes.
Norwegians.
The Teutonic Group 25
and candidates, 5,694 members and probationers,
and I2 I church buildings."
The Baptists have about IOO Danish and Norwe-
gian churches with 5,OOO members.
Of the 573,040 natives of Sweden there were in
Minnesota II 5,476, in Illinois 99, I47, in Iowa 29,-
875, in Michigan 26,956 and in Wis-
consin 26, 196. But in contrast to the
Danes and Norwegians, nearly one-fourth of the
Swedes had stopped in the North Atlantic States,
in New York 42,708, in Massachusetts 32,192, in
Pennsylvania 24,139 and many thousands each in
Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey. Of
the Swedes, over ten years of age, 44,273 could not
speak English.
The Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod, organ-
ized I860 and embraced in the General Council, has
nine conferences, 50I ministers, 956 congregations,
and I32,OOO members. It has a theological semi-
nary at Rock Island, Ill.
The Methodist Episcopal Church has four
Swedish Conferences with I6I ministers and candi-
dates, 15,322 members and probationers, and 185
church buildings.
The Baptists have about 300 Swedish churches
with 21,OOO members.
The Protestant Episcopal Church has over thirty
Swedish parishes and missions in charge of
twenty-two Swedish clergymen.
Swedes.
* Year Book, 1904, p. 4I sq.
26 Our People of Foreign Speech
The Congregational Home Missionary Society
has a Scandinavian Department. It finds affiliation
combined with the “Free Mission ” movement
Missions in Norway and Sweden, which has es-
tablished many “independent” churches there in
the last twenty-five years. The society has work
in eleven states, and reports (1903) I IO churches
with 7,OOO members. Carleton College and Chicago
Theological Seminary have Scandinavian Depart-
mentS.
Only two Scandinavian churches with a combined
membership of sixty-eight are reported in connec-
tion with the Presbyterian church.
The Protestant character of the Scandinavians is
indicated by the fact that the American Bible
Society disposes, on an average, of 2,500 Bibles,
nearly 6,OOO Testaments and over 8,OOO parts annu-
ally in these languages.
THE HOLLANDERS.
The census of 1900 reports IO3,098 persons resi-
dent in the United States at that time who had been
born in Holland. They have settled chiefly in
Michigan (30,406), Illinois (21,916), New Jersey
(IO,261), New York (9,414) and Wisconsin (6,496).
The immigration statistics to June 30, 1903, show
that I2,948 persons speaking Dutch or Flemish
have come in since the census was taken, and that
they have gone largely to the states named above.
These people come with a good amount of cash.
The Teutonic Group 27
About one-sixth are skilled workmen, about one-third
are labourers—chiefly farm labourers, and nearly
one-half are women and children. Only seven per
cent. of those coming to America in 1903 were
classed as illiterate.
Holland is largely Protestant, and the immigrants
have established many churches of their own. The
Reformed Church (Dutch) of America has found
an appropriate field for mission work among these
people and is actively cultivating it.
The American Bible Society issues each year
about 1500 copies of the entire Bible in the Dutch
language, and about 500 New Testaments. The
Tract Society sends colporteurs among these people
in the West.
The American Newspaper Annual for 1900,
gives seventeen “Hollandish ’’ papers; of these
eight are in Michigan. Two are Protestant. Two
weekly Catholic papers are published in Wisconsin.
III
THE FINNS AND MAGYARS
WIDELY separated in territory and present affilia-
tions, the Finns of Russia and the Magyars of Hun-
of Asian gary are nearly related to each other
* by lineage and by language. They
are to be clearly distinguished in these particulars
from the whole Indo-European family to which
almost all the other races of Europe belong. They
are classed, by anthropologists, in the Asian family,
of which the Mongols and the Tartars (Turks) are
also branches.
But by reason of location among Indo-European
races, and Consequent contact and mixture with
of European them, both Finns and Magyars have
Civilization. been assimilated in religion, civiliza-
tion, speech and customs to the respective peoples
among whom they have dwelt. In these respects,
the Finns have much in common with the Swedes,
who long ruled their country and in part inhabit it.
The Magyars, on the other hand, have been in close
touch with the Germans and with the Slavic races
of Hungary. Because of these connections, the
Finns and Magyars are accordingly treated here be-
tween the chapters relating to the Teutons and the
Slavs.
28
The Finns and Magyars 29
THE FINNS.
Finland is nominally a Grand Duchy, but, in fact,
it is held unconstitutionally as a province of Russia.
It has a population of nearly three millions, of
which more than four-fifths are Finns, nearly all the
rest are Swedes.
In religious faith, almost the entire people are
classed as Lutherans. Russia since 1899 has been
pursuing a vigorous and apparently tactless and
brutal attempt to “Russify” Finland. This policy
is shown in enforcing the use of the Russian lan-
guage in the schools and official life, and in the Sub-
ordination of the legislative Diet. Great antagonism
has been aroused, which has led to harsher
111623 SUITCS.
In 1900, there were 63,440 natives of Finland in
the United States. Of these nearly 20,000 were
found in Michigan, IO,OOO in Minnesota. From
2,000 to 3,000 were found in each of the north-
western States of Montana, Washington and Ore-
gon. In the East, Massachusetts had 5,000, New
York, 4,000, and Ohio nearly 3,OOO.
From 1901–O3, inclusive, 42,731 more came,
almost half of them during the last year. That
half as many women as men come indicates family
life and permanent settlement. They bring in a
large average of cash. Almost all can read and
write.
Only a few are classed as professional or skilled
3O Our People of Foreign Speech
labourers. A large proportion enter domestic serv-
ice. The majority are classed simply as labourers.
The great body of recent immigrants go to the
States indicated above.
The Independent Suomi (Finnish) Lutheran
Synod, organized in I 899, reports Seventeen min-
isters, and forty-eight Congregations, with nearly
I9,000 confirmed members.
The Baptists have a recently founded Finnish
Union of a few churches.
The Methodists appropriated $3,700 for Finnish
work in 1904 to be expended mainly about Detroit,
but also in New England, Minnesota and California.
MAGYARS OR HUNGARIANs.
Magyar is the racial name of the people with
whom we have to do under the name of Hungarians,
and is used to distinguish them from
the Germans and Slavs of Hungary.
The Magyars formerly dwelt on the steppes of
Southern Russia. Pushed over the Carpathian
Mountains in the ninth century, they drove out
their Slavic predecessors and took possession of the
Danubian plains. At first a terror to Europe, they
became later a buttress against the Ottoman Turks.
They were converted to Christianity, in their new
home, through the agency of the German branch
of the Roman Catholic Church. Christianity be-
came the state religion about the year IOOO, and the
History.
The Finns and Magyars 31
church was richly endowed with wealth and privi-
leges. The Reformation was at first bitterly op-
posed, but civil dissentions, for a time, destroyed
the physical power of the Roman Church. In con-
sequence, both the Lutheran and Reformed types
of Protestantism gained large followings, and were
accorded liberty. Protestants were deprived later
of their privileges, but after a long struggle, were
again placed on an equal footing with Roman
Catholics in 1791.
The Magyars number over eight millions and
comprise a little more than one-half the population
of the geographical division known as
Hungary. They are the dominant
class and sharply resent the Germanizing tendencies
of the Austrian government. *
Statistics of 1902, give the Roman Catholic
population of Hungary as about ten millions. The
number holding the Helvetic (Reformed) confession
was about two and a half millions, while the ad-
herents of the Augsburg (Lutheran) confession
were a million and a quarter.
The census of 1900 reports I45,815 persons in
the United States who were born in Hungary. Of
these more than half were probably of Magyar
Stock. From 1900 to June 30, 1903, 64,O45 Mag-
yar immigrants are reported, so that there are I 50,-
OOO or more now in the country. The great ma-
jority have come within ten years.
They have a fair degree of education. Nine out
Statistics.
32 Our People of Foreign Speech
of ten of those arriving in 1903, could read or
write in Some language. Almost all,
of course, were ignorant of English.
They are reputed, in general, to be honest; and,
when compared with the Slav (with whom they are
commonly confused), more intelligent and less in-
dustrious, “more agile in limb and temper.”
Many are addicted to drink and are quarrelsome.
They frequently exhibit strong racial antagonism
to the Slavs. The Protestants are morally and in-
tellectually superior to their Catholic compatriots.
Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Ohio
(about Cleveland) receive the great bulk of Magyar
immigrants. Much smaller numbers go to Con-
necticut, Illinois (Chicago) and Indiana. Six Hun-
garian papers are published in America, of which
three are in Ohio.
Although at home chiefly agriculturists, here
they are largely employed in mills and factories.
The Catholic directory names two weekly Magyar
papers in Cleveland as Roman Catholic, and a few
churches and missions distinctively
Hungarian or Magyar, e. g., in New
York City, in Perth Amboy, N. J., in the coal
region and McKeesport, Pa., and in Cleveland, Ohio.
It is said that Catholic Hungarians readily lapse
from the church. It is difficult to estimate the pro-
portion of those now here who have been trained
in the Protestant churches of the mother country;
but there are many of them in certain localities,
Characteristics.
Religious.
The Finns and Magyars 33
who gladly welcome religious services in their own
tongue and contribute generously to church sup-
port. The principal Protestant work carried on
among them has been by the Reformed Church
(German). It began this in 1890 and now has fif-
teen or more regularly organized missions equipped
with ministers brought over from Hungary.
Presbyterians have ten congregations located in
northern New Jersey, Pennsylvania coal regions,
western New York and Ohio, with an enrollment
of nearly two thousand communicants. -
The Bible Society has issued about two hundred
Hungarian Bibles and the same number of Testa-
ments each year recently; there has been a slow
but steady increase in the numbers.
The Tract Society publishes and imports Hun-
garian books and tracts.
IV
THE SLAVIC GROUP
IN the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania
and to large degree elsewhere also, the term
“Slav" is popularly applied to all
the non-English-speaking peoples of
Southern and eastern Europe. But for our purpose
Such usage is not only loose, but confusing and mis-
leading.
Strictly speaking, the Slavic constitutes one of
the eight great branches into which the Indo-Euro-
pean or Indo-Germanic family of languages is
divided. The Slavs number about I 25,000,000, over
one-twelfth of the total population of our globe.
The Slavs have been concentrated until recently in
the eastern and larger part of Europe. They make
up the bulk of Russia (the one great Slav power),
and of the Balkan States, and they form nearly
half the population of Austria-Hungary. They are
divided geographically into two great groups by the
Magyars and Roumanians who lie between them.
The northern group consists of the Russians,
Czechs, Poles and, Slovaks. The southern group
of Slovenes, Croatians, Servians, Dalmatians, Her-
zegovinians, Bosnians, Montenegrins, Bulgarians.
Racial.
34
The Slavic Group 35
The various Slavic languages and dialects are
closely related but they present such differences
also as to preclude intercouse between
those speaking different Slavic
tongues. Two distinct alphabets are used by dif-
ferent members of the Slavic family. In general,
the Cyrillian alphabet, introduced in the ninth cen-
tury and consisting in its various forms of from
thirty-five to forty-eight characters, is used where
the Greek Church prevails, e. g., Russia, Bulgaria,
Servia. The Roman alphabet of western Europe
is employed generally where the Roman Catholic
Church is dominant. The language of the govern-
ing race however affords a partial means of inter-
communication between those of diverse speech
coming from the same nation, as Russian or German.
The Slavs were converted to Christianity chiefly
by missionaries from Thessalonica, led by the
brothers Cyril and Methodius in the ninth century.
They reduced the language to writing and trans-
lated the Scripture into it. At first this Slavic
speech was used and allowed in church services, but
later, under German influence, Rome forbade this
in the churches recognizing her sway. But this old
Slavic now known as Old Church Slavic and prac-
tically as unintelligible to those speaking modern
Slavic tongues as Latin itself, remains the church
language of the Slavic Greek churches.
In physical strength and endurance the Slav is
the equal of any. Thus far at least, he seems
Linguistic.
36 Our People of Foreign Speech
slower intellectually. He has been described as a
few centuries behind the rest of the civilized world.
But he is eager, brave, daring, persistent, and knows
how to make good use of his knowledge when he
gets it.
Slavic immigration is practically a new phenom-
enon. A few Slavs, especially Bohemians and
Poles, were here before 1880, but they
probably constituted less than three
per cent. of the foreign born. The immigration
from Austria-Hungary rose almost steadily year by
year from less than 6,000 in 1879 to nearly 77,000
in 1892, then it dropped back for five years; but
since then has increased again more rapidly than
ever, reaching over 206,OOO in 1903. The immi-
gration from Russia exhibits almost a parallel, ex-
cept that the figures are somewhat smaller. These
were not all Slavs, Hebrews in particular were a
large element; but, as will appear in detail, the
Slavs were represented by large and varied groups.
It is particularly to the anthracite coal regions of
Pennsylvania, the coke districts and to the great
manufacturing centres that the recent
Slav immigration has gone. The Slav,
in the loose sense mentioned at the beginning, has
practically supplanted the English-speaking races in
a great part of the anthracite mining region, and is
forming great communities in and about our chief
cities.
In general their manner of life upon arrival here
Immigration.
Location.
The Slavic Group 37
is in sharp contrast to that of American workmen.
They are content to live in small, Characteristics
crowded, ill-furnished and ill-kept ©
houses. They subsist upon cheap and meagre fare.
Two-thirds of them are men, the majority young
men. Frequently they are worked in gangs and
herded in boarding camps. They are generally
clannish and suspicious and these characteristics are
manifest not only to those of other races but some-
times even more sharply towards their Slavic kindred
of other tongues. For example, the Catholics find
it necessary to have separate churches for the differ-
ent nationalities in order to keep peace. Their so-
cial festivities are rude and noisy, and usually in-
volve drunkenness and quarrelling. They have little
regard for the American Sunday, but use it, and
numerous religious festivals besides, for social rec-
reation or dissipation after church duties are over.
Both men and women drink in public, and the
Saloon-keeper is quite commonly the social leader
and not infrequently the religious leader also.
They are a prolific race at home and they have thus
far proved so in America.
Although in Europe the majority of Slavs are
connected with the Greek Church, of those in this
country the great majority have been
Roman Catholic, Both Lutheran -
and Reformed types of Protestantism have had some
foothold among Slavs, but at present are relatively
weak everywhere, and among many of the Slavs at
Religious.
38 Our People of Foreign Speech
home are practically unknown. Like the Athe-
nians of old the Slav is “very religious” even to the
extent of superstition. He is inclined to divorce
morality and religion.
As will appear in detail, there are regular Roman
Catholic, many Greek Rite Roman Catholic, and
Othodox Greek churches among them. A few
Protestant churches of European types have been
established by the Slavs themselves. Various Prot-
estant bodies in the United States are at work, no-
tably the Congregational, which has a Slavic depart-
ment under in its Home Missionary Board, of which
Rev. H. A. Schauffler, D. D., is superintendent. It
has a Slavic department in connection with Oberlin
College and the Bethlehem Training School at Cleve-
land, Ohio, for fitting both male and female workers.
Wooster University has just undertaken similar work
in connection with the Presbyterian Church.
THE BOHEMIANS.
These people who call themselves Czechs, are a
principal branch of the Slav family, and form one of
the large constituents in the Austro-Hungarian em-
pire. In their own country they are chiefly agri-
Culturists, although manufactures are developing.
They numbered there in 1901, 6,318,697.
In 1900, there were in the United States 325,379
persons of Bohemian parentage, of whom I56,991
persons were born in Bohemia. Of
the former a sixth (54,769) could not
Numbers.
The Slavic Group 39
speak English. The immigrants from Bohemia and
Moravia, since 1900, aggregate 18,947. Adding
these, and omitting those born in America, we have
a total of at least 175,000 persons who understand
the Czech language, and nearly 75,000 of whom do
not understand English.
Three-fourths of the Bohemians in the United
States are found in the North-Central States of the
Mississippi Valley. Chicago is their great centre—
“ the Prague of America.” It had over 36,362 per-
sons of Bohemian birth in 1900, and about one-
third of the immigrants since have gone thither.
Ohio had 15,131, almost all of whom were in and
about Cleveland. New York City had over 15,000,
largely employed in cigar making. About 4,OOO are
in and about Pittsburg. There were 16, I 38 in Ne-
braska, I.4,145 in Wisconsin, IO,809 in Iowa and
9,2O4 in Texas; these were largely engaged in agri-
culture.
The Bohemians are among the most intelligent of
our immigrants. Of those coming in 1903, only
two per cent. were classed as illiterates.
There are forty-two papers in Amer-
ica printed in the Czech language. To an unusual
degree the Bohemians come with their families.
More than two-fifths of the recent immigrants are
females. They are thrifty. They try to have little
homes of their own and do not keep boarders.
The Bohemians were originally converted by the
Germans and passed under the See of Rome. In
Description.
* dº
tº ºn
* e ee, * * * * * * *
* ^ e * > • , , a
tº - x e & e
* • * *
4O Our People of Foreign Speech
Bohemia ninety-six per cent. of the population is
reckoned as Roman Catholic, and only a little more
than two per cent. as Protestant. But there has
been sharp conflict over the policy of the Austrian
Government to Germanize the Bohemians. This
attempt has had the support of the Church, with
the result that the national feeling has been arraigned
against the Church.
In this country a large proportion of the Bo-
hemians are openly infidels; it is said that more
than two-thirds of those in Chicago have forsaken
the Catholic Church. A Bohemian physician is re-
sponsible for the statement that “ of the forty-two
Bohemian papers in the United States, seven are re-
ligious (five Catholic and two Protestant), and of
the thirty-five secular papers, one is favourable to
Christianity, one is neutral, and the remaining thirty-
three are all propagators of infidelity; heaping con-
tempt on Christianity with a feverish intensity that
is truly fanatical.” 4.
It is claimed by themselves that there are 300
societies in Chicago that teach infidelity. They
hold Sunday-schools. They have a catechism
which begins: “What duty do we owe to God?”
Answer, “Inasmuch as there is no God, I owe Him
no duty.”
The saloon has become very largely the centre of
Bohemian life in America. The lodge has taken
the place of the church. Suicide is frequent
among the Bohemians in America, and is justified,
The Slavic Group 41
if not encouraged, by their secret infidel societies.
The element gathered in the cities is easily inflamed,
bitter and relentless. The farming population of
Minnesota and Nebraska is more accessible to re-
ligious work.
While violent attacks are made on all forms of the
Christian religion by Some, the chief opposition is
to the Roman Catholic Church. John Huss is a
national hero on account of his opposition to mak-
ing the university German. Protestants have a
chance for a hearing.
The Catholic Directory (1903) names two daily,
one semi-weekly and three weekly Catholic Bohe-
mian papers, and Bohemian churches
in the principal centres: e. g., in the
Diocese of Cleveland four, of Chicago and Dubuque
three each, of Baltimore two, of New York and
Pittsburg one each.
The Baptists have little work among Bohemians.
The Methodists appropriated $13,300 for Bohemian
and Hungarian work in 1904, mainly for Baltimore
and the regions of Pittsburg, Cleveland, Chicago and
upper Iowa. The Congregationalists, through their
Slavic Department have missions in Cleveland,
St. Louis, and at a few points in Iowa, Nebraska
and elsewhere.
Rev. Vaclav Vanek, pastor of the Bohemian and
Moravian Presbyterian Church of Baltimore said
recently: “During the last twenty years there
have been established eighty-nine Bohemian and
Religious Work.
42 Our People of Foreign Speech
Protestant churches, of which fifty-nine are Presby-
terian.” The report of the Board of Home Missions
(1904) places the number of Bohemian churches
and missions in connection with the Assembly at
twenty-eight, with a membership of 1,733.
Over 500 Bibles and 1,500 Testaments and about
3,OOO gospels are issued annually by the Bible soci-
ety. The Tract Society has recently had colporteurs
among the Bohemians about Pittsburg and Chicago
and in Texas.
SLOVAK.
The Slovaks are Slavs, close akin to the Bohe-
mians and the Moravians. Their home is in north-
ern Hungary and Southern Moravia.
They number about 2,OOO,OOO. Most
of their literature is in the Czech (or Bohemian)
language. This language is generally understood
among them, although there have been some
recent attempts to develop a literature in their
native tongue. Kossuth was a Slovak.
About two-thirds of the Slovaks are Roman
Catholics and about one-third are adherents of the
Augsburg (Lutheran) Confession.
Over IOO,OOO have come to America in the last
three years. One-fourth of these could not read
nor write. It is estimated that there
are 250,000 in the United States. Of
these, 150,000 are in Pennsylvania. The majority
are in western Pennsylvania. But they are the most
In Europe.
Numbers.
The Slavic Group 43
numerous of the Slavic races in the anthracite re-
gions also. New York, New Jersey, Ohio and Il-
linois are the other principal destinations given.
More than two-thirds of those who come are
men. They live usually in very crowded quarters,
one family having sometimes from fif-
teen to twenty boarders, and under
conditions far from cleanly or Sanitary. They are
given to drink upon festive occasions and are then
quarrelsome. They are extremely economical and
are, as a class, unusually honest in the payment of
their debts. They are generally free from theft and
sexual immorality. They commonly work in gangs
under a “boss” of their own nationality and are
quiet, persistent and industrious. They are swayed
in masses by leaders in labour movements, and are
purchasable at the polls. They send much money
back to the home-land and, to a great extent, look
forward to returning thither.
In religion, the majority are of the Greek Church,
while some are of the Greek rite under the Roman
See. Between these two parties, and
between the Slovaks in general and
the Roman Catholic Poles, and between the Mag-
yars and the Slovaks, there is much religious con-
flict. It is said that the Slovak is not generally de-
sired by the churches of the other nationalities. In
Some places they have organized Slovak Lutheran
congregations. Of these, a recent list names over
seventy meetings; many are in small communities
Characteristics.
Religious.
44 Our People of Foreign Speech
and are evidently small in numbers. Of these, fifty
are in Pennsylvania, a part in the coal region and a
part in western Pennsylvania. Six are in Ohio,
five in New York, four in New Jersey, two each in
Illinois, Minnesota and Montana, and one each in
Connecticut and Missouri.
The Roman Catholic Church has fifteen churches
in the anthracite region, and some work in Chicago,
New York, and the neighbourhood of Pittsburg.
The Congregational Mission Board has Slovak
missions in Allegheny and in towns about Pittsburg.
The Presbyterian Church engages in the same work
in the anthracite regions of Pennsylvania and in the
western part of the state. The American Tract
Society colporteurs distribute some literature, but
report indifference. The American Bible Society
has issued about 250 Testaments in three years.
POLES.
There were in the United States in 1900, 668,514
persons whose parents were born in Poland. Of
these nearly four hundred thousand
(389,510) were themselves born in
Poland. Nearly a quarter of a million (236,130) of
the latter had come to the United States within ten
years. In the three immigration years since, nearly
two hundred thousand more (194,580) have come
111.
Of those in the United States in 1900, 147,773
could not speak English ; adding the recent immi-
Numbers.
The Slavic Group 45
grants, we have here about a third of a million Poles
that do not understand English. Earlier immigrants
came mainly and in about equal numbers, from
German and Russian Poland. Recent immigrants
come chiefly from Austrian and Russian Poland, and
again in about equal numbers from each.
The higher classes of Poland were touched by the
Pre-Reformation movement of Huss at Prague,
where they were generally educated. Religious
Reformation ideas did not gain so great history.
currency as in Bohemia, but both Calvin and Luther
were interested in the progress of the Reformation
in Poland. A Jesuit authority complained that two
thousand Romanist churches had become Protes-
tant. A Union Synod was formed and a consensus
of doctrine adopted. Poland is described as the
most tolerant country of Europe in the sixteenth
century. It became an asylum for the persecuted
Protestants of other lands, notably the Bohemian
brethren. Later on, under the influence of Protes-
tantism, literature and education were stimulated.
But under succeeding Swedish and Saxon dynasties,
and through Jesuit instrumentality, religious liberty
and national independence were lost, and Poland
disappeared from the map of Europe."
As a race, the Poles boast such names as Coper-
nicus, the astronomer, Koskiusko, the patriot war-
rior, Chopin, the composer.
* See interesting sketch “Protestantism in Poland,” by Rev. C.
E. Edwards, Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1902.
46 Our People of Foreign Speech
The distribution of those of Polish parentage in
the United States in 1900 was : Illinois 123,887
(Chicago IO7,669, congregated mainly
in the neighbourhood of the stock
yards), Pennsylvania II 8,203 (mainly in the anthra-
cite coal region and about Pittsburg, although Phil-
adelphia had over I I,000), New York I 15,048 (New
York City 50,000 and Buffalo 35,000), Wisconsin
70,000 (Milwaukee 36,000), Michigan 59,075 (De-
troit 26,869), Ohio 31,136 (Cleveland 15,000, Toledo
9,OOO). There were between twenty and thirty
thousand each in Massachusetts, Minnesota and
New Jersey, and Over ten thousand each in Con-
necticut and Indiana, while in smaller numbers they
were widely distributed. Recent immigrants go
generally to the places named above, but in larger
proportions to Pennsylvania, New York, New Jer-
sey and the New England States.
The Poles who come to this country are gener-
ally poor. One-third of them can neither read nor
write. They are naturally clannish,
and this feeling has been intensified by
their national experiences and religious training.
They clash with the Lithuanians in particular.
They are passionate lovers of liberty, and there is
more organized rebellion against the Roman hier-
archy among Polish Catholics than any other.
They desire control of their church properties and
freedom in the choice of priests, similar to that en-
joyed by the Ruthenians of the Greek rite. The in-
Location.
Characteristics.
The Slavic Group 47
temperance of the Poles, both abroad and here, has
been widely noted. There is a large element, par-
ticularly among the German Poles, that repudiates
all religion and propagates Socialism and atheism.
These characteristics, coupled with a superstitious
dread awakened by misrepresentation of Protestant-
ism current among them, make access to them ex-
tremely difficult. Polish priests about Pittsburg are
said to boast of the number of Bibles distributed by
Protestants, which they gather from the people and
burn.
More than thirty Polish papers are published in
the United States. The Catholic directory claims
eight dailies and weeklies, besides other periodicals
as of that faith.
Dr. H. K. Carroll" gives “Polish Catholic” dis-
tinct from Roman Catholic, thirty-three priests,
forty-three churches, 42,859 com-
municants. These probably represent
the revolt alluded to above, but would be included
as Roman Catholic by the latter.
There are nineteen Polish Catholic churches in
the anthracite region of Pennsylvania, nine in Chi-
cago, seven in Milwaukee, four in New York, and
Some wherever Poles are to be found in numbers.
Among Protestants, the Congregational Church
is the one working the most definitely for the
Poles. They have churches of this nationality in
Cleveland and in Detroit, and missions in Toledo,
Churches.
* 7%e Christian Advocate, January, 1904.
48 Our People of Foreign Speech
Ohio, Bay City, Mich., about Pittsburg and in New
England. They employ for this purpose principally
Bohemian women who have been trained at the
Bethlehem School, Cleveland, and who have studied
Polish for this purpose.
The Poles are reached in some degree also by the
colportage work of the Baptists, Presbyterians, the
American Tract Society and other agencies; but
there is comparatively little specific work done for
them and the number of Protestant Poles, thus far,
is small.
The Bible Society issues from two to three hun-
dred Bibles, and ten times as many Testaments and
fifty times as many portions of the latter, annually
in Polish.
LITHUANIANS.
The home of the Lithuanians is on the south-
eastern shore of the Baltic in a region abounding in
forests and Swamps. They are, with
their neighbours and near kinsmen
the Letts, one of the oldest races of Europe.
They are clearly distinguished from the Southern
Slavs, being generally tall and fair, resembling the
Swede in complexion. But the language is classed,
in the scheme here followed, with the Lettish and
old Prussian as the Baltic branch of the Balto-Slavic
group, and their political connections are with the
Pole and the Russian.
They did not accept Christianity until the
Classification.
The Slavic Group 49
fifteenth century, when they came under the Sway
of the Roman Church. Lithuania
was an independent kingdom in earlier
times, but was first affiliated and then united with
Poland under a single Sovereign. The Poles were
the dominant element, but the Lithuanians claim to
have furnished the greatest individuals produced in
the united kingdom. The sharp antagonism
between the Lithuanians and Poles is still manifest
by the immigrants to this country. At the parti-
tion of Poland, Lithuania was incorporated in
Russia. The Lithuanians complain bitterly of the
recent enforcement of “Russification " among them.
Teaching or printing in the Lithuanian tongue has
been forbidden, membership in the Greek Church
has been made a condition for office holding,
and thus the great body of their own people has
been disqualified. Their educational foundations
and collections have been confiscated or perverted.
The Russian officials set over them and backed by
Cossack troops have governed harshly.
In Europe the Lithuanians number about two
millions and the Letts nearly a million and a half.
The latter are largely Protestants.
The census of 1900 does not indicate
how many of the race were then in the United
States, but in the three years since, 34,876 have
come in. Much the greatest body of them is
found in the anthracite coal regions, where
Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, is their chief centre.
History.
Numbers.
5o Our People of Foreign Speech
They form a considerable part of the mining popula-
tion. Others of this race have gone to New York,
Illinois, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New
Jersey. -
About one half are illiterate. The men generally
speak both Russian and Lithuanian, the women
only the latter. While grouped loosely with
Slavic tongues as Stated above, the Lithuanian is
quite distinct from the other languages of that group
here noted. Six papers are published in it in
the United States. “ Their standard of living is
as low as any, while the brutal fights which occur
among them confirm the opinion that they are as
savage as any class in the coal fields.” "
The Catholic Church has twelve Lithuanian
churches in the coal regions. It carries on work
for them at three points in Chicago,
and one each in Cleveland, Baltimore
and Boston; and possibly elsewhere; but outside
the coal regions, the priests are few and the work
little developed.
No Protestant missions distinctively for Lithua-
nians or Letts have been noted.
The Bible Society in the last four years issued
267 Lithuanian Testaments, ninety-four Lettish
Bibles and I42 Testaments.
Religious.
RUSSIANs.
Of the 419,484 immigrants arriving here from
Roberts, 7%e Anthracite Coal Communities, p. 33.
The Slavic Group 51
Russia and Finland in the four years 1900–1903
inclusive, I60,206 were Hebrews, II 7,- Race
382 were Poles, 55,111 were Finns, Distinctions.
43,497 were Lithuanians, 3O,OI8 were Germans,
6,182 were Scandinavians and are included under
these race titles in this book. Only 7,029 were of
the dominant Russian race, which numbers in the
Great Russian or Muscovite branch about sixty
millions. They may all be considered as adherents
of the Russian Greek Church.
Of those coming to America, from one third to
one fourth go to Pennsylvania. New York is the
destination of the next largest num-
ber, and Massachusetts, Connecticut, l
Illinois (Chicago) California and, in the last year,
North Dakota have gotten a few hundred each.
In proportion to their total, an unusual number is
classed as professional, of whom, in the last immi-
gration year, ten were clergy and twenty-three
actors. Engineers are the most numerous of this
class. As skilled labourers, tailors and shoemakers
lead.
Russo-Greek churches have long existed in
Alaska and are being established in cities of the
United States. A bishop known as Russo-Greek
the Bishop of Alaska and the Aleu- Church.
tian Islands now resides in San Francisco, and there
are in all more than fifty Greek churches, forty
priests and 45,000 adherents of various races in the
whole territory of the United States, including
Location.
52 Our People of Foreign Speech
Alaska. A periodical in the interest of the church
is published in New York.
The American Bible Society has issued in the
last two years about 500 copies of the whole Bible
in Russian together with a large num-
ber of Testaments and a still greater
number of parts. The American Tract Society
colporteurs have come into contact with the Rus-
sians, particularly in Chicago, and report from them
great illiteracy and intemperance. No other distinc-
tive Protestant work among them has been noted.
Religious.
RUTHENIANS OR RUSSNIAKs.
These people are of the eastern Slav family and
come to us from the Austro-Hungarian province of
Galicia where they number about
three and a half millions. In Russia
they number about eighteen millions. They call
themselves “Little Russians.” Their physical
characteristics indicate a mixed race. They are
darker and smaller than the typical Slav. They
belong to the Roman Catholic Church (Greek
Rite). At home they are generally poor, backward
in civilization, and oppressed. They are in conflict
with the Polish element that forms the ruling class.
The Cossacks, their neighbours to the southwest, also
speak the Ruthenian or “Little Russian " tongue, a
dialect that differs considerably from the Russian.
Many Galician Ruthenians understand and use
Hungarian,
Description.
The Slavic Group 53
More than twenty-five thousand (arrivals 26,496)
have come here in the four years ending June 30,
1903. Two thirds are men. They Numbers and
are almost all unskilled labourers, and Location.
at least one half cannot read nor write in any
language. More than one-half give Pennsylvania
as their destination. A recent estimate puts the
number about Pittsburg at 8,000, in all western
Pennsylvania I2,OOO, in the State 90,000, and in
the United States I60,000." The last two estimates
are probably too large. After Pennsylvania, but in
much smaller numbers, they go to New York, New
Jersey, Ohio, Massachusetts, Connecticut and
Illinois, in the order named.
Both abroad and here, they are represented as
accessible to missionary agencies; but the crowded
condition in which they live here and
the large illiteracy, make it difficult to
work among them. Like the Poles, they are self-
assertive and independent. There are eighteen
“ United Greek ’’ or Greek Rite Catholic Churches
in the coal regions, largely for the Ruthenians, and
ten or more churches and missions of the same de-
scription in and about Pittsburg, Pa. The British
and Foreign Bible Society has just issued the first
edition of the complete Scriptures ever published in
their language. Neither the American Bible
Society nor the American Tract Society yet includes
Religious.
* McEwen, Woré Among Foreign Speaking People in Western
Aennsylvania, p. 6.
54 Our People of Foreign Speech
any publications in Ruthenian in their issues. Nor
is there known to be any distinctive Protestant
work for them in their own tongue. They are in-
cluded in the general colportage work about Pitts-
burg and elsewhere.
CROATIANS AND SLOVENIANs.
The Croatians come from the Kingdom of
Croatia and Slavonia, which is incorporated in the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. At home
the people are generally very poor, are
engaged in agriculture, and have little education;
sixty-six per cent. are illiterate. In religion they
are Roman Catholic. Their language differs little
from that of their neighbours the Servians, but is
written in the Roman characters, while the Serbs,
having been converts of the Greek church use the
Cyrillian alphabet. In their native land there is
sharp conflict between the two growing out of their
religious differences.
The Slovenians come from the provinces of Car-
niola, Carinthia and Styria, lying to the northwest
of Croatia, and also included in Aus-
tria-Hungary. In characteristics and
religion they are similar to the Croatians.
The census of 1900 does not give separately the
number from these nationalities then in our land.
But in the five years ending June 30,
I903, over a hundred thousand came
in. Of these more than one-third could not read nor
Croatians.
Slovenes.
Numbers.
The Slavic Group 55
write and it is fair to presume scarcely any spoke
English. Seven out of eight were men. Only one
in twenty was classed as a skilled labourer, chiefly
mariners or miners. Pennsylvania was the destina-
tion of the majority. Dr. McEwen of Pittsburg
estimates that there are 26,OOO in western Pennsyl-
vania, 38,000 in the State and I75,OOO in the United
States. Ohio, West Virginia, Illinois and Missouri
were the other principal destinations given by re-
cent immigrants.
The Roman Catholic Directory gives Croatian and
Slovenian missions in Chicago and about Pittsburg,
but with few priests and little evi-
dence of organization. A weekly
Roman Catholic paper is published at Joliet, Ill.
Protestant work so far as known is confined to
colportage, in which the distribution of Scriptures
furnished in the vernacular by the American Bible
Society holds the principal place.
Religious.
DALMATIANS, BOSNIANS AND HERZEGovINIANs.
These occupy contiguous states in the extreme
South of Austria-Hungary, east of the Adriatic.
Dalmatia is a maritime province with about half
a million inhabitants, five-sixths of whom are of the
native race which is supposed to rep-
resent the ancient Illyrians. They are
closely allied to the Croatians and Servians. Italian
is largely spoken in the ports, which are important
centres for the Austrian sea trade. There is much
Dalmatians.
56 Our People of Foreign Speech
political unrest and conditions of life are hard.
More than four-fifths are classed as Roman Catho-
lics and almost all the rest are counted as belonging
to the Greek Church.
Until 1878 Bosnia was the northwestern province
of Turkey. In the readjustments of that time
Bostians and Bosnia was given nominal independ-
Herzegovinians, ence; but practically, with Herzego-
vinia on the South, was given to Austria, which
now governs them. The population numbers about
a million and a half, who chiefly carry on agricul-
ture in primitive fashion. They speak the Servian
language and the majority of the Christians are of
the Greek persuasion.
Immigration from these regions is just be-
ginning. In 1900 the figures were 675, in
I90I, 732, in 1902, I,OO4, in 1903, I,736. The
proportion of men to women was as ten
to one. About one-fourth could not read nor
write. One-sixth were skilled labourers, chiefly
mariners. New York was the destination of about
one-half, next in order of numbers were California,
Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
THE BULGARIANs, SERVIANS AND MONTENEGRINS.
This grouping is that of the immigration statistics.
Montenegro, one of the little kingdoms of Europe lies
east of the Adriatic and southeast of
Dalmatia. Its population all told is
less than a quarter of a million. The country itself
Montenegrins.
The Slavic Group 57
is almost undeveloped, but the men are among the
finest in physique in Europe. They have little
education but are bold, courtly and moral. They
are closely related to the Serbs and in religion are
members of the Orthodox Greek Church and under
the Holy Synod of Russia.
Servia is now an independent kingdom lying east
of Dalmatia and Montenegro and between Austria
and Turkey. It has a population of
two and a half millions. Four-fifths of
the people can neither read nor write. They are
closely akin in blood and speech to the Croatians,
but differ from the latter in religion, being members
of the Greek Church, and in consequence use the
Cyrillic alphabet. The country has recently been
in turmoil on account of the assassination of the
King.
The Bulgarian race, a conglomerate, numbers
about four millions, of whom a little more than half
live in the principality of Bulgaria,
just east of Servia. It was Turkish
atrocities among these people which brought on
the Russo-Turkish war of 1877, and in consequence
of that war Bulgaria became autonomous, with an
independent prince, but tributary still to Turkey.
Russian influence is active and the country is now
in a disturbed state in consequence of the revolt
against Turkey agitating Macedonia, and with
which the Bulgarians sympathize. Although in
race allied to Finn and Turk, their language is
Servians.
Bulgarians.
58 Our People of Foreign Speech
Slavic. It is spoken over about two-thirds of Eu-
ropean Turkey. The Orthodox Greek is the
national Church, but since 1870 it has been ecclesi-
astically independent of the other branches of that
Church.
The stream from these countries has just begun
to flow. In 1900, 204 came, in 1901, 6 II, in 1902,
combined I,291, in 1903, 6,479. Of the last
Numbers, number given only 164 were women.
About one-half could neither read nor write and
almost all were classed as common labourers.
Nearly one-half were bound for Pennsylvania,
nearly a thousand for Illinois, about six hundred
each to New York and Ohio and from one to two
hundred to California, Michigan and Missouri.
No specific religious work for any of these
nationalities has been noted in America. The
American Board (Congregationalist) and the Meth-
odists,) are at work in Bulgaria. The British and
Foreign Bible Society prints and circulates the
Scriptures in both Servian and Bulgarian.
V
THE JEWs
IT is estimated that there are from ten to eleven
million Jews in the world. Of these at least one-
half are in Russia and one-fifth in Their
Austria-Hungary. From these two Number.
countries, but chiefly from Russia, the present im-
migration of about 75,000 a year comes. It has
been stimulated by governmental oppression and
popular persecution.
It is also estimated that there are more than a
million Jews in the United States at present. Of
these more than one-half are in and about New
York City. It is said that one person out of every
five on Manhattan Island to-day is a Jew and that
the total in Greater New York is over 600,000,
about one in every six of the population. Five
thousand Russian Jews arrived at the port of Phila-
delphia recently in a single week, and the Jews in
Pennsylvania number more than IOO,OOO. Massa-
chusetts has 6O,OOO, Illinois 75,000, Ohio and Mis-
Souri each 50,000. -
The Jews in this country are generally in some
sort of mercantile business. There are some skilled
labourers, and schools for training the
children in handicrafts have been es-
Occupation.
59
60 Our People of Foreign Speech
tablished in the cities, especially in New York.
Efforts have been made to start agricultural colo-
nies, but with little success. The notable exception
to the latter statement is found at Woodbine, N.J.;
where, under the auspices of the Baron Hirsh fund,
a promising movement has been inaugurated and
carried forward.
Over one-fourth of the recent Jewish immigrants
are illiterate, but the younger element are eager and
quick to learn. This is sadly illus-
trated by the recent suicide in New
York of a little Jewish boy, when he found the
public School too full to admit him.
As with other foreigners, local associations in
the old world bind the Jews together in groups in
the new. These groups set up Synagogues and
Schools for religious instruction, as they are able, in
any accessible apartments.
The older people cling to the old traditions and
customs. The younger element is less loyal. In
religion the drift is strong towards infidelity. A
recent remark of a Jew well describes the situation:
“My father prays every day, I pray once a week,
my son never prays.”
“Yiddish " (from the German, Judisch “Jewish”)
in somewhat varied dialects is the general Colloquial
language among Jews from all parts of Europe.
Books, periodicals, and more than twenty newspa-
pers are now published in it in the United States.
There has been little organized work on the part
Characteristics.
The Jews 61
of any of the denominations for evangelizing the
Jews in this country. There is a
Protestant Episcopal “Church So-
ciety for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews.”
Independent missions have been established in
various places. Trouble has been experienced in
securing reliable workers, and in the management
of financial affairs. The New York City Mission-
ary Society has a promising work in connection with
its De Witt Memorial Church on Rivington Street.
Individuals of the race are incorporated from
time to time in our churches. These facts have
demonstrated the opportunity and afford encourage-
ment for a more systematic and wider prosecution
of the work.
The British and Foreign Bible Society issues
New Testaments in Judaeo-German or Western
Yiddish for the Jews of Western Europe and in
Judaeo-Polish or Eastern Yiddish for the Jews of
Poland, Roumania, Galicia and South Russia.
These may be obtained through the American
Bible Society, which also prints Hebrew New Testa-
ments and in the past four years has issued 650
copies of the latter.
The American Tract Society issues a few Ger-
man-Hebrew and Hebrew tracts.
Missions.
VI
THE ROMANCE TONGUES
UNDER this title are included all those languages
which are derived from the Latin. With a single ex-
ception, the home-lands of those who use these tongues
are in Southwestern Europe, the territory once cov-
ered by the Roman Empire. The Romance tongues
make up another of the eight great branches into
which the Indo-European family of languages is
divided. As, broadly speaking, Protestantism pre-
dominates among those using the Teutonic lan-
guages, and the Greek Church among those using
the Slavic, so the Roman Church prevails where
the Romance tongues are spoken.
The first to colonize America in the persons of
the Spaniards, after centuries of little movement
thitherwards, the Latin nationalities have sud-
denly, in the past decade, become one of the chief
sources of immigration to the United States. They
are coming largely, but by no means exclusively,
from Italy, the land of Columbus himself.
THE ROUMANIANs.
The Roumanian is the isolated member of the
Romance tongues. By residence and general char-
62
The Romance Tongues 63
acteristics the Roumanians might be classed with
the Slavs. Roumanian immigration presents the
double paradox that the people who come from
Roumania are not Roumanians, and that the Rou-
manians who do come, are from other countries.
The modern kingdom of Roumania (1881) is
made up of the former Turkish provinces of Wala-
chia and Moldavia and was established as a result
of the Russo-Turkish War and the Treaty of Berlin
(1878). It touches Russia, Austria-Hungary,
Servia, Bulgaria and the Black Sea. It has about
six million inhabitants, of whom nine-tenths are
Roumanians, and something over three hundred
thousand are Jews, significantly described in the
census of that kingdom as “aliens not under the
protection of a foreign power.” The Treaty of
Berlin provided for religious liberty and equal op-
portunity for men of every religious faith. Violent
opposition has developed against extending such
privileges to the Jews and this has recently been
manifest in active persecution. In consequence,
tens of thousands of Jews have been fleeing from
Roumania to Great Britain and the United States.
In consequence Secretary of State Hay was re-
cently led to send a protest to the signatory powers
of the Berlin Treaty on the subject. It is these Rou-
manian Jews, and not native Roumanians to any ex-
tent, who have made up the aggregate of 31,726,
who have come hither from Roumania in the past
five years. These have the same characteristics as
64 Our People of Foreign Speech
the other Hebrews coming from eastern Europe.
(See Jews, p. 59.)
But only about one-half the Roumanian race
live in the country which now bears their name.
They are found in large number in Transylvania,
East Hungary, in Balkowina, Russia, and scattered
through the Balkan States. It is mainly in Austria-
Hungary that the stream of their immigration has
taken its rise. Small as yet, it has been growing
rapidly. In the year ending June 30, 1900, 398
came ; in 1901, 761; in 1902, 2,033; in 1903,
4,74O.
The Roumanians claim to derive their lineage, as
they derive their name and their speech from the
Romans of classic time. They assert that they are
descendants of the colonists whom Trajan sent into
the region early in the second century. Modern
scholars find a large admixture of other blood and
other speech. But the structure of the language is
essentially that of the Romance tongues.
The Roumanians were converted to Christianity
through the Eastern Church, and the alphabet of
Cyril was at first used, but this has been supplanted
by the Roman character in the past century. In
its history the race has exhibited vigorous but sav-
age features. Of those arriving here in 1903, over
one-fifth were illiterate. The Greek Church is es-
tablished by law in Roumania, and, excepting the
Jews, almost the whole nation is counted within its
pale. Protestant adherents are estimated at I 5,OOO.
The Romance Tongues 65
The great majority of the Roumanians go to
Ohio (1,477 in 1903) and Pennsylvania (1,261).
The American Tract Society imports some tracts
in Roumanian, and the American Bible Society issues
separate gospels in this tongue of which 280 copies
were distributed in 1903. The British and Foreign
Bible Society prints the whole Bible in Roumanian.
No distinctive work for Roumanians in this coun-
try on the part of Protestants is known.
FRENCH.
The immigration from France has always been
relatively small. The largest number in single years
was about 20,000 in 1847 and again in
1851. A few more than one hundred.
thousand (IO4,534) natives of France were in the
United States in 1900, located principally in New
York (2O,OOO), California (I2,OOO), Pennsylvania
(IO,OOO), Illinois (7,OOO), Louisiana (6,500) and in
New Jersey and Ohio (about 5,600 respectively).
Of those of French parentage a small part (9,016)
could not speak English.
In the past three years, however, over I 5,OOO have
come from France. These are generally well-to-do,
as immigrants go. More than one-third of them
show Over thirty dollars apiece and they had, as a
whole, $67 I,735. From a third to a half gave New
York as their destination, about one-fifth Pennsyl-
vania and one-sixth California. An unusual pro-
portion (389 in 1903) is classed as professional
From France.
66 Our People of Foreign Speech
(actors, clergy, teachers, engineers, etc.); and more
than one-fourth (1,975) as skilled labourers, out of a
total immigration in that year of 7,166.
But many people of French extraction and
language are found in the United States, who have
come in from Canada. There were
nearly four hundred thousand (395,-
297) Canadian-born French in the United States in
I900, Constituting nearly one-quarter of the foreign
born population. Of these, nearly one-fourth (89,-
35 I) over ten years of age could not speak English.
The immigration statistics do not show the number
coming since 1900, but it has been considerable.
Three-fourths of these are found in the Northeast-
ern and Middle States, and almost all the rest in the
North-Central States of the Mississippi Valley.
They are generally employed in mills and factories.
In Canada the French are counted as almost en-
tirely Catholic. The total Catholic population of
Canada is about two and a-half millions, of which
Something over one-half is found in the French
provinces, so that nearly one-fourth of the total French
Canadians seem to have come to the United States.
The Roman Catholic Directory gives, as Roman
Catholic papers, the names of five dailies, thirteen
churches weeklies and one quarterly, published
and Missions in French. All except three of these
are issued in New England, the greater number
being in Massachusetts. The same Directory re-
ports six churches in the diocese of Boston, with
From Canada.
The Romance Tongues 67
twenty-seven priests and double that number of sis-
ters. The largest work is that at Lowell, Mass.
There are four French churches in the diocese of
Chicago and one in that of New York.
The Baptist Home Missionary Society has sixteen
missionaries, including a general Superintendent,
among the French Canadians of New England, and
estimates that there are 3,500 of French Canadian
stock in the churches of that denomination in those
StateS.
The Methodist Episcopal Mission Board makes
an appropriation of nearly $3,000 for French work
in New England.
The Congregational Home Missionary Society
reports eight French missionaries. There is a
French-American college at Springfield, Mass., and
a French-English paper is published. Some local
churches and organizations also carry on work for
the French in New England.
The Presbyterians report six French churches
with 384 members.
Another element of French extraction is found in
Louisiana, where, in addition to 8,585 foreign-born
over ten years of age who do not speak
English, “there is also a large native
white population of native parentage, but of French
extraction, and a considerable negro element of
Creole descent in Louisiana in 1900, who do not
speak English.” "
1 Twelfth Census, Vol. 2, p. 125.
In Louisiana.
68 Our People of Foreign Speech
One French Catholic Church is noted in the
diocese of New Orleans. The Methodist Episcopal
Board appropriates $350 for “Gulf" missions to the
French.
SPANISH.
There were in the United States in 1900, 7,284
persons born in Spain. In the three years since,
6,453 have come into United States territory in-
cluding Porto Rico. More than one-fourth of these
are found in New York. Florida stands next in
point of numbers, then California and Louisiana.
An unusual proportion of recent immigrants (thirty-
two in 1903) belong to the clergy. Actors, phy-
sicians, artists, lawyers and engineers swell the list
of professional men. Mariners constitute the largest
class among the skilled labourers. Professional and
skilled classes constitute a third of recent Spanish
immigrants.
The Catholics have a Spanish-American Church
in New York.
The Congregational Home Missionary Society
reports eight Spanish missionaries. (See for Span-
ish-Americans or Mexicans, page 87.)
PORTUGUESE.
The number of persons of Portuguese birth or
parentage is not specified in the published report of
the census of 1900. Since that date, however,
nearly eighteen thousand (17,918) have come into
The Romance Tongues 69
our country. Of these about two-thirds (11,768)
came to Massachusetts, and about 2,OOO each to
Rhode Island and California. The proportion of
women to men (more than seven to ten) is unusually
high and indicates that families come.
Of the more than five million souls in Portugal, a
recent authority states that not more than five
hundred are Protestant. About four-fifths of the
population of Portugal can neither read nor write,
and the percentage of illiteracy among the immi-
grants (seventy-three per cent.) is far the highest for
any nationality. A few are skilled labourers, among
whom mariners predominate, but the vast majority
are unskilled labourers or unclassed.
The Roman Catholic Church has a few priests
among them in Boston and vicinity (four in 1903).
The Methodist Episcopal Mission Board in 1903
appropriated $1, IOO for mission work among the
Portuguese in New England. It has missions in
East Cambridge and New Bedford. In Providence
a lay worker is holding service in a hall. The
Congregationalists have a mission in Rhode Island.
The American Bible Society makes annually a
large issue of Portuguese Scriptures, but of these it
is evident that only a fraction is distributed in the
United States. The bulk goes to South America.
THE ITALIANS.
There were in the United States, in 1900, 484,2O7
persons who were born in Italy; of these about
7C Our People of Foreign Speech
three-fourths were in the New England and Middle
States. In the three following years, to June 30,
1903, over half a million (570,888) more came. Of
these five-sixths were from Southern Italy.
Various causes have led to this great movement.
The population of Italy in 190I was 31,475,255,
showing a gain of fourteen per cent. in twenty
years, almost entirely by natural causes. The births
exceeded the deaths in a single year by 400,000.
Italy is already a Crowded Country, having II 3
persons to the Square mile of territory, in contrast,
e.g., with France, which has only seventy-three. It
is oppressed by taxation which bears hardest on the
agriculturists of South Italy. America, on the other
hand, has offered abundant and remunerative
labour. Direct steamship lines have facilitated and
stimulated the movement. Upon a visit of the
Italian premier to a town in Southern Italy recently,
the mayor of the place welcomed him “in the name
of eight thousand fellow-citizens, of whom three
thousand are in America, and the rest are preparing
to follow.”
There is a wide difference between northern
Italians from Piedmont, Lombardy and Venicia,
and those who come from south of Rome and from
Sicily. Those of the north, as a rule, are more
intelligent (thirteen per cent. illiterate), and have
larger means. The bulk of the emigrants from
northern Italy, however, do not come to the
United States, but go to the Argentine Republic
The Romance Tongues 71
and Brazil. The silk workers of Paterson, N. J.,
and elsewhere, are northern Italians. About fifty
thousand of them are engaged in grape and fruit
culture in Southern California.
In Southern Italy, the intellectual and moral
conditions, like the political and economic, are
much lower than in the north. About one-half of
those from southern Italy cannot read nor write in
any language. Three out of four of them are men.
They are herded together in tenements, boarding-
houses and working gangs. They are to be found
chiefly in and about the great cities of the eastern
states. The number of Italians in New York
City is variously estimated at from 150,000 to
250,000. Thirty solid blocks on the East Side above
IOOth Street are peopled by Southern Italians.
Solid blocks down-town are inhabited by northern
Italians. There are nine districts in Brooklyn in
which they congregate.
Philadelphia is the second great centre for the
Italians. The number there is estimated at 45,000.
They occupy twenty solid blocks in the southeastern
part of the city, and still larger numbers are
distributed in other localities.
Boston has 25,000, and several of the great manu-
facturing centres of New England and New Jersey
have from IO,OOO to 20,000 each.
Jane Addams reports IO,OOO southern Italians in
a single compact colony in Chicago, and they are
found in considerable numbers in Detroit, Denver,
72 Our People of Foreign Speech
New Orleans and Galveston. A relatively small
proportion is in the mining regions of Pennsylvania
and Alabama. They have formed a few small
agricultural communities. Many of the Italian
men rove from place to place with the exigencies
of work. Some of them return to Italy permanently,
but the number is relatively small and grows
proportionately less, year by year. They claim
and exercise the right of citizenship, and are already
attaining political office.
Italians are fond of excitement, of music and of
Outdoor life. They are given to gambling, but are
less addicted to strong drink than some of the other
nationalities with which we have to do.
They are generally eager and quick to learn, and
are great readers when they have acquired the
ability. Forty-two Italian papers are reported in
the United States, of which ten are in New York,
six in Philadelphia, five in California. These papers
claim a circulation of over IOO,OOO copies.
They have hundreds of mutual aid societies.
The membership of particular societies is usually
composed of persons from the same town or
district in Italy.
In religion, practically all the Italians coming
here are, at least in name, Roman Catholic. That
Church has been making effort to provide for them.
The Pope recently commended the Archbishop of
New York in an autograph letter for his zeal in this
matter. There are fifteen Roman Catholic churches
The Romance Tongues - 73
and chapels for the Italians in New York City
and they are found generally where Italians
Congregate.
But church duties and relations sit lightly on
many of the American Italians. They are intense
patriots, and the hostility of the Vatican to Italian
unity and the national government, coupled with
the immorality and the oppression of the Church,
particularly in Southern Italy, has done much to
weaken the claim of the Church on their allegiance.
While the Irish have found in the Church an organ
for their national sentiment, the Italians have a
wide-spread conviction that the Church is the
enemy of popular liberty. It is said that the power
of the church with them now is rather a social than
a religious bond; that it is largely the women who
attend the church services, and that while some
men are earnest, the majority are indifferent, and
many actively hostile. The evident presence
of the Mafia in New Orleans in 1890, and in New
York recently, and of a band of Italian anarchists in
Patterson, N.J., show that there are some lawless
and dangerous elements among them.
They are accessible to Protestant missionary
effort. The American Bible Society issued, in
1903, 2,756 Bibles, more than 5,000 Testaments and
nearly 16,OOO parts of the Scriptures in Italian.
The issues in that language show a rapid increase.
A published list of Protestant missionaries among
these people, gives three Episcopalians, Seven
74 Our People of Foreign Speech
Congregationalists, twelve Methodists, thirteen
Baptists, and nineteen Presbyterians. The Ameri-
can Tract Society, the Baptist Publication Society,
the Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sunday-
School Work, and various local societies are
employing Italian colporteurs.
Among no class of foreigners has American
mission work seemed to yield quicker, larger or
more abiding returns.
VII
TONGUES OF THE LEVANT
THE emigration fever which has recently been
spreading through Russia, Austria-Hungary and
the Balkan States has crossed into Asia Minor and
has swept round the eastern end of the Mediterra-
nean. The very regions which sent devout men to
Jerusalem at Pentecost nearly 1,900 years ago, there
to hear the gospel from Peter's lips, are now send-
ing men, some devout but many not so, to the very
doors of our American places of prayer.
THE TURKs.
From the Turkish Empire has recently flowed a
rapidly swelling stream of immigrants. They have
come chiefly from Turkey in Asia and have been
Syrians and Armenians. Of the Turkish race itself
we have received almost I,000 in four years and
nearly half these in the last year. One-third of
them went to Massachusetts and more than a fourth
to New York. As a race they are Mohammedan
and no Christian missionary work for them dis-
tinctly in America is known. The Bible Society
prints the Scriptures for use in Turkey in Armeno-
Turkish and Osmanli-Turkish, and a few copies are
issued annually in the United States.
75
76 Our People of Foreign Speech
THE SYRIANS.
Modern Syria, as a part of the Turkish Empire,
stretches along the whole eastern end of the Med-
iterranean and extends eastward to the Euphrates.
It includes many heterogeneous nationalities and
tongues, but Arabic is generally understood. The
region Swarms with religious Sects.
In the last four immigration years 17,517 Syrians
came into the United States. New York was the
destination of more than one third (6,251); Massa-
chusetts, of 2,72 I ; Pennsylvania, of 2,296. Ohio,
Louisiana, Connecticut, Illinois and Indiana were
each the goal of from IOO to 200 a year. More
than one half could neither read nor write, but on
the other hand an unusual proportion was classed
as professional or as “skilled.” Of the latter weavers
were the most numerous. About 350 were classed
as merchants, again a very high proportion. These
figures indicate that varied ranks of Society are rep-
resented in the immigration. Some of those com-
ing here have been under the influence of Protestant
missions in Syria.
Gatherings for worship are held by them in New
York, Boston, Chicago, and under the immediate
auspices of the Presbyterian Synod in cities of
northern New Jersey.
The Roman Catholics have mission priests for
Syrians in Chicago and Boston.
Tongues of the Levant 77
THE ARMENIANs.
The Armenians number three or four millions
Scattered through Asiatic Russia, Persia and Turkey;
one half of them are under the last named power.
About a million are resident in the region known
as Armenia.
Their speech is of the Indo-European family and
forms one of its main branches. Physically they are
a fine race and they have developed great ability as
merchants and bankers. They are among the keen-
est and ablest of our recent immigrants.
Christianity was early introduced into Armenia and
that country became, in the fourth century, the first
Christian state. The main body of the Armenian
Church remained separate from both the Greek and
Roman Communions; they are sometimes called
Gregorian Christians from their great Apostle
Gregory, the Illuminator. But their religion de-
generated into lifeless and ignorant formalism.
In 1894–5 the Armenians were subject to griev-
ous massacres by the Turks on the ground of alleged
insurrectionary movements. These cruelties are at
this moment (1904) being repeated.
These persecutions have given rise to the emigra-
tion to America, which is very recent. Great diffi-
culty has been experienced in escaping from the
Turkish dominions. In 1900 there were only
2,671 persons in the United States born in Asia, ex-
clusive of China, Japan and India. As these figures
78 Our People of Foreign Speech
include Syrians and others, the number of Arme-
nians then here must have been very small, but they
have been coming since at an annual average of
I,500, so that at least 5,OOO are now here. About
three-fourths are men. A little more than 2,000
went to Massachusetts, a little less than that num-
ber to New York. Rhode Island had over 600 and
New Jersey over 200. Few went elsewhere. Prot-
estant missions were started among the Armenians
abroad in 1831 and have a considerable following.
The Roman Catholic church is also represented
among them abroad and here.
Protestant services are held in the Armenian
tongue in New York, in Paterson, N. J., in New
England and in California. The Congregationalists
are active among them. The Presbyterians report
four congregations and I52 members.
THE GREEKS.
There were 8,655 persons resident in the United
States in 1900 who had been born in Greece.
More than half of these were found about
equally distributed to the three states of Massachu-
setts (1,843), New York (1,573) and Illinois
(1,570). Since 1900 a relatively large immigration
has set in (1901,–5,919; 1902,-8, I I5; 1903–
I4,376, a total of 28,4IO in three years). They
have gone almost entirely to the three states named
above, except that more than 1,000 went to Penn-
Sylvania also in the last year. Few are classed as
Tongues of the Levant 79
professional, about one-tenth are skilled labourers,
accountants and mariners being most numerous.
Among the unskilled labourers an unusual propor-
tion are farm labourers. Agriculture is the princi-
pal industry in Greece and as far back as 1901 it is
reported that the exodus of young farmers to Amer-
ica was causing serious anxiety to the authorities
there.
What we know as the Greek Church is estab-
lished by law and almost all are at least nominally
adherents of it. The Holy Synod of Greece (the
supreme ecclesiastical authority there) is represented
in the United States by five priests and churches
and claims 20,000 adherents.
No specific Protestant work for Greeks in Amer-
ica has been discovered.
VIII
THE CHINESE AND JAPANESE
THE CHINESE.
THERE were in 1900 almost ninety thousand (89,-
863) Chinese in the United States. More than one-
third could not speak English at all. Almost as
many could neither read nor write. California had
over 40,000, Oregon nearly IO,OOO, Washington
about 3,500, New York nearly 7,OOO. Eight other
states had more than 1,000 each, and some China-
men were found in every state and territory.
Although the total is somewhat less than formerly,
they are still being smuggled in over the Canadian
and Mexican borders, in spite of stringent laws and
vigilant officers. Their anxiety to learn English
makes them particularly accessible to local churches,
and many churches of the various denominations in
the cities have Chinese Sunday-schools, which yield
encouraging results.
The Methodist Episcopal Mission Board appro-
priated (1904) $15,200 for work among the Chinese
in this country, $1,500 available in New York,
$1,2OO in Oregon, $500 in New Mexico, and the
balance in California.
8o
The Chinese and Japanese 81
The American Missionary Association (Congre-
gational) reports over twenty schools for Chinese on
the Pacific Coast.
The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions
celebrated in 1903 fifty years of work for the China-
men on the Pacific Coast. It reports (1904) three
principal stations, San Francisco and Los Angeles
in California and Portland in Oregon, with several
outstations. The Occidental Mission Board Sustains
a Mission Home for the rescue and shelter and
training of young girls of the Chinese and other
oriental races. Into this home a total of eighty
was received last year. House to house evangeli-
zation and schools are employed. Two ordained
American missionaries and their wives, American
teachers and ordained and lay Chinese helpers are
employed on the Pacific coast. A Chinese pastor
carries on a mission in New York. There are about
2OO Chinese communicants in these missions and a
much larger constituency.
The American Bible Society issued from the
Bible House, in New York, presumably for distri-
bution in this country and probably through Chinese
Sunday-schools chiefly, thirty-eight Chinese Bibles
and I,036 Testaments, 34I combined Chinese and
English Testaments and 1,137 Chinese-English
Gospels.
The American Tract Society publishes English-
Chinese text-books and twenty or more Chinese
tractS.
82 Our People of Foreign Speech
THE JAPANESE.
The great body of Japanese under the United
States flag is found in Hawaii, where their number
approximates IOO,OOO. In 1900, there were nearly
25,000 in the United States proper, and the immi-
gration reports to June 30, 1903, show that I 7,237
have come since. There has been a rapidly grow-
ing influx of these people in the past few years.
Those coming represent two distinct classes—the
students who locate in the cities of the Pacific Coast,
and the agriculturists that are taking up lands in
country districts. Much the greatest number is in
California, but Oregon, Washington and Montana
have considerable colonies. Rev. M. C. Harris, Su-
perintendent of the Methodist Mission for Japanese
on the Pacific Coast, says: “Their numbers are
being added to all the time, owing to the demand
for labour, opportunities for business undertakings
and the growth of commerce. The Japanese are
leasing land for fruit and sugar-beet culture, exhibit-
ing the courage of initiative with success. All are
ambitious for success. All are industrious and Self-
denying. All are young and vigorous—Surely a
hopeful class of men. Many families are settling
here also.” In the census year, over sixty per cent.
could not speak English at all, and recent arrivals
would largely increase the proportion. The present
war has turned this tide and led to an ebb. But this
change will, doubtless, be only temporary.
The Chinese and Japanese 83
It is interesting to learn that the Nishi Hong-
wangi, a Buddhist organization, has opened mis-
sionary establishments in San Francisco, Sacra-
mento, Fresno and Seattle, and has active priests
at work among their people to keep them loyal to
Buddhism.
The Methodist Episcopal Church has formed
the Pacific-Japanese mission with two districts, one
for the coast States and the other in Hawaii. The
whole mission reported in 1902 Sixteen organized
churches and a membership of I, IO8; over I,OOO of
the latter were in the States, where there are nine
organized churches, three with buildings, of which
that in San Francisco is valued at $2O,OOO, an An-
glo-Japanese Training School for workers, and many
outstations. They also publish, bi-monthly, a
periodical having a circulation of 1,500, and print
and issue tracts in Japanese.
The Baptists are working among the Japanese at
Seattle and Tacoma, and their home missionary
Society reported two missionaries among them in
I903.
The Presbyterian Foreign Mission Board has five
mission stations for the Japanese in California, with
lodging houses, classes and religious exercises.
The total constituency (1904) is 350. The Japanese
bear about one-half of the expense. At San Fran-
cisco and Los Angeles churches have been or-
ganized. The former received twenty-eight on pro-
fession of faith last year, and has enrolled 378 since
84 Our People of Foreign Speech
its organization. Ten were baptized last year in
outstations. Both American and Japanese workers
are employed.
The American Bible Society had issued, in 1903,
six Japanese Bibles, 53 Testaments and I4I Gospels.
IX
SOME OLDER RESIDENTS
THE AMERICAN INDIANs.
MISSION work among the Indians would be en-
titled chronologically to the first place in a discus-
sion of missions in this country for those who do
not speak English. Franciscan monks in Florida,
and Jesuits on the St. Lawrence, Puritans in New
England and Presbyterians on Long Island and in
New Jersey, Quakers and Moravians in Pennsylva-
nia, these and others, starting Indian missions
among their earliest activities on this continent,
have continued to extend and prosecute them.
The fact that the first Bible printed in America, and
one of the earliest books, was in the Indian tongue,
will never lose its interest or suggestiveness.
It comes, then with something of surprise, after
three centuries, that all the Indians are not yet
reached with evangelistic agencies, and that of
the more than a quarter of a million Indians
in the United States, including Alaska, about
a hundred thousand do not speak English.
Nearly one-third of the Indians (72,583), in
the United States proper were of the latter class.
They are found chiefly in Arizona (15,076), New
85
86 Our People of Foreign Speech
Mexico (7,823), Indian Territory (7,553), South
Dakota (8,096). Nebraska had about 5,000, Okla-
homa, Minnesota and Washington more than 3,000
each, California, Idaho and Wisconsin more than
2,OOO each, and Michigan, Oregon and Utah more
than I,OOO each.
It is probable that the number of Indians has de-
creased; it is certain that they are disappearing by
mixture with other elements of the population.
The present policy of the Government is to break
up the tribal entity and to deal with them as indi-
viduals. It is a critical period, and the Indian never
needed more the presence and help of Christian
agencies than in this transition stage. Missionaries
and churches that, by the use of both the Indian
tongue and English, can mediate his passage from
one to the other, have a peculiar opportunity.
The commission for Catholic missions among the
Indians reports under the head of “Indian Mission
Work” (including Alaska) that the
Indian population in their fields is over
2OO,OOO, the Catholic Indians 41,000, churches
eighty-eight, priests fifty-five, schools forty-five, and
pupils 2,314. These figures include Alaska, but
omit the Vicariate of Brownsville, Southern Texas,
described in a note as “Rather Mexican Popula-
tion.” 1
The Protestant Episcopal Church has work in
fourteen or more states and territories, but princi-
Mission Work.
* Catholic /Xirectory, I903, p. 624.
Some Older Residents 87
pally in the Dakotas and Minnesota. There was
expended for “Indian " work in the year ending
September 1, 1903, $65,697, of which nearly $36,-
OOO was in South Dakota, and $18, IO5 in Alaska.
The Baptist Home Missionary Society reports
(1904) work among fifteen tribes, in which twenty-
three ministers and twenty-six teachers are em-
ployed.
The Methodist Episcopal Church reported in
I903, thirty-three missions, of which seventeen are
in Michigan, mainly among the Chippewas. The
tribes among which they work number less than
25,000 Souls. They report I,608 members. Ten
thousand dollars were appropriated to this work for
I9O4.
In 1904 the Presbyterian Church has missions in
fourteen states and territories, exclusive of Alaska,
sixty ordained missionaries, of whom twenty-five
are Indians, IO5 white teachers and native helpers;
sixty-five native churches, with 4,644 members;
twenty mixed churches, with 715 members. Other
denominations are also represented in this field.
The American Bible Society granted in 1903 the
following number of volumes in the respective In-
dian dialects: Dakota, nine; Choctaw, forty-nine;
Cherokee, forty-six; Muskogee, I77; Ojibwa, three.
THE MEXICANS.
This name is here applied, as is usual in this con-
nection, to the mixed race of Spaniards and Indians,
88 Our People of Foreign Speech
which in the United States has its principal seat in
New Mexico and contiguous territories. On the
Spanish side through the settlement of Mexico as
well as on the Indian side they are entitled to rank
among the earliest settlers.
In 1900 there were over one hundred thousand
persons in the United States who had been born in
Mexico. There was at least double
that number born here of Mexican
descent, so that the estimate of 3OO,OOO for this ele-
ment of our population is conservative.
New Mexico had 53,931 native whites over ten
years of age and 8,272 of foreign parentage who
could not speak English, almost all of whom were
Mexicans. It had the greatest proportion of native
white illiterates found in any state or territory.
Texas had over one hundred thousand who could not
speak English, and nearly eighty thousand of these
were Mexicans.
Arizona had over I2,OOO of foreign parentage
who could not speak English, to which a considera-
ble number of native whites of Mexican descent are
to be added.
The following description of their condition and
character is given by Rev. S. H. Doyle, D. D.,
Ph. D. “The wealthier ones live in
Characteristics. e
the towns, possess their own homes,
and enjoy the advantages of civilization. But this
class is small and growing Smaller. The masses of
the people who live on the outskirts of the towns, in
Numbers.
Some Older Residents 89
the country and on the ranches are in a deplorable
condition. Their houses are usually mud huts with
dirt floors, and only the scantiest furniture. Early
marriages and large families are the rule. Idleness
is wide-spread. In their home life they are kind to
one another. The vices of the Mexicans are glaring
and revolting. The crowding of large families into
one living and sleeping room is necessarily produc-
tive of much evil. Intemperance from wine drink-
ing, and gambling are prevalent. Saloons, gambling
hells and other dens of iniquity exist, and are freely
patronized. -
“The religion of the Mexicans is a mixture of
paganism and Catholicism. The people are ignorant,
Superstitious and fanatical.””
The Roman Catholic Directory gives for the
Archdiocese of Santa Fé and the Diocese of Tuc-
son, which together cover New Mex-
ico and Arizona, fifty-eight churches
with sixty-eight secular and twenty-one regular
clergy, 466 mission stations and chapels; twenty-
three brothers, 124 religious women (Santa Fé only
reported); fifteen colleges or academies for boys
and for girls, fourteen other schools, two orphan
asylums, four hospitals, day and boarding schools
for Indians; 4,66O young people under Catholic
care, and an estimated Catholic population of II 5,-
OOO white and 18,OOO Indians in New Mexico and
4O,OOO in Arizona.
* Presbyterian Home Missions, pp. 207, sq.
Missions.
90 Our People of Foreign Speech
The Baptists have a missionary in Colorado, three
in New Mexico, two schools and five churches with
ninety-two members in IQO3.
The Methodist Episcopal Spanish Mission Con-
ference, covering all work for these people, reported
in 1902, I,894 communicants and 8 IO probationers
in forty-six charges, many including several preach-
ing points. They had a few day schools and a
Boys' Biblical and Industrial School at Albu.
Querque.
The Congregationalists have in New Mexico a
Superintendent, Six Schools, twelve teachers, 390
pupils, two native churches with thirty-seven mem-
bers.
“In April, 1904, the Presbyterian Church re-
ported in New Mexico thirty-one churches among
Spanish-speaking people, with a membership of
over a thousand. In California, there are five
churches with a membership of about two hundred,
and in Colorado twelve churches with a membership
of nearly four hundred. In New Mexico, four of
the ordained missionaries are natives and in Colo-
rado, three. In addition, there are about twenty-
five evangelists and helpers, all of whom are na-
tives.” "
THE WELSH.
The Welsh are introduced in this chapter, not be-
cause Some persons have thought they recognized a
* R. M. Craig, Our Mexicans, p. 34.
Some Older Residents 91
kinship between the Welsh language and certain
Indian dialects, nor because of early settlement here,
although some Welsh came early, nor yet because
they represent alone in America religious work in
a language of the Celts, perhaps the oldest branch
of the Indo-Germanic family in Europe; but be-
cause they do thus stand alone and for them some
of the earliest efforts of American churches to give
the gospel to people of a foreign speech were put
forth; and even more, because they afford an ex-
perience for guidance in this matter.
There were in the United States in 1900, 93,744
persons born in Wales. Pennsylvania had more
than a third (35,453), Ohio, I I,481, New York,
7,304. Nearly three thousand have arrived since.
Doubtless a great majority speak English. But
Welsh is still the ordinary language of more than a
million people and we have some of them.
During the last century Congregationalists, Pres-
byterians, Methodists and Baptists all prosecuted
missions in the Welsh tongue and es- churches
tablished churches composed almost Diminishing.
exclusively of this race. Welsh churches are now
rapidly diminishing in number and strength from
two main causes. One the supplanting of the
Welsh miner by other nationalities in the coal re-
gions, and the consequent scattering of the old
community. The other the turning of Welsh
churches into English-speaking churches or the
gradual absorption of their constituency into the
92 Our People of Foreign Speech
latter. This taken in connection with what is
happening in many of the older German churches,
shows that churches in another tongue will not
continue longer than a few generations at most.
But the immediate benefits conferred and the ulti-
mate easier incorporation of the constituency sepa-
rately or as whole with our English-speaking
churches, illustrated by the Welsh, warrants and
even calls for the establishment in connection with
our American denominations, of churches in which
other languages shall be used at first.
The Methodists appropriate less than $1,000
for Welsh missions, principally in Philadelphia.
The Presbyterians report six congregations with
292 members. There are 178 congregations of
Welsh Calvinistic Methodists (classed as Presby-
terians), but in how many Welsh is used cannot be
stated.
The American Bible Society issues about 500
Welsh Bibles and twice as many Testaments
annually.
X
ARE MISSIONS IN THESE LANGUAGES
NEEDED F
Every man needs the gospel. Every Christian,
to the extent of his opportunity, is debtor to the
man who has it not. Home mission Gospel Not
effort is widely and rightly put forth on Known.
behalf of our English-speaking population. Those
of foreign speech have an equal claim, and
just now greater need. Particularly is this true of
the mass of recent immigrants from eastern and
southern Europe. Rev. Vaclav Losa, a Bohemian
Presbyterian minister who has wide experience
East and West, in city, country and industrial dis-
tricts, writes of his present work among Slavs in
western Pennsylvania: “Our converts come from
Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, Lutheran and Re-
formed people. The plainest preaching of the
simple gospel will reach these people. It must be
taken for granted when you address them that they
do not know even the alphabet of Christianity, and
when they are converted they tell you that you
were right. Protestant or not Protestant, they are
spiritually dead, ignorant of the fundamental Chris-
tian doctrines and full of superstition.” Similar
testimony comes from many quarters.
93
94 Our People of Foreign Speech
If religious work is to be done for hundreds of
thousands of Souls now in the United States and
English Not for hundreds of thousands more who
Understood are coming, a foreign tongue must be
employed. They do not understand English, and,
as adults, will never acquire it sufficiently to be
reached through it. Moreover, settling as they
frequently do in large and compact communities,
the native language of the parents will be handed
down through a generation or more in those locali-
ties, as has been the case with German. To estab-
lish now a church for these parents and children in
a foreign tongue, is laying the best possible founda-
tion for an English-speaking church in the future.
In this particular, as in many another, the Roman
Catholic Church sets Protestants an example of
wisdom. As the detailed record shows, that Church
has priests and services, as far as practicable, for
those using each of the several languages repre-
sented in its constituency.
The number of churches and missions in foreign
tongues in the United States is utterly inadequate
esent work to the need. Although earlier immi-
inadequate, grants, like the Germans and Scandi-
navians, may be said to be relatively well supplied,
yet every agency working among them has more
opportunity and call for work than means to do it.
But what of later comers? There are enough per-
Sons of Bohemian parentage in Chicago to make a
city the size of Hartford, Conn., or Trenton, N. J.
Are Missions in These Languages Needed? 95
A half-dozen weak missions represent the Prot-
estant work for them. New York has enough
persons of Italian parentage to make a city larger
than Louisville or Minneapolis, and the Protestant
missionary force, ministerial and lay, is less than
ten. There are enough Magyars to repeople Dela-
ware, but there are less than a score of Protestant
ministers among them. There are enough Slovaks
to repeople Montana; there are as many Poles who
do not speak English, as there were people in North
Dakota in 1900; and almost nothing has yet been
done by American Protestant Churches to evan-
gelize either. What of the tens of thousands from
the Balkan states and the Levant, and the hundreds
of thousands of Jews?
But the complexity and difficulty of the work
when looked at in detail is calculated to appall.
The variety of languages is so great,
the obstacles of ignorance, of preju-
dice, of indifference, of active hostility even, are so
many—the demand for men so instant and for
means so large—the possibilities of denominational
interference so imminent—that there is little won-
der the Churches hesitate to take up this work ag-
gressively. But the foreign mission work, in
which all the Churches engage, is far more com-
plex and difficult. No one denomination is called
upon to minister to all nationalities and everywhere.
There is a most appropriate field here for denomina-
tional comity and the assignment of fields. Even
Difficulties.
96 Our People of Foreign Speech
if the whole need cannot be met at once, to do
even a part will be good.
There are manifest encouragements for prosecut-
ing this work. Just Settling in this new land,
under new conditions, these people of
foreign speech are unusually accessible
to new formative influences. The comparatively
new gospel has a peculiar charm and impressiveness
for them when, in this strange land, it comes to
them in their own tongue, wherein they were born.
Dr. Emrich of the Congregational Church recently
illustrated this by the feeling which he himself has
for the German he learned at his mother's knee, and
cited the pathos with which Jacob Riis, that gen-
uine American, alludes to his old Danish home and
his old Danish language. Work among them
brings returns. Over three hundred Protestant
Magyars presented themselves as applicants for
church membership upon the first Sunday, when it
was proposed to organize a Hungarian Protestant
Church among them at Perth Amboy, N. J. In
twenty-two years Rev. Antonio Arrighi, the Italian
Presbyterian minister of New York has received
I,2OO Italians into the church on profession of faith
and has been instrumental in sending fourteen
students into the ministry. In evidence of conver-
Sion, in missionary zeal and in liberality converts
among the people who do not speak English, shame
many English-speaking Christians.
Encouragements.
XI
AGENCIES WHICH MAY BE EMPLOYED
THE Bible Society does an invaluable service in
providing the Scriptures in every language needed.
These are sold at a very moderate The printing
price; or, upon Occasion, are donated. Press.
The American Tract Society and the Denomina-
tional Publication Societies furnish some religious
books and tracts in many languages. But, in gen-
eral, it appears that there is need for more fresh,
pertinent and attractive literature of this sort,
adapted to present conditions in America.
Even if he will not read books or tracts, every-
body who can do so, reads new papers and period-
icals in our day. Able, bright, evangelical religious
papers for people of many of the foreign tongues
are lacking. Some common agency, like the Tract
Society might undertake their publication on a large
scale with the cooperation of the denominations
and for them. Where there are sufficient churches
of one speech in a denomination to justify it, a de-
nominational paper, properly conducted, would
probably prove one of the best evangelizing, edu-
cating and unifying agencies, and so would justify
missionary expenditure to start and maintain it.
97
98 Our People of Foreign Speech
To circulate the Bible and Christian literature, to
explain and impress their teachings and to reinforce
The coſporteur the effects produced by them, “liv-
and Visitor ing epistles” are needed. One per-
son can thus reach in some measure almost any
variety of speech. The Tract Society agent on
Ellis Island distributes literature in twenty-two
languages. The agent of the Pennsylvania Bible
Society at Philadelphia distributed Testaments
in forty languages in a single year. The col-
porteur or visitor reaches many who could
not or would not attend public services. Such
workers can explore the field, furnish definite data
and prepare the way for organizations. Trained
women, like those furnished by the Bethlehem
School, Cleveland, have proved very efficient in
Such work. The organization of deaconesses, em-
ployed in many Lutheran bodies now, and being
taken up by other denominations, is a promising
agency for this as well as other forms of missionary
work, particularly in cities.
In many cities and in the coal regions of Penn-
sylvania the kindergarten has proved a most valu-
Kindergartens and able agency for mission work among
Other Schools, people of other speech. Although
it is of advantage that the teacher should know
other languages, English alone is requisite, because
it only is used in the school. In this way the chil-
dren are early brought under Christian instruction,
and access to the home and influence there is se-
Agencies Which May be Employed 99
cured by the teacher. Schools at night or other
time for instruction in English and other branches
confer an immediate benefit, and widen the con-
stituency and influence of the church or mission
employing them. The example of certain Slavic
priests who have classes to train their parishioners
for citizenship might well be followed.
The Sunday-school offers one of the very best
and most available missionary agencies. Already
widely used it should be pressed more widely and
actively by English-speaking churches in local
touch with any people of foreign speech. Where
no organization is ready to initiate and carry on
such schools, earnest Christian individuals will find
rare opportunity for service in doing so. Much of
the best work for those of foreign speech has
started by such individual interest and action.
Only through organized churches can the results
of Christian work be conserved, Christian character
be fully developed, and religion per- churches and
manently propagated. As to organi- Ministers.
zation and usages, it seems fair and wise to concede
much in non-essentials to the preferences and old
customs of the worshipers themselves.
To find suitable ministers for churches of foreign
speech is the feature of greatest difficulty in this
work to-day. Where there are Protestant churches
abroad, ministers trained there may sometimes be
obtained. But, while there are notable exceptions,
the general experience of the American Churches
* ,s
* As *
* © T & :: * • *
º e * * • * *
*
:
;
*
w
& a
t *
loo Our People of Foreign Speech
seems to be that it is unsatisfactory to employ here
ministers of foreign birth and training. Even
where there is no question of character raised, their
views and practices usually differ widely from those
prevailing here, and they are accordingly unfitted
to bring the people into harmony with American
church life. It is far better to educate here the
men who are to work here.
The experience of the Churches most actively en-
gaged in this work demonstrates the value of general
missionaries or Superintendents for the several nation-
alities ; who, Speaking their language, can prospect
for locations and can assist in the organization and
direction of the local churches, while not themselves
confined to one field.
Some special training is needful for those
who are going to do religious work in a
Training particular language, whether as min-
Schools isters or otherwise. Provision for
training ministers who are to use other languages
than English has already been made by some
theological seminaries. “Bible Schools” which
prepare for lay work by a course in the Bible
and other studies in English, together with separate
courses in the use of the particular language to be
employed subsequently, have been established.
The combination of various nationalities in the same
School which this scheme contemplates, economizes
the educational force; tends to dissipate race preju-
dices, and promotes unity and adaptability in subse-
o
•
• sº
* * * *e
&
• * * gº
ſº
º *
e
*
:
:
*
&
Agencies Which May be Employed 101
quent work. Such schools are too few and their
support too inadequate for the great opportunities
which are opened through them. Just now they
hold the key to the situation. To equip thoroughly
seminaries and Schools for this purpose, to maintain
them liberally and to enlarge their constituency are
chief among the ends to which effort and gifts
should now be devoted by those who desire to
further religious work among our non-English-
speaking population.
But to make any agencies for their evangelization
effective there must be interest in the people of for-
eign speech and sympathy with them spirit and
on the part of English-speaking Chris- Motive.
tians. It is not enough that without regard to mo-
tive, we have the gospel preached to them in their
own tongues. The utterance of the great apostle
to the Gentiles is true in a manward reference as
well as a Godward, “If I speak with the tongues of
men and of angels, but have not love, I am become
sounding brass or a clanging cymbal” (I Cor. 13: I
A. V.). There is much discussion as to what are
proper national laws regarding immigration, but the
Christian law, regarding the immigrant was written
long ago in the words: “As we have therefore op-
portunity, let us do good unto all men.”
Patriotic considerations call us to cultivate this
Spirit and to employ these agencies. Those of
native speech other than English, together with
their descendants, will soon be in the majority here,
lo2 Our People of Foreign Speech
if indeed they are not already so. Read the names
on Broadway, see the troops of children on the East
Side in New York, if you do not care to consult
statistics. Of our thirty-eight cities having more
than IOO,OOO inhabitants in 1900, only five had a
majority of native whites who were born of parents
who had themselves been born here. More non-
English-speaking immigrants than English-speaking
have come the past eighty-four years and English-
speaking immigration has well nigh ceased now.
If our American national and religious life is to be
perpetuated here it must be infused into those
whose native speech is not English and into their
descendants.
God has richly endowed our American churches
with spiritual and material gifts. By His providence
in bringing to the very doors of our houses of
prayer these men out of every nation under heaven,
He is giving to our churches a call like that to the
Jerusalem church at Pentecost. Possible as it is for
us, shall we not emulate the Jerusalem Christians
and provide that those who cannot understand our
speech shall hear every man in his own tongue
wherein he was born the wonderful works of God P
Table showing number of white persons of foreign parentage ro
years of age and over who cannot speak English, distributed
according to principal birthplace of parents, for ſtates and
territories having at least 5oo of this class. From Report
12th census, 1900, Vol. II, p. cxxvi.
Number
TES AND TERRITO who
starssº. T cannot Principal birthplace of parents.
& speak
English.
North Atlantic division :
aine..................... I6,496 Canada (French), 14,123; all other, 2,373.
New Hampshire...... I7,706 Canada (French), 15,304; all other, 2,402.
Vermont ......... © tº 9 s tº gº tº dº 4,162 Canada (French), 2,280; Italy, 1,155; all
other, 727.
Massachusetts.........| 78,019 |Canada (French), 32,593; Italy, 11,530; Po-
land, Io,492; Russia, 4,187; Sweden, 1,560;
Germany, 1,373; Austria, 1,251; all other
(Portugal principally), 15,033.
Rhode Island........... 17,559 |Canada (French), 9,621; Italy, 4,143; Po-
land, 959; all other, 2,836.
Connecticut............ 27,131 |Italy, 7,775; Canada (French), 4,617; Poland,
4,448; Hungary, 2,274; Russia, 2,055; Aus-
tria, 1,757; Germany, 1,691; all other,
2,514.
New York............... 222,804 |Italy, 74,581; Russia, 40,154; Germany,
30,462; Poland, 23,476; Austria, 22,837;
Hungary, 9,404; Bohemia, 6,202; all other,
I5,688. -
New Jersey............ 49,110 |Italy, 16,750; Germany, 6,908; Hungary,
6,818; Austria, 5,240; Poland, 5,129; Rus-
sia, 4,335; all other, 3,930.
Pennsylvania..........| 162,693 |Poland, 34,595; Austria, 34,172; Italy, 31,266;
Hungary, 24,098; Germany, 14,861; Rus-
sia, 13,122; all other, Io,579.
South Atlantic division :
Delaware ............... 1,537 |Poland, 588; Italy, 553; all other, 396.
Maryland............... 7,702 |Germany, 2,479; Russia, 2,152; Poland, 904;
e Italy, 829; all other, 1,338.
Virginia............... e is tº 833 ||Hungary, 342; all other, 491.
West Virginia.........| 3,648 |Italy, 1,653; Hungary, 508; Austria, 483;
Poland, 294; Russia, 251; all other, 459.
Florida....................] 5,773 º 1,08o; * º, (Cuba and West
In ClieS Orlin CIO3. 2 Nºv.3°
North Central division : p pally), 4,693
io “.................... 52,864 Germany, 18,345; Hungary, 6,690; Poland,
6,359; Bohemia, 5,754; Italy, 4,991; Aus-
g tria, 4,915; all other, 5,810.
Indiana ..................] 12,050 Germany, 5,614; Poland, 1,647; Austria,
tº g 1,173; all other, 3,616.
Illinois.................... Io4,942 |Germany, 30,070; Poland, 25,252; Bohemia,
12,926; Italy, 8,964; Sweden, 6,565; Russia,
3 * : * 5,855; Austria, 4,731; all other, Io,579.
Michigan................] 50,939 Germany, 12,968; Poland, 11,086; Canada,
(French), 3,444; Italy, 2,658; Sweden,
2,333; all other (Holland and Finland
* wº principally), 18,450.
Wisconsin............... 91,821 Germany, 50,119; Poland, 13,690; Norway,
8,501; Bohemia, 4,864; Sweden, 2,934;
tº Austria, 2,036; all other, 9,677.
Minnesota...............] 71,634 ||Norway, 17,702; Germany, 16,631: Sweden,
14,807; Bohemia, 4,368; Austria, 2,902; all
other, 15,224.
Io3
Principal birthplace of parents.
STATES AND TERRITO-
RIES.
Y Number
who
Cann Ot
speak
English.
North Central division—
Continued:
Missouri...... e - - - - - e º ºs e e
North Dakota .........
South Dakota
Nebraska..... º
e - e s e s = e e s
Kansas. 4 & 6 tº tº 4 º' - e º 'º e º ſº tº ſº tº a
South Central division:
Kentucky.....
Tennessee ....
Oklahoma.....
* tº 4 & © 4 º' tº e
• * * * * * * * * *
• * * * * * * * * *
Arkansas................
Western division:
Ontana. e a tº º 'º º
Wyoming • * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Colorado.......
New Mexico.
Idaho ...........
e - - - 6 e º se e
- - - - - - - is a
- - - * * * * * * *
Oregon............ Q & Q = e is g g
California.....
& © & B e º º sº a º
26,395
I5,372
18,873
I4,059
18,481
II,326
IOO,592
I,432
93I
3,146
I,970
,8OO
8,272
I2,002
2,25I
942
3,875
2, I3 I
2O, I49
Germany, 12,711; Norway, 3,244; Bohemia,
2,935; Sweden, 2,271; all other, 5,234.
Germany, 8,806; Italy, 1,401; Poland, 1,036;
all other, 4,129.
Russia, 7,142; Norway, 4,349; Germany,
1,758; all other, 5,624.
Russia, 5,558; Norway, 2,632; Germany,
2,066; all other, 3,8o3.
Germany, 6,226; Bohemia, 5,031; Sweden,
1,852; Russia, 1,690; Poland, 1,020; all
other, 2,662.
Russia, 3, 117; Germany, 3,012; Sweden,
1,475; all other, 3,722.
Germany, 1,256; all other, 668.
Italy, 345; all other, 350.
Italy, 284; Germany, 201; all other, 300.
Italy, 6,317; France, 1,356; all other, 912.
Germany, 9,059; Bohemia, 5,969; Austria,
3,397; Italy, 1,382; Poland, 1,240; all other
ãº. principally), 79,545.
Russia, 511; Germany, 370; Bohemia, 296;
all other, 255.
Germany, 333; Italy, 219; Switzerland, Io9;
all other, 271.
Austria, 933: Italy, 793; Canada (French),
246; all other, 1,174.
Austria, 511; Italy, 368; all other, 1,091.
Italy, 2,594; Austria, 2,007; Russia, 482; all
other, 1,717.
Italy, 198; Austria, 127; all other (Mexico
principally), 7,947.
Italy, 186; all other (Mexico principally),
I 1,816.
Denmark, 611; Sweden, 597; Italy, 270; Nor-
way, 170; Switzerland, 161; Germany, 117;
all other, 325.
Italy, 269; Sweden, 189; all other, 484.
Italy, 561; Germany, 545; Russia, 456;
Sweden, 428; Norway, 391; Austria, 304;
all other, 1,190.
Germany, 448; Russia, 281; Italy, 239; Swit-
zerland, 222; Sweden, 120; all other, 821.
Italy, 6,738; France, 1,386; Germany, 1,073;
Switzerland, 697; Austria, 451; all other
(Portugal and Mexico principally), 9,804.
IO4
Where Our Immigrants Settle
Diagrams showing the distribution of the foreign-
Öorm living in the United States and the rela-
tive numbers of the different nationalities.
By the courtesy of Doubleday, Page & Company,
Publishers of The World's Work, we are permitted
to reproduce diagrams prepared by Mr. F. W.
Hewes and published in The World’s Work, Octo-
ber, I903. In explanation of these diagrams, their
author, Mr. Hewes, remarks:
“When immigrants come to the United States,
where do they go? To what extent do people of
alien races colour the various parts of the country P
These questions are answered by the accompanying
diagrams. The circles show how the total numbers
of the different nationalities compare, and the dots
on the maps show where these aliens live. Each
small dot represents I,000 foreign-born persons.
Each large dot represents IO,OOO such persons in
one city. The small dots grouped compactly
around a large dot add so many thousands to the
IO,OOO in that city. Compact groups of five to
nine dots mark cities having from 5,000 to 9,000
such persons. Cities having less than 5,000 aliens
are not indicated.”
Io5
Born m Canada,England,Scºtlawā,\\\ales— Residentinume
& United States &
• *
• ?:
* ..."
F\-A
With has 70 oweſſlowdots,
on the Greatlakes-New Wing..,N.W. and
N.J.;several hundred,ontheſilantic and woºl stery
W.W.Y.
Reproduced by special permission from “The World's Work.” Copyright, 1903.
Canadians and British are Distributed Widely, Müch as the Whole Population is Tjistributed—Canadians in All
the Northern States and . Particularly in New England. The Circles, as in All the Other
Maps, Show the Total Number of Each Nationality in the United States.





Bomw\relomá- Residentwiſeum teaStates
% Wiesma)\dºts&ſoupedabout
NACA) includedsºevºtoso; Cow.
\\\\\\ and N.A.-0\\\\\bston; mass.owā R.A.
Reproduced by special permission from “The World's Work.” Copyright, 1903.
The Irish, Next in Number to the Germans, Tremaining in the Eastern States.









\\\\\\.
Bornun Germany,Clustrio, ºutlerland, Belgium, Luxemburg.
*º - Resident'w the U.S.
The smalldóts groupedabout
N.A.Cltuºndude,also the totºse;
Comm. and N.J.
Reproduced by special permission from “The World’s World.” Copyright, 1903.
The Largest Number of Aliens in this Group. German Preference is for Cities of the Eastern and Central
States, but there is No Avoidance of Agriculture,














mce, Portuga 2 SpüTºt traº-Testuent intrº
United States
-3D,618 V Westwaldºs growped &W
3.53, / N.A.Cºnclude,also the toºs &
O72. Comm. and N.J.
pecial permission from “The World’s World.” Copyright, 1903. s
to Otºr Latin Peoples. Many are Settled About New York, but Some in
Lollisiana amul California.












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