Foreigners in America by L. L. Caviness

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 23, 1914

Foreigners in America

By L. L. Caviness

L. L. CAVINESS

ONE finds himself continually astonished when he considers the number of foreigners in the United States. Certainly we as a people should awake and do much more for these persons of various nationalities who come to our country, thereby saving us the task of going to them. The following extract, translated from Der Christliche Apologete (Cincinnati), March 25, 1914, presents some interesting figures:—

"According to the last census there live within the border of the United States about 5,000,000 Germans, who were born in different lands in Europe. If we add to this the first generation of American-born Germans, we have almost 11,000,000 Germans. According to the same census, the foreign-born Germans constitute twenty-five per cent of all the foreign-born population in this country. . . . There come further in the course of each year 74,000 new German immigrants. . . . But that is not all. Something like fourteen per cent of the immigrant Hungarians use the German language. Also many of the Bohemians, Poles, and other Slavonic peoples can be easier reached through the German than through the English."

These figures show that over a tenth of the entire population of the United States are German-speaking. In order to deal fairly with this element, it should have over one tenth of our effort. It seems clearer than ever why God in his providence led to the establishment of a German school for the training of German workers. But there is much that can be done by the English-speaking people in circulating German literature among their German-speaking neighbors. Are you doing your share?