The situation in regard to parochial schools in North Dakota has been and still is, perhaps, more serious than in Nebraska. The writer in his field study in North Dakota was impressed that the public officials were afraid to do anything more than recommend certain desirable changes in these schools; some were even afraid to visit the German counties or sections on public business, such as Liberty Bond or Red Cross drives. Several reasons were given, such as politics, ignorance of the German language, and even care for their own safety. Therefore an English-speaking German woman was engaged to speak for Liberty Bonds in North Dakota German sections. She was successful only because in her German public speeches she praised the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty and condemned the Czechoslovaks in Russia. "Well, she brings home the bacon. For what else do we care!" ironically exclaimed a North Dakota man to the writer.
The State Superintendent of Public Education made the following statement to the writer when he asked for data on the foreign-language schools in the state:
The State Department of Public Education has no authority whatever over the private and parochial schools in the state. There is no legal ground for collecting information in regard to them.... There have been cases when children of immigrant groups, attending a private or parochial school, had to learn the foreign tongue of other groups.
A Catholic bishop stated:
The first grades in the parochial schools use German because the children who enter the schools do not know English, and it is far better and more successful to start work with them in their mother tongue as a teaching language. At the same time, they teach them English. As their knowledge of English gradually grows, the teaching in the higher grades is transferred to the English language.
To the writer's question whether the non-German children in their parochial schools—for instance, Bohemians and Hungarians—have also to start in German, the bishop said that in some cases this is true, for they are not able to find teachers for each language.
In the bishops diocese there are 37,000 Catholic families. Among these are 2,000 Indian families, about 2,000 Bohemian families, and between 300 and 400 Hungarian families. The rest are German families, over 100 of whom are from Germany; about 2,000 were born in America, and the rest are Germans from Russia.
An American church head made the following statement, in reply to an inquiry about the schools:
Strasburg, Emmons County, has a large parochial school where German is the only language both for teaching and speaking. The public school there has only a handful of children. There are plenty of parochial schools in which German is taught exclusively in McIntosh and Emmons Counties, and in the western counties (in the town of New Salem, etc.). Some of the teachers, of whom a goodly number are Sisters, cannot speak English at all. Children of other nationalities would also be under German influences. There is undoubtedly German propaganda in these schools, and American or other children become Germanized. Every graded school, private and public, should be conducted in English exclusively. Every teacher need not be American born; many foreign-born people are better citizens than some native Americans. But every teacher should have to understand and speak the English language. No one should teach, preach, or hold public office who cannot speak English.
The editor of an English daily in Bismarck, North Dakota, said: