y of the voting members of our congregation are
immigrants. They came to this country thirty or forty years ago;
they settled in the country; they had no opportunity to get
acquainted and to learn the American language. In the country and
small towns they have no night schools, and these people never had
a chance to learn the American language. We have members in the
congregation who are able to understand it, or at least able to do
their business in the American language. They can talk to you about
politics and about the weather, but they cannot get the benefit
from an American sermon that they can from a German sermon. They
would perhaps understand a sermon on how to keep cool on a hot day,
but when you come to a sermon on religious subjects they are not
able to understand it.

Most of the priests and pastors stated that there were so many
difficulties in the way of having separate English and foreign-language
services, the former for the children and those who understand English,
and the latter for the old people who do not understand English, that it
would be practically impossible to do this. The argument usually given
was that presented by Joseph G. Votava of Omaha, a Roman Catholic,
representing the Bohemians:

About having separate meetings for the old folks and the
children--this question came up from Greeley County, and they
wanted us to have our German service between nine and ten, and
Sunday school between ten and eleven, and from eleven to twelve an
English sermon. The old folks and the children come together in the
same vehicle, and they certainly don't expect the children to sit
down on the curbing or in the shade until the old folks get
through, and therefore it is hard to separate the meetings in the
rural districts, of which we have many congregations all over the
state.

BILINGUAL SERVICES

That it is possible to have bilingual services successfully was
testified to by John P. Gross, Hastings, Nebraska, a United States
citizen born in Russia, representing the Adams County Council of
Defense. He said:

Then we were told to have one preaching service a week in the
English language, and we all agreed to do that, and we were told we
could have as much German besides that one English sermon as we
wanted. And we agreed to have that one English sermon. I went to my
c