ften the priests and pastors of the immigrant churches are freshly
arrived immigrants themselves. They scarcely speak English and know
little about America. Consequently they are not able to educate the
members of their congregations in American ways. On the contrary, they
tend to criticize America and favor their old country in their sermons,
public addresses, and activities. During recent years quite a number of
such church heads have been prosecuted in the courts for their seditious
utterances and activities.

Testimony given at the hearing before the state Americanization
Committee in Lincoln, Nebraska, showed how many of the ministers know
little of the English language and little of America:

Joseph G. Votava of Omaha, representing the Bohemians, Roman Catholic,
stated:

A great many of the ministers have come from foreign churches and
countries, and if you gentlemen were forced to listen to them
making English sermons, I don't know whether you would go to church
very often or not.

Rev. F. E. Pomp, Omaha, representing the Swedish Evangelical Mission
Association of Nebraska, said:

A great many of the ministers in our denomination were born in
Sweden; some preach very well in English, but the majority,
perhaps, of those born in Sweden cannot preach in the English
language.

The statement of Rev. Matt W. Nemec, Wahoo, Nebraska, Bohemian Roman
Catholic, was:

There are eight of these gentlemen who have come over here and are
in training, and they cannot speak the English language fluently,
and it would be a great hardship for them to come up before the
young people who speak English very well and try to preach in English.

POTENTIAL POWERS FOR GOOD

An immigrant church can do much toward the amalgamation of its members.
There are a few immigrant churches, Catholic as well as Protestant,
which are doing valuable work in this direction. But while an immigrant
church can do much good it also can do much harm when its services and
activities are conducted in the spirit of preference of the old country
to America. To prevent such harm some action must be taken by the public.

The writer recommends that the immigrant church heads (priests, pastors,
ministers, rabbis, and others) should be American citizens either by
birth or by naturalization. Foreign-language services should be
conducted for freshly arrived immigrants only, and for those old-time