English Only!

Be it enacted by the general assembly of the State of Indiana, That all subjects and branches taught in the elementary schools of the State of Indiana … shall be taught in the English language only …: Provided, That the German language shall not be taught in any of the elementary schools of this state.

The war was over, the enemy vanquished, and no imminent danger drove the government of Indiana to protect its young citizens from the German language when the "McCray anti-German bill," quoted above, was passed by the Indiana legislature on February 25, 1919, and immediately signed by the governor.

The bill applied to all Indiana elementary schools, which included public, private and parochial schools, and any schools connected with "benevolent or correctional institutions." A lingering bitterness over the war no doubt inspired its focus on the German language, but its general requirement that all instruction be in English likely could be attributed to the "100% Americanism" ethos that had arisen, as I've mentioned, with the new wave of immigration from southern and eastern Europe, that had been nourished by government propaganda and popular sentiment during the war, and that would in turn feed the Klan movement of the 1920s.

The new English-only law provided that violators were subject to a fine between $25 and $100 and/or up to six months' imprisonment in the county jail, and each day the law was violated constituted a separate offense.

So far as I can tell the law did not affect high schools or colleges.

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Meanwhile, Fred Rose, Jr. (the son of a German immigrant) came home on leave from Camp Custer. He said he expected to be discharged from the army "very shortly." He had been expecting to be discharged very shortly for a couple of months now.


Sources:
♦ "German Language Barred From Indiana Schools." Hobart Gazette 28 Feb. 1919.
♦ "Legislature Restricts the Teaching of German." Hobart News 27 Feb. 1919.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 28 Feb. 1919.
♦ Roach, William A. Laws of the State of Indiana Passed at the Seventy-First Regular Session of the General Assembly Begun on the Ninth Day of January, A.D. 1919. Indianapolis: Wm. B. Burford, Contractor for State Printing and Binding, 1919. http://books.google.com/books?id=8V84AAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA869&ots=xw7Pj3sYa3