Jaroslav František Smetánka

Name: The Czechoslovaks in the United States
Author: Jaroslav František Smetánka

The Czechoslovaks in the United States (1920)

Summary

“The Czechoslovaks in the United States”, published in 1920, is a work by Jaroslav František Smetánka. It explores elements such as Czech, Slovaks and Czechoslovak immigrants.

Quotes from The Czechoslovaks in the United States (Jaroslav František Smetánka)

Jaroslav František Smetánka, The Czechoslovaks in the United States (1920)

“ There are many rural and urban communities with a considerable Czech population which is entirely unchurched, and these people may now be and should be reached by our regular American churches, as language is no longer a barrier.
The Jan Hus Presbyterian Church of New York City has rendered a unique service to our American culture by the preservation and cultivation of the arts and music of the Czechoslovak people, so that the distinctive gifts of these people may not be lost upon their amalgamation in our American life. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Jaroslav František Smetánka, The Czechoslovaks in the United States (1920)

“ There have always been among the immigrants many young men with an adventurous spirit, but the mass of the Czechoslovak immigrants crossed the ocean because of the economic opportunity which America presented to the poor peasant. Slovak immigration on a larger scale began about forty years ago and was especially strong in the ten years preceding the war.
The Czech immigrants of the third quarter of the nineteenth century settled for the most part on farms. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Jaroslav František Smetánka, The Czechoslovaks in the United States (1920)

“ The reason for this is that Czechs and Slovaks, though close neighbors, have lived a separate life for nearly a thousand years. The Czechs had for centuries their own kingdom of Bohemia, until in the 17th century they were merged with the Austrian possessions of the House of Hapsburg, while the Slovaks were a part of the kingdom of Hungary and lived under the sway of Magyar landholders. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Jaroslav František Smetánka, The Czechoslovaks in the United States (1920)

“ They seek the companionship of their own people
It was natural for Czechoslovak immigrants coming to a new country with a strange language and unfamiliar customs to seek the companionship of their own people and to live in colonies affording the social life familiar to them. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Jaroslav František Smetánka, The Czechoslovaks in the United States (1920)

“ The Czech churches in the country and in the cities, are now finding it necessary to carry on many of their activities in the English language in order to reach the young people, and the day is not very far distant when most of these churches will be using the English language entirely as our Dutch and German churches are doing. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Jaroslav František Smetánka, The Czechoslovaks in the United States (1920)

“ Our Presbyterian Church has a number of fine Slovak churches in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and in many missions and neighborhood houses the Slovaks are being reached with the same program which ministers to other nationalities of the newer immigration. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Jaroslav František Smetánka, The Czechoslovaks in the United States (1920)

“ The Slovaks have adhered more faithfully to the creed in which they were brought up. Rationalism has never taken hold among them as among the Czechs. They have several hundred Catholic churches, over a hundred Lutheran churches and missions, and some ten Presbyterian churches, attended largely by those who were Calvinists in their old home. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Jaroslav František Smetánka, The Czechoslovaks in the United States (1920)

“ In Chicago there are four Czech daily papers, in New York one Czech and two Slovak, in Cleveland two Czech and one Slovak. Weekly and monthly publications exceed one hundred.
Difference of parents and children in attitude toward America
Children of Czechoslovak immigrants become keen Americans in the public school. They speak English even to their parents, they look upon the United States as their country and the best country in the world and they take little interest in the country, language and customs of their parents. The older people seldom learn to know the true America ”

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Source: Wikisource

Jaroslav František Smetánka, The Czechoslovaks in the United States (1920)

“ Almost all Slovak immigrants became industrial workers. Thousands are employed in the various industries of New York and vicinity, in the stockyards of Chicago and the steelmills of Gary, and in the factories of Cleveland and Detroit. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Jaroslav František Smetánka, The Czechoslovaks in the United States (1920)

“ They took up homesteads in the Central West, and there are now prosperous Bohemian farming settlements in Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and the Dakotas. From the province of Moravia a stream of land-hungry families was directed toward Texas, the only southern state where Czechoslovaks have settled in considerable numbers. ”

Jaroslav František Smetánka

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Quotes from The Czechoslovaks in the United States (Jaroslav František Smetánka)

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