OCR Text |
Show We Must Learn Spanish and Portuguese Editorial : (Condcniett from the September Good Housekeeping) T AST month in this magazine a great statesman made an 1 appeal to the men, women, and children of this country. In the midst of an appalling world crisis, Secretary of State Cordell Hull found time to voice a deeply earnest request. He asked us the people of the United States to learn Spanish and Portuguese now. Already the response to that message has been overwhelming, overwhelm-ing, hvom every state in the Union have come air-mail letters signed by educators and public officials who endorse the Secretary Secre-tary s stand. But even more important is what this appeal rnay mean to the average citizen who wants to aid the cause oi peace. There are millions of such people. They want to do something something constructive, something that involves self-discipline self-discipline and sacrifice, something that gets results. They are !the people, we feel, who will welcome the chance to join this : crusade sponsored by GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, a crusade for better understanding among the nations of the Western Hemisphere. For years we have neglected Latin America. As a result, our friends down there are all too few. We have done little to deserve such friends; in fact, we are lucky not to have more enemies. Many honest and sincere Latin Americans feel that we have exploited them. Some con- sider us arrogant. Others accuse us of being ignorant ignorant of their language, their culture, their customs. The sad truth is that we are. To ignore this situation any longer is actually dangerous, i We must make friends with our neighbors to the south. The salvation of democracy may depend on it. Peace in this hemisphere hem-isphere hangs on it. There is no time to lose in our half of the l world. We must learn Spanish and Portuguese. As Secretary Hull said last month, "... ignorance of the vehicle of expression of a culture obviously makes impossible a comprehension and adequate appreciation of -the richness which that culture represents." We must overcome that ignorance. To do so will require considerable con-siderable effort. It is not easy for a child to learn a foreign language. For an adult, it may be even harder. But we must tlo it. : Why? Because the unity we seek with Latin America is largely a spiritual one. Economically we may not be able to do much more than we are doing now. With the exception of coffee and a few other commodities, South America's products prod-ucts compete with our own. Geographically and culturally, (South America is closer to the Old World than it is to us. We iCeed to find other ties to bind us together, ties of friendship, sympathy, and understanding. We need to remember that, vhile reciprocal trade is a good thing, reciprocal ideals are Ibetter. i Part of the problem is to make our neighbors understand that our interest in them is not purely selfish. As the physically -.strongest power in this hemisphere, we must logically undertake under-take most of its defense. But besides sending occasional warships war-ships on good-will missions to strategic points in Latin America, Amer-ica, we should regularly send students to study their customs, '(tourists who speak their languages, businessmen who under- , stand their psychology. |