IMMIGRANT INSTITUTIONS
119
1,200 newspapers published in the United States are
printed in some other language than English. In
1914, fifty-eight foreign newspapers were published
in Massachusetts alone, altho New York is the great
center of distribution. These newspapers in Massa
chusetts were published in Albanian, Arabian, Arme
nian, Yiddish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Let
tish, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish and
Assyrian. Their contents usually consist of a digest
of domestic and foreign news of peculiar interest to
the race or races for which the publication is issued.
As a rule they are strongly “national,” at times tak
ing a very partizan attitude toward political questions
in the homeland. Many of them have also been
organs of radical propaganda in the United States,
a number of them having been suppressed during
the war. Canada found the same difficulty and
adopted similar measures. The foreign language
press is a force to be carefully watched.
Immigrant Churches
In all foreign colonies of any importance churches
have been erected by the different races.
The influence of immigrant churches on the assimi
lation and progress of the alien population is discust
at length elsewhere.* No general statistics are avail
able as to their number and membership, but a good
insight into the general situation may be quickly af
forded by a description of the churches in a number
°f representative towns and cities. In Windber, a
bituminous coal mining town in Western PennsyJ-
* The Massachusetts Immigration Commission of 1914 has some excellent
material regarding the immigrant press. Much material can also be found
lr \ report of the Lusk Committee on revolutionary radicalism. Report
c l Y. . Joint Legislative Committee of the State of New York, investigating
“ ecl itious Activities, 1921.