p0584_02085
Facsimile
Mr. John R. King,
Post Commander,
American Legion,
Lake Mills Iowa.
1921
My Dear Mr. King:--
I am in receipt of your letter dated July 1st inst.
I did not receive your letter before I left for Lake
Mills. I do not know that the letter needs an
answer, as you are fully aware of the subse-
quent developments. Yet, in order that you may
understand us better, I send you this answer:
In the first place, we had invited Dr. L. W. Boe
of St. Olaf College to deliver the address of the
day in the English language. That it was to
be the address of the day was specifically stated
on the program. President Boe is too well
known in your community to need any kind
of opology. And he delivered a splendid address.
In the second place, we had also invited Professor
D. G. Ristad to address the meeting in the Norwegian
language upon any topic he might choose.
That he was to speak in Norwegian you interpret
as an act of discourtesy, because Norwegian is
a foreign language. To this I wish to state a
fact of which you should be perfectly well aware:
the Norwegian language is certainly not
foreign to the prairies surrounding Lake Mills!
The strongest accusation you can possibly
make against said language is this that it
is a settlement language. But how it can
in any way can be called discourtesy to
address the people in their own settlement
[language?], we at least fail to understand.
(over!)
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