The Pursuit of the American Way of Life
Patriotism was also strengthened in informal ways. In addition to legislation and the school system, the media, popular culture, and pro-American organisations completed the nation-building process by appealing to the emotions of people with patriotic traditions, stories, symbols, and rituals.
To be good Americans, immigrants had to adhere to these values and conventions, too. Americanisation crept into immigrants’ everyday lives in many ways; they had to have citizen skills. Not only children but also their parents were pressured to speak good English. Until the early years of the twentieth century, it was possible to get American citizenship without English skills. The Naturalization Act of 1906 tightened up requirements in spoken English, and the Immigration Act of 1917 defined that immigrants had to pass a literacy test in any language to get American citizenship (Overview of INS History 2012; Lyons 1999, 1025–1026).Old Finnish Americans got along with the Finnish language in their communities for decades; they did not need English in everyday life. For example, Mayme’s mother never learned English; she spoke only Finnish and so-called Fingelska11 with her children (Sevander and Hertzel [1992] 2004, 47). However, immigrants’ English skills were under surveillance and drew attention; when a sixteen-year-old Finnish American boy visited the clerk’s office in Houghton, his English speech, accent, and choice of words attracted the attention of a reporter from the Daily Mining Gazette and some authorities and it was reported in Daily Mining Gazette December 2, 1919: ‘The boy seems to be one example of the condition that makes necessary a campaign toward the end that has been called Americanization’.
American values were promoted by many Finnish-American newspapers and magazines, too. For example, Koti [Home] magazine was founded solely for that objective.
It advised parents to behave like Americans so that children could be proud of them, stressed the importance of finding American hobbies for one’s offspring, and even urged children to teach the English language and American history to their parents. Besides these instructions, the magazine published articles on the ongoing Americanisation work and its actors.12Public debate together with family models shaped children’s understandings of good people. Helmi was especially proud of her mother because she was born in Minnesota and had been brought up the American way. Helmi saw the difference between her and the mothers of other Finnish-American children already as a little girl. Her mother dressed well and took care of her appearance. She spoke English fluently and used big words such as ‘love’, ‘kindly’, and ‘wonderful’; she comforted her children and talked to them, whereas other mothers ordered, yelled, and spoke English with a Finnish accent. Helmi liked that her mother was very Americanised, unlike other Finnish-American mothers she knew. Her maternal uncle also had a positive attitude towards children, offering smiles, hugs, and encouragement. Helmi wanted so much to be like her mother that she was embarrassed and secretly laughed at those Finnish Americans who could not speak fluent English, but her brother Victor reminded her that ‘other people make enough fun of Finns without us doing it too’. She also had to tolerate Grandpa’s and the other older Finns’ un-American manners, such as putting a sugar cube between the front teeth and sipping coffee through it (Hiltunen Biesanz 1989, 16, 35, 54–55, 122).
Nevertheless, Helmi anticipated that her mother had a dilemma. She was deeply religious and loved her children, but one of them, Victor, was a communist. Her mother was terrified of the Bolsheviks’ atheism and the Finnish-American socialist movement’s anti-religious programme, activities, and journalism. She tried to hide her son’s radicalism; to her mind, he had learned un-American values instead of Christian and patriotic ones (Hiltunen Biesanz 1989, 129–130, 158–160, 175; Holmio 1967, 388–392).
She could not outwardly show her ambivalent feelings because legislation and the social pressure of Finnish-American communities made it impossible; there was a risk that Victor would be arrested or even deported. The community might even ostracise the Hiltunen family.Generally, the Hiltunen family—like most Finnish Americans—respected the American way of life in many ways and wanted to express gratitude and loyalty to the state. First, they had discovered the economic security and technological potential of the US. After visiting Finland, uncle Arvid reported that even though the old country was no longer under Russian rule, it was still a poor land. ‘Ameriika is much better’, they concluded. Second, older people reminded the younger generation to show loyalty by working hard with sisu, perseverance. Third, they celebrated American holidays, such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July. Actually, Independence Day was a favourite day for Helmi’s father, and he liked to show his patriotism and citizenship by attaching five American flags to his car. Fourth, Helmi’s mother emphasised the importance of proper manners, behaviour, and the duty of women to maintain purity in its all forms—in this sense, she followed the core principles of the gendered policy of Americanisation. Fifth, they were thrifty but not afraid to consume. Helmi’s father exchanged his old car for a new Model A Ford in 1930, in the middle of the Great Depression. Helmi’s mother earned her own money by selling butter, and she sometimes bought delicacies like chocolate, canned pineapple, walnuts, and marshmallow-topped cookies. Helmi admired her fashionable aunt, who knew the season’s latest beauty tips. She read fashion magazines and learned early what an American woman should look like (Hiltunen Biesanz 1989, 8, 12, 19–21, 24, 56, 60–61, 90, 102–103, 107, 110, 143).
Different kinds of discussions and evaluations took place in socialist families. For example, the Corgans valued the educational benefits of Americanisation and participated in politics as active citizens, but they were critical of its capitalist and militarist values.
In her memoir, Mayme outlines her parents’ attitudes to ownership and consumerist culture. First, they did not buy useless things. The children had clean and neat clothes and shoes, but they were usually homemade and practical. Mayme was very enthusiastic when she was invited to her school friends’ party in New York. When she saw the other girls’ beautiful lace dresses, she was jealous and embarrassed by her plain school dress. She expressed her anger at home that evening. Her father responded honestly but kindly; he reminded her that there were children who were starving or had no shoes or coats while she had so much more. At the end of his explanation, he added that Mayme’s dress looked pretty on her. Second, they believed in sharing. When the Corgan family left New York, they donated their furniture to a young Finnish-American couple; they also left their rental apartment with one month’s rent already paid to help the couple. Through their activities, they wanted to tell their children that solidarity, collaboration, and respect were more significant values than money or material objects (Sevander and Hertzel [1992] 2004, 27–28, 30–32).Socialist values were fed by workers’ experiences; the labour movement; and the Finnish-American socialist newspapers Tyomies, Toveritar, Raataja, and the like. Finnish immigrants had high hopes of democracy, equality, freedom, and a decent standard of living when arriving in America, but the social and political reality of American society and the immigrants’ experiences on work sites in the early twentieth century soon dispelled them. Ethnic discrimination, harrowing strikes, and the rise of nationalism led Finnish-American workers towards socialism, syndicalism, and communism, especially in the Midwest (Kostiainen 2014, 132–135). The gap between the employers and employees, the capitalists and socialists, was born.
The policy of Americanisation was seen as an attempt to turn immigrants into ‘pure-blooded loyal supporters of America’s dominant capitalist class’13 as Toveritar, a Finnish-American socialist newspaper for women, wrote on April 16 in 1918.
Toveritar connected the policy of Americanisation to the ongoing world war and the American elite’s fear of disloyal, German-minded, or revolutionary people. Furthermore, the paper considered the policy of Americanisation an artificial effort to prevent changes that were actually caused by economic rather than ethnic factors. Nevertheless, because Americanisation was happening, socialists should turn it to their own needs. Therefore, Toveritar urged immigrants to study and pass the naturalisation test; American citizenship was seen as the means to access American society, civic rights, and civic activity.The different values and political understandings of the Finnish Americans in Vermilion became visible during the summer holidays when children headed for camps or clubs. The Suomi Synod offered ethnic culture and Christian values in Bible schools, Sunday schools, and confirmation camps in Finnish, but the content and message of the Christian education was pro-American (Niemi 1921). Helmi and her siblings participated in the Bible school every June. They studied under Rev. Mr Aho; read and wrote in Finnish; and learned the catechism, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. On the final Sunday’s solemn closing programme, the children sang songs and hymns in Finnish for their parents (Hiltunen Biesanz 1989, 57, 59).
The Apostolic Lutheran Church also arranged worship and teaching for its younger members. The Laestadian movement discussed organising Sunday schools already at the conventions in the early twentieth century and even arranged them in some areas. Teaching was based on Luther’s Small Catechism and its principles. They were interpreted very harshly, and, according to Helmi (Hiltunen Biesanz 1989, 57), the children were scared: ‘pastors … shouted and threatened with hell fire and brimstone anyone who danced or played cards or went to the movies’. The Apostolic Lutherans also had other religious and nationalistic aims, such as teaching the children to speak Finnish and obey the authorities.14 The main issue was that even though ethnic culture was emphasised in religious upbringing, religious doctrines integrated children into American society with conservative values.
Helmi’s best friend (until the autumn of 1931) was Aili, who went to the Vermilion Hall to study socialist classes on, for example, the evolution of the world. She also participated in the Young Pioneers’ summer camp in Minnesota. It might have been the same camp in Mesaba Park near Hibbing (MN) where Mayme and her brother spent their summer (Hiltunen Biesanz 1989, 178; Sevander and Hertzel [1992] 2004, 15). Finnish-American socialists were afraid that American schooling would alienate working-class children from their own roots. Therefore, as a correspondent from Duluth wrote in Toveritar on April 23 in 1918, an alternative to those patriotic, conservative, militaristic, and capitalist values that children learned in school should be provided. Finnish-American socialists had already established their own educational organisation called the Idealistic League (Ihanneliitto) in 1908–1909. It was influenced by the Finnish Ihanneliitto, established in Finland in 1902, but also by German-American and Jewish-American socialist organisations. The Idealistic League’s aims were to transfer socialism to the younger generation but also to maintain Finnish culture and language. The policy of Americanisation made the organisation more popular, and a nationwide Finnish-American Idealistic League alliance was established in December 1918 in New York. It guided and instructed local women’s and youth organisations to arrange Socialist Sunday schools and Young Pioneer camps for working-class children all over the country. Finnish-American socialist education emphasised class-conscious ways of thinking but also the Finnish language, culture, and history—especially the Reds’ interpretation of the Finnish Civil War of 1917–1918. Socialist education advocated internationalism; even though one had Finnish roots, one had to be able to communicate and act in your new homeland and understand workers all over the world (Aatsinki 2012, 85–90; Teitelbaum 1993, 37–39).
At the camp, Mayme wanted to be a class-conscious child and achieve pioneer status, which came with the status symbol of wearing a red neckerchief. To earn her neckerchief, Mayme had to study and learn socialist ideas and the Socialist Commandments. The first Socialist Commandments were written down in England in the 1880s and partly followed Christian values. They were a kind of moral and ethical foundation for bringing up working-class children, and they included social and political elements. The Socialist Commandments were not a constant collection of principles; they changed with time and the development of the labour movement. Communists removed the Christian elements, reinforced revolutionary values, and highlighted class struggle in the Socialist Commandments of the 1920s. Still, they encouraged one to love one’s schoolfellows and family, promoted study and kindness, condemned hatred and causing offence, and emphasised ‘that all the good things of the earth are produced by labour, whoever enjoys of them without working for them is stealing the bread of the workers’ (Gerrard 2013, 76, 81–82, 87, 93–93; Teitelbaum 1993). Mayme remembered sixty years later that for her, the most significant commandments were those that encouraged the fight against racial discrimination, resistance against oppression, and the care of the children of the unemployed (Sevander and Hertzel [1992] 2004, 15). This fits well with the principles and teaching of Mayme’s parents—they left their mark on her values.