text_combined: 6 793 qs mohawk russian banning german mel cuk 3 date tue 6 jun 1995 01 44 22 0400 jpkirchner aol com subject q german banned iowa recently received message man claims world war use german languages made illegal state iowa decree governor interesting since family stories anti german discrimination michigan time limited snide remark two surname relevant part man message anyone vouch veracity says james kirchner iowa grew household language foreign language early part century public schools english course uncle went local german school parochial school necessary german lutheran church liturgy bibles luther german plattdeutsch speaking people go school learn world war ended iowa governor issued proclamation banning speaking foreign language public places phone operators instructed pull plug non english telephone conversations party line patrons hold telephone receiver mouth piece resulting whistling would interfere non english speech modern language instruction dropped school curriculums blow school system never really recovered newspapers published reports people arrested street speaking german real hardship older immigrants german language newspapers suppressed rural county german papers one time fact editor one elected county treasurer day age somewhat embarrassing stumbled fact state iowa organized amounted secret police agency state formed agency whose purpose investigate acts disloyalty given power levy fines imprison people duration war without benefit trial america active participation relatively short lived agency around long would make interesting research paper sometime records still exist happened several midwest states issue reached supreme court early 20 case meyer vs nebraska court ruled nebraska effectively eliminating laws frank anshen dept linguistics state u ny stony brook ny 11794