French National Societies in New England

Abstract

AUTHORITATIVE research concerning most minority groups in the United States has long been sadly lacking. Since New England's large Franco-American population is no exception to this neglect, the present sketch' is designed to outline one of the little known aspects of their struggle to preserve some semblance of racial integrity. Their vigorously organized resistance to assimilation is scarcely understood outside their own group, except in the obvious'sense that all foreign-language minorities resort to essentially analogous methods. French culture patterns in New England are, of course, reinforced above all by close proximity to Quebec, and also by ties of family tradition, religion, and language, by parochial education in schools and colleges, by Irish-American hostility, and by newspapers and societies devoted to preservation of the French heritage. None of these agencies is so little known to the Anglo-Saxon community as that of the mutual benefit societies, which claim upwards of a hundred thousand New England members, supposedly interested in French survival. No French account of these organizations is impartial, and no English account even exists. A rapid survey is therefore desirable regarding the character of the Canadian French national societies and their contribution to New England life. The formal purposes of all these societies are essentially the same: mutual benefit insurance, maintenance of the lodge system, furtherance of French Catholic interests, cultural