An insult to our great Chinuk Wawa!

Interesting for a post-frontier glimpse at how Chinuk Wawa was viewed in Oregon in comparison with commercially powerful European languages…

Times had changed for “Jargon” translators since the treaty heyday of the 1850s…

UNCLE SAM OFFERS JOB FOR SPIELERS

If You Can Wawa Anything Except Chinook the Job Is Open

Parlez vous Francais? or German or what is of more importance, do you speak Spanish? If you can, and speak it in such a manner that it can bo understood by others besides yourself, the government wants you, and is willing to pay an annual salary larger than the average bank clerk, or school superintendent is earning.

Your Uncle Sam is hunting for men qualified to act as clerks to commercial attaches in foreign service. He also wants clerks qualified in foreign languages for service in the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Department of Commerce, at Washington.

On May 17 the Civil Service commission will hold examinations for these positions, and while this is a trifle soon for those who have not been studying foreign languages, yet it shows the possibilities for those who are willing to post up on their Dano-Norwcginn, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish or Swedish languages. Of course Uncle Sam does not expect the applicant to tackle all of these languages. Only one or more is required.

Clerks to commercial attaches are paid $1,500 a year while those who qualify only for foreign languages are paid somewhat less. But these clerks are in a position to take advantage of vacancies that may arise in the higher grade positions of the field service.

Those interested in entering this service might write addressing their letters to the Civil Service Commission, Washington, D. C. In the public schools of Salem, the only foreign language taught is German.

— Salem (OR) Capital Journal of May 13, 1916, page 5