LESSONS OF QUEBEC

The narrow defeat of Quebec's independence effort has supporters of U.S. legislation to make English the official language issuing a warning: Language is a powerful tool that can divide or unify a nation.

It is time, these supporters say, to make English the official U.S. language or reap the quarrelsome repercussions.

Their fear is that the United States eventually could find itself facing the same divisiveness that plagues Canada. But the situation in Canada need not be anything other than the isolated aftermath of cultural identity taken to extremes.

Cultural identity never is the right reason to create a separate nation. Look at the former Yugoslavia to see what such divisions accomplish.

For the time being, at least, there will be no Bosnia in Canada. By about 50,000 votes out of 4.67 million cast, voters in Quebec decided the province will remain part of Canada. Bitter differences remain between Quebec and English-speaking Canada, and Quebec's nationalists will continue to assert their desire for a land where their French heritage can flourish unhindered.

Americans face, to a lesser extent, some of the same frustrations of their neighbors to the north. Canada long has been lauded for its toleration of the Quebeckers. The province already enjoys varying degrees of autonomy in education, immigration and foreign policy. And Quebec has laws making French its sole official language.

Similarly, this nation prides itself as a great melting pot. We extend welfare benefits to immigrants and accommodate language differences with multilingual education and government services.

But many in this nation fear the accommodations only encourage further separatism. "Out of many, one" becomes "out of one, many." As in Quebec, they contend, we may see the day when pockets of non-English speaking Americans also will seek autonomy and independence.

Thus the proposal by Rep. Bill Emerson of Cape Girardeau, supported by others in Congress, to make English the official U.S. language. Emerson's contention is rather than allow language to divide this nation, we ought to use official English to unify it. His Language of Government Act would make English the federal government's official tongue.

Such a law ought to be superfluous. Surely every honest person knows that English is the universal language of law, finance and commerce. It's difficult to imagine anyone achieving economic prosperity in this country without first adopting English as their language of choice.

But as multiculturalist do-gooders use this nation's tolerance for other languages as license to place those languages on par with, or even superior to, English, the need to fight for a common culture builds. Congressman Emerson's legislation would be a token device to counter the noxious multiculturalists.

In that respect, the measure would cause little harm. A law to make English the official language of government, contrary to what its opponents charge, wouldn't mandate that language's exclusivity.

What it does accomplish, though, is the elevation of language to the vanguard of the culture war.

It would be better if we could recognize the true value of English-first without congressional action. Just as the recent vote in Quebec will leave that province bitterly divided and will scar Canada, so too will excess attention paid to the disharmony fostered by language and culture segregationists -- who still are in the minority in this nation -- reap bitterness and division among Americans.