ILLITERACY IN AMERICA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 211, 25 May 1918, Page 8

ILLITERACY IN AMERICA

Mr. Franklin Lane, United States Secretary of the Interior, in a letter to President Wilson, states "that the time has come when we should ■ give serious consideration to the education of those who cannot read or write in tho United States. The war has brought facts to .our attention that are almost unbelievable and that are in themselves accusatory. There are in the United States (or were when the census was taken in 1910) 5,516,163 persons over ten'years of age who were unablu to read ur write in nny language. There are now nearly 700,000 men of dratt age in the "United States who are, I presume, registered, who cannot read or write in English or in any other , language. Over 4,600,000 of tho illiterates in Iho country were 20 years of' age or more; "The Federal Government and the States spend millions of dollars in trying to give information to tho people in rural districts about farming and homemaking. Yet 3,700,000, or 10 per cent., o: our country folk cannot read or write a word, They cannot read a bulletin on agriculture, a farm pnpor, a food pledge card, a Liberty Loan appeal, a newspaper, the constitution of Iho United States, or their Bibles, nor can. they keep personal or business accounts. An uninformed democracy is uol a democracy. A people who cunnot have means of access to the medium of public opinion and to the messages of the President and the Acts of Congress can hardly bo expected to understand tlio full meaning of this war, to which they all must cpntiibute in life or property or labour. Until last April the regular Army would not enlist illiterates, yet in tho first draft betwen 30,000 and 40,000 illiterates wero brought into tho Army, and approximately as many near illiterates."