ILLITERACY IN THE UNITED STATES.

Evening Star, Issue 16783, 11 July 1918, Page 6

ILLITERACY IN THE UNITED STATES.

Mr Lane, Secretary of the In tort or, in a letter to President Wilson, states that " the time lifls ooine v/hen we should «-ive serious consideration t-o the- education of thosu who cannot read or write in the United Stute». The war has brought fact--* to our attention that 41.r0 almost unbelievable and that are in themselves aeciiiatory. There are in the United States (or wore when the census was taken in 1910) 5,516,165 persons over 10 yoa-rs of age who were unable, to read or write in any language. There, are now r.earlv 7C0.C00 men of draft ago in tho United States who are., I presume, registered, who cannot road or v/rit-e in Enirlish or in any other Language. Over 4,600,000 of the illiterates in lh!s country were 20 years of age or more. "The Federal Government and the States spend millions of dollars in trying to pnve information to the people hi- rural districts about fanning arid homo makii:_r. Yet 3,700,000 or 10 per cent., of our country folk cannot read or write a word. They cannot read a. bulletin on agriculture, a farm paper, a food pledge card, id Liberty Loan appeal, a newspaper, the- Constitution of tho United States or their Pibles. nor ean they keep personal or business accounts. An uninformed democracy is not a democracy.. A wop!.: who cannot have means of across to the mediums of public opinion and to the message.-; of the President Jind the Acts nf Congress can iiardiy be expected to understand the full meaning of this war. to -n'hieh they all must contribute in life, or property or labor. " Until last April the reeular army wovld not enlist illiterates,, yet in the; first draft betivetn 30,000 .and 40,000 illiterates were brought into the army, and approximately as many near ilhte.ra.fea.