ILLITERACY IN U.S.A.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 16211, 27 September 1924, Page 4

ILLITERACY IN U.S.A.

America cannot blame her immigrant population for her burden of illiterates, as about 3,200,000 of the live million are native born. But she has at least this excuse, that until recently, she did not know that these illiterates existed. Americans themselves were the most surprised by the result of the enquiry. Time after time the commission had proof of an unshakable belief that if there were illiterates they wore always in some other State. Thus the Governor of Indiana, when asked to co-operate in the commission’s work, replied that illiteracy. was not a problem in his State. Yet the census takers found fifty-two thousand citizens in Indiana who could not read and write. The first result off the enquiry was a proposal that the various States should appoint directors of adult education and require school boards to organise day and night classes for illiterates. Congress has yet to deal with the matter, but time, if Congress fails, should put it right, for America’s Liberates are nearly all adults.