The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-11-22
.TRUANT OFFICERS AID EDUCATORS Chicago Reports Show a De-
 crease of Illiteracy SCHOOL OUTLOOK GOOD Chicago Is EndeavOring to Recover Prestige In Lake Shipping By Providing Necessary Harbor
 Facilities
SCHOOL OUTLOOK GOOD

a decrease of illiteracy of minors from 602 to 401, that the enrolment and at tendance are now the largest within the life of the public schools. There has been a decrease of 22S6 boys and girls from the roaming population or children between the ages of A and l6 looking for work and there has been the return of 315O boys and girls to public and private schools through the persistence and alertness of the truant officers President Urion paid a high compliment to the woman superintend- ent of Chicago schools, Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, and declared that Chi cago schools are now working under the most effective conditions found any
 where in the United States. This state
 ment probably will be challenged in
 many cities, but the results in detail
 show the standard to be high. "The results" he said "of the work of the
 education department in the past year
 showed decided advance over preceding | years, harmony and cordial co-opera- | tion on the part of the teaching corps, | and in general better outlook for the | general good of the children in the | school room. Fortunately for the schools of Chicago person was found | within the system who was recognized | the country over as an efficient school | official, who possessed in addition to a thorough pedagogical training and ex- | perience an intimate Knowledge of the | needs of the public school system" l The recovery of Chicago's prestige in | lake shipping by providing the real | harbor which has been needed for many years suddenly became probable when | I | signed to the duties of United States | engineer in charge of the Chicago dis | trict. Colonel Finn is familiar with the | Chicago situation and has definite ideas as to what ought to be done. On talk | ing up his work however, he plainly | stated that he would favor concessions | and compromises between opposing | harbor factions In order to insure the
 main thing needful an adequate har-
 Dor. It is expected that at least S10,- 000, 900 will be needed to provide the
 harbor which will meet the commer-
 cial requirements of the city now and Il for some years to come. Colonel Finn
 said: T am informed that the wei
 fare of the city makes 1t essential that all those interested in the harbor
 unite within short time. Otherwise l will report my own conclusions. Most problems can be adjusted by spirit of give and take. but sometimes 1t
  knot. as when after six years of bick-
 erings and disputes Mir. Roosevelt se-
 leeted certain plsn .fis f9r .nse shs Panama ns ahead and fight 1t out on that line. Probably If he had waited for the ex- perts to get together not shovel of earth would have been turned yet The restoration of an engineer to the Chicago district, which for time was in the humiliating situa ton of being ytufx of laa m ment engineer of Milwaukee, was due to General Bixby. chief of engineers, who formerly wass stationed at Chi cago.
 Troubles which of late have come upon fraternal insurance societies not charging adequat te rates or which were found engaging in fraudulent methods are pointed to by the committee of fraternal leaders in Chicago to show the need for enactment promptly of the state legislation proposed and em ! bodied in the insurance commissioners uniform bill" In New York state Superintendent of Insurance Hotchkiss has warned the nagement of several weak and illegitmate societies which posed as "fraternals" that they must get upon a sound and solvent basis or quit doing business in his state. The societies which already have readjusted their rates and those which propose to
 do so are spurred to increasing earn estness in urging the "fraternal bilP'
 as result of the increasing evidence
 of the amount of masquerading which has been done in the name of frater-
 nal societies and which has cost their
 memberships. totaling thousands. hun
 dreds of thousands of dollars. Crow : ing momentum to the reform movement f Is reported as the members of the
 reputable societies gain knowledge of the real facts of the situation.
 Fraternal insurance, as an institu- ; ton, is believed now to be safely past
 the crucial point. where lack of in
 formation by the S000000 members of the many societies threatened to send the great army as whole plunging ? forward to certain disaster The atti- $ tude of the New York department to- ward fraternal insurance in general
 was greatly improved by the united
 indorsement of a regulative measure by the two great federations, the Ma
 tion Fraternal congress and the Asso-
 ciated Fraternities of America, rep
 resenting 6,000.000 memberships. This
 fact is taken as typical of the best
 thought in regard to the subject
 The aid given striking garment
 workers by prominent society women
 and settlement workers of Chicago has
 
 agement Women who were interested
 not only wrote their checks to the aid
 of the strikers. but went personally to
 strikers meetings and urged the gar
 ment workers to do each her part but
 not to be disorderly. The strikers now
 number many thousand. The hope is
 expressed that the garment workers
 will be able to secure advances of
 wages which are conceded to be much
 needed and denied without due consid-
 eration. The council of the settlement
 workers, who included Miss Ellen Gates
 Starr and Miss Anna Wilmarth Thomp- son of Hull House and Miss Gertrude
 Barnum, daughter of former Judge Will
 liam H. Barnum. has been disorgan-
 ized but of the most effective
 demonstrations have been of tn cir plan
 ming. Among the supporters of the
 striking girls have been Mrs. Raymond
 Robins. Frances Squire Potter, presi-
 dent of the Equal Suffrage society,
 Miss Katherine Conan of Wellesley and
 Mrs. George H. Mead, wife of one of
 the professors of the Chicago univer-
 sity.
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