The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-28
MRS PRENTISS B. REED TALKS OF ALABAMAS WHITE
 HLITERACY AND NEED FOR COMPULSORY EDUCATION

"1lliteracy in Alabama-Let' Remove It, is the slogan of the Alabama Edu- cational association. and it is the concern of school people in all parts of the state.
 Naturally, with the question if illiteracy comes the question of compulsory school attendance laws. Of this subject one of the most thoughtful students IS Mrs. Prentiss B. Reed of Birmingham
 In speaking of laws requiring children to attend school, Mrs. Reed says:
 The time has long passed when we dared pray for the soult of a little child while ignoring his physical needs The time should be long passed when we dare preach of a future heaven and forget that the developed brain can prove mar velous torch bearer to the soul upon Its journey there. And verify the time ought to be passed when we dare to lift our faces to God and sing Lead, Kindly Light while we are deaf to the voices of those around us who are groping In the darkness of ignorance.
 Tt is indeed discoura ging to look at the chart published by the Russell Sage foundation, showing Alabama in the very bottom group of states not in just one or two or three of the tests applied to the efficiency of our educational system but in every single one of the 10. This chart shows conditions, but almost more discouraging is the map showing states having compulsory attendance laws, for in that is shown the states attitude to- ward these conditions. More discouraging than a low status is the fact that the state as a state is making and has made so little definite effort to raise that status. Alabama's low rank among the states, in T.1f T the state of all states striving toward higher rank. h spite of this fact, Ala bama is yet one of the six states which in all the union are making no insist ence upon their childrens attending school.
 When there are two states that take the trouble to oversee attendance of their school children for the entire period be- tween and 17 years of age, that is, for 10 years of the child's life; when four others supervise attendance for nine years 10 for eight years, and II states lave supervision of attendance for six or seven years, surely there is something of importance in the matter, which Alabama should consider Yet Alabama ignores the value placed upon required attend ance by these other 42 states and leaves the question of school attendance in the hands of the child and his parents, whether they be indifferent or no.
 Equally material is the investigation as to how much time a child must be at school each year. Twenty-four states declare that their children must be at school for the entire school term; three others require attendance for at least half the term: two-thirds and three- fourths, respectively, and 10 more require from three to six months attendance. This would seem that there is a general appre- citation of compulsory attendance which Alabama, to the loss of her children, does not realize keenIy enough to accept.
 ''When. fin the face of this. Alabama in sists on nothing from her children in the matter of regularity of attendance, and therefore gets very little--can the most optimistic of us believe that these ill., prepared or entirely unprepared children will have one chance in 10 to compete successfully with children from other states. where they are being given every possible advantage? Every year it is get. ting harder to earn living wage; every year the tension of industrial struggle becomes greater. If for no other reason. we should show at least a little parental concern for giving our children less un- equal chance in the competition of lie for their very food?
 White Illiteracy Here and Elsewhere
 Naturally the question is asked: What tangible thing have these other states to show as a result of their compulsory attendance? Considering only the na- tive whites, let us look at conditions In states having no such law and states having had such laws for a long enough time for results to be seen. Massachu setts, Connecticut and Rhode Island l shall take as typical of New England; l; Michigan, of the newer west, in which compulsory attendance laws have been rather rigidly enforced.
 Massachusetts, we find has only half man in every 100 who is iliterate; Con- necticut, three-fourths; Rhode Island, one in every 100. and Michigan, one and a half, whereas in the states typical of the south as a whole we find SS native whites in every 100 who cannot read and write.
 'Even lower than the general south comes Alabama with 9.9 illiterates In every 100.
 "Why should Alabama have one filter ate in every 10 of her white population when Massachusetts, for instance, has only one in every 200? But discussion of causes in the past is not of so much im- portance as is discussion of present con- ditions. However, just as a suggestion in passing it seems to me that at least one of the contributing causes is the fact that in the very truth of things, we have not passed so far from that old caste system of the aristocrat and the poor white trash as real democracy will de-