The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1918-05-10
Education for the ForeIunsr

G.. w. Wlllett, principal of tn,
Hibbing High School had an ar
ticle in "School Education" re
Gently which explains itself anc
is timely. At this time when the
foreign population is in the lime
light the article will be Of especial
interest and we agree with him il
all except that old people should
be exempt. He says:
about two years ago, in a paper
on 'Civics for Night Schools given
at the Northeastern Minnesota Tea
cheers association, the writer fore
casted that sooner or later this coun
try would have to take action for non
English-speaking foreigners. Since
that time, the |. w. w. troubles have
occurred on the iron range and in the
woods of Minnesota. Similar trou
bles have occurred in Washington
Montana, Arizona, and various other
states. The writer has stood at the
window of splendid public school
building which opens it's doors to
child and adult alike, without money
or price, and looked upon an I. w. w
parade in which scarcely a man could
speak any of the American language
but few could read and write in any
language, and hardly a single man
cared enough for this country to have
even made application for first citi
zen papers. That parade took place
in Hibbing, Mimi, where night
schools for foreigners has been car
ried on for seven years. All books
instruction and supplies were furn
ished free of cost. Employers urged
their employees to attend the night
school. Schools were established In
every location school building where
six or more persons were willing to
attend. Hardly a man or woman
needed to go more than one-half mile
to reach a school. Many of the men
were unemployed during the winter
and classes in day school were offered
whenever and wherever 10 men de-
sired to attend. Did the men take adj.
vantage of these opportunities? Some
did, but many did not.
"A large number of men were In
terviewed about coming to night
school. In every case where the men
had no education, the work was fu-
tile because If they did enter they
remained for only a few nights. One
man expressed the views of most such
men, when he said, Me go to school /?
Why me go to school? Me make a
de mon, sometimes two-fifty, some
times three dollars a day. What for
me go to schools? In the old country
he had made but a few cents day;
here he made 'beeg' money. He had
not attended school there, and had
no desire as consequence to go to
school here. Such as he are the first
to fall for the plea of the demagogue,
become the most radical in action,
and are the last to yield to reason or
to governmental regulation. Anarchism
rabid socialism and I. w. w. pro-
are readily accepted by him
and his kind because of gross ignor-
ance. These is but one possible solu-
ton for such problems, namely, edu-
cation.
Instead of attacking the vicious
ness of the padrone or contract labor
employer we must strike at the base
OF, the tree. Compulsory education
for every notwithstanding for
eigner is the only remedy. Compul
sion will hardly be needed in the
case of the literate foreigner, but
the law should be made broad enough
to cover all cases. Some one may
say that we cannot require foreigners
to attend school because of treaty
rights. We require all children to go
to school, whether American or for
eign. Is it more beyond the pale of
treaty rights to require adults to go
to school. If so, treaties need to be
rewritten