Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-11-02
EDUCATION OF ALIENS
MAY BE COMPULSORY
Bill Favorably Reported to Senate Provid-
ing Courses in English of 200 Hours
Yearly for Non-English Speakers.

United States. sixteen years of ago
of age. and all residents of moro
than six months who are aliens. six
teen years Of age or over and under
forty-five years of age. who are il
literate or unable to understand.
speak. read or write the English
language. to attend classes of instruc-
ton for not less than 200 hours per
annum until they shall have COM
pleted a specified course approved by
the Secretary of the Interior"
There are other conditions imposed
upon the states which must be car
ried out to get their allotment of the
fund. The states. through their leg
islatures, must (a) accept the pro-
visions of this act: CD designate an
official as custodian of the money;
(c) authorize it's department of edu-
cation to cooperate with the federal
government; CD appropriate or make
available for the purposes Of the act
an amount equal to that allotted to
the state; (e) provide as far as posi-
BILE. subject to the approval Of the
Secretary of the Interior. for the
education of residents who are citi-
zens of the United States of the age
of twenty-one or more, or resident
aliens of the age of forty five or more.
who are illiterate or cannot read or
write or speak the English language.
The Secretary of the Interior.
through the bureau of education, is
to handle the operation of this meas
ure for the education of illiterates and
foreigners in the language Of the
country and it's institutions.
Philippines Only Excepted.
The proposed law is to be operative
for the territories and possessions Of
the United States. except the Philip
pine Islands. The committee ex-
cluded them since 1t Is the announced
intention Of the United States even
tually to give the islands their indie
pendence.
Also the committee, believing that
public school systems Of the states.
compelling children as they do in
| many cases to attend school. would
hdh0lC lhC NdoCo VI luC ChliuICu uH-
der sixteen successfully. have made
| no effort to include the youngsters
| in the provision of the bill. It's the
grown-ups in the country who are
| not Americanized and who show no in
| clination to become real Americans
| that the committee desires to get at.
1t is a difficult proposition. unless the
law is made compulsory. When New
York city. as it dos contains more
Italians than-any c3sy Of Italy outside
OF RomssrEhen 1t has more Germans
than many or the large cities Of Ger
many. and proportionate numbers Of
other nationalities. it is easy for
these people to congregate in their
own communities and to establish in
America a Little Italy or a Little
Germany as the case may be.
Fertile Field for Bolshevik.
| The uneducated mass forms a fer
tile field for the bolshevik agitator.
| for the anarchist and the revolution
list. The foreigners. whether literate or
not. who know nothing of the ira
ditions. and real purposes Of the
American government. cannot be ex-
pected to love the American govern
ment or the American flag, its symbol.
It is as necessary. however, to
teach the ideals of America as it 10
to teach the American language to
these foreigners. Too many foreign
ers have come here, learned the Ian
guage and nothing more. An attor-
ney for the L w. W., former citizen
of Hungary. Of the name Of Jacob
| Margolis, testified before the Senate
committee investigating the steel
strike that he had attended a college
or two here and had been admitted
! to the bar in Pennsylvania He told
the committee he did not believe in
the American government or any
other form of government.
Through the bureau of naturaliza-
, ton of the Department of Labor the
government has been attempting to
aid in the Americanization Of the
foreigners within the country. 1t has
issued text books by the hundreds Of
thousands. to be distributed through
the schools in an effort to reach the
fathers and mothers and big brothers
! and sisters Of the school children. 1t
has sent agents into the fields where
foreigners are many, the districts
around the big cities like New York
and Chicago. But they have only
been able to scratch the surface OF
the sore. A major operation is neces-
sary. And that is what is now pro-
posed by the Senate committee.
Funds Allotted to States.
The funds are to be allotted to the
states and territories in proportion
that the number of illiterates and
non-English speaking people in their
borders bears to the total illiterates
and non English speaking people in
the entire country.
The Kenyon bill is a temporary
measure, intended to be put into oper-
alton Immediately to meet the emer-
gency which is considered real by the
committee. Too much time already has
been lost, they feel Senator Kenyon
plans to get the bill before the Senate
at the earliest possible date after
the peace treaty has been disposed of.
and he expects strong support for u.
1t is temporary measure, because
the hope of many supporting it is that
eventually bill similar to that intro
duced in the Senate by Senator Hoke
Smith Of Georgia and in the House by
Representative Towner Of Iowa, pro-
viding for a national education sys-