The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-10-21

home are in the haiance then they iool
upon II as a duty and act accordingly
Tho necessity for placing in office
men who are favorable 10 the schools
has been emphasized by Mrs Walter
GRAY, member of the hoard Of education,
To her talks before the various school
associations, and VS. reiter fed "a her
recent talk e the Madison Heights as
soclation. . Mrs. Gray presented the
facts In such an able and concise
manner. and brought out SO many
points which are not generally known.
that those who have not had the priv
tlege Of hearing her speak on the sub
sect will be interested In reading the
following extract from her address.
81 come 20 you today just for a little
heart-to-heart talk about some facts
concerning our schools. which ] believe
will be helpful for you as parent teach
erS TO know. want 20 supplement my
talk about local conditions with a few
faC's In general about our educational
Advancement. was quite impressed
recently with some figures brought out
In an article, by good authority, which
iliteraCy. II is said hat IN a regiment
n 10000 soldiers In the late world war
Germany had only two ultterates. Eng
lard had 100 and France 800,
ION the basis that America has 7,000,-
600 illiterates an American regiment sOf
the same size would nave counted 700
men who could neither read nor write.
Does not that give Us food for thought
And when we remember that our first
selective draft gave us 700, 900 OF our
own American boys who could neither
read nor write, is II not time for US to
awaken to these co%uditions9
"Our government did some splendid
educational work in the American eNpe-
dictionary forces overseas. know of
one man who had a school Of 400 boys
who could not read or write, and before
them writing letters home and reading
letters from home.
Now we are prone to blame much Of
our illiteracy on the foreign element
which we ave so generously received
into our own country in former Years,
hut statistics tell us that every fourth
illiterate over ten years Of age Is Of
native ~parcntage, SO you see we can
not shift the responsibility In thai way.
we are always ashamed when We
see In a list Of the states that Tennessee
stands thirty-ninth in lliteracy
However, we are improving, and we
see a better day dawning. for we are
told again by good authority that dur
ing the last 20 years secondary school
enrolment has increased six times as
fast as the population. In colonial days
there was n TO every $50 who received
any kind Of higher education. but today
there is ono 70 every 2T5 who receive
higher education to some degree,
There never was a time in the his
tory OF our country when we needed
trained leadership as we do today. The
safety Of tomorrow depends on intelii-
gent, trained leadership.
we know that comparatively few
men in the recent war attained to any
official rank who could not thus qualify.
We have come TO u place In our ma
tinnal life, when education, as every
thing else, iagabsolutely democratic. Did
YOU know that down to 1853 In Harvard
and l7T2 IN Yale, students were enrolled
according 10 the social standing Of their
parents in colonial life. but today the
measure Of respect Is the measure OF
WORTH
THE first o-edueational institution
In the East was Cornell. when, in 1879,
II decided to admit women on the same
footing as lei
Times have changed, as you know,