The Cordova daily times., 1919-04-10
THURSDAY, April 10, 1919
FOR INSTRUMENTATION

There was recently presented in con- gress bill the object of which is to eliminate illiteracy in the United States. Briefly stated, the purpose of the bill is to promote the education of native illiterates and those unable to use the English language, through the cooperation of the federal gov ernment and state educational depart ments, with the aim of preparing both classes for successful living and in- telligent American citizenship.
 We do not argue for the passage of this particular bill or all of it's pro- visions, but we do wish to express our earnest support of it's object.
 The United States occupies it's pres ent prominent position in the indus trial world largely because of the small percentage of her illiterate citi- zens, and the reduction of this small percentage to the vanishing point would go a long way toward convert ing our prominent position to a domi- nant one. Though we may congratu- late ourselves upon our record as to illiteracy, we are handicapped as is no other country by the large per centage of our workers who do not speak our tongue. This is particularly noticeable among the miners, both in the East and in the West, where many of the unfortunate situations that arise, if not caused by the lack of an understanding of English by the work men, certainly grow out of that cir cumstance and are difficult to handle because of that lack
 Born and raised under suppressive European conditions, and suddenly translated to land of unlimited lib erty and opportunity, but with no real knowledge at all of our language it is impossible for the immigrant miner . quickly to grasp and appropriate the American spirit. With all repression removed, he is likely to go too far. He resembles boiler carrying a pres sure of 250 pounds, and capable of doing lot of work if it's energy is properly handled. If the valve is sud denly thrown wide open there is a rush of steam, and all of the latent energy is wasted through it's sudden release,
 The bill mentioned calls for a six years program. It is conceivable that the major portion of our illiterate minors between the ages of 16 and 21 might be given rudimentary educa- tion during that period, but the teach ing of English and American life to foreign-born residents is task that will be with us for manay years, so that some provision should be estab- lished for making continuous the work of educating foreign classes. The fact that so many of us are not good Ameri. can citizens has been particularly em- phasized during the last three or four years. The trouble has been here all the time, but we were SO busy about other things that we did not bother with it, nor did we realize how serious a matter it would become. In the pro- gram of reconstruction the elimination or reduction of this condition should receive prompt, vigorous and greatly needed attention
 Ability to converse with our em. ployes means the ability to give orders that will be understood; it means the possibility of exchanging ideas, the possibility of conveying the American point of view to one who has had no conception of 1t; 1t will enable the employer and employe to approach each other through common me dium it presents the probability of removing misunderstanding.
 We will always have some Hitter. ates; we will always have many work CTS who can not speak English: but we may aim high and hope for much of the improvement that we know is possible.
 We trust that our legislators will give the subject of this bill serious consideration, and that they may find suitable way in which to cooperate