South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-09-28
Facts Regarding the
amount OF UHteracy
in the Z. S. ReUeaLed

Of illiteracy collected BY the United
states census bureau and showed
that the army test OF illreracv ia
much more thorough and accurate
than that employed by the bureau OF
census.
VIII Include
Il am q great advocate OF uni
versal military training" Cen. Glenn
told the committee. and I want -
make some remarks. II 7 may. az
to what this should include which il
nos strictly military. After goinS
pretty carefully into the question
OF citizenship in this country. which
involves the question Of Iliteracy.
the question OF immigration, the
question Of color and the question
Of the practical operation OF our
school system. ] do not believe thar
we are doing what we should do IN
orSer TO create and build no Amer
lean citizenship.
AS you probably recall. our cen
sus Of 1910 found that 10 per cent
Of our people are illiterate. and this
was arrived at by simply asking the
question, Are you literate or Hitter
ate? And a man would have 10
be beyond the ordinary description
of illiterate not 10 have sense enough
10 say that he was literate. because
there was no responsibility attached
to his answer and there was no rea-
son why he should not say Il am
literate, and therefore ] am con
WINGED that the census officials did
not arrive at anywhere near the
proper proportion Of people who are
illiterate in this country. We in
the army tested them and we found
that there was a very much larger
proportion among these men ex-
amined by what is known as the
alphabeta test who were actually
illiterate. Our real test was ability
70 read intelligently a newspaper or
a letter from home.
1.1OC Rejected
There were LOO men IT. tho
county where Camp sheridan is To-
Gated" continued Cen Glenn, who
were rejected for illiteracy. and "A
man who was rejected for uliteracy
at that time must have been awfIlly
illiterate. This illiteracy is not con-
fined TO the immigrant, 10 the for
eign-born. but we have many native
born illiterates. AS. for example, Il
was reported TO me by my aids de
camp, who went into Camp Pike.
where the troops were from Arkan-
sas. Mississippi and louisiana. that
on entering the camp he asked 4
seminal where camp headquarters
was. and the reply he received was,
NO spik English.
Nov. in the state OF Ohio il was
found on a certain test in one group
Of men there were as per cent illi-
terates, OF which percentage some
thing like IS per cent were coiored
and about 13 per cent white. I ann
speaking now Of this army test. The
judgment Of the interior department
is that an illiterate is worth at least
IS a week less in producing capacity
than a Nterate, and therefore on the
basis OF 10 per cent OF the people
alone they calculate that we are los
ing I'm production $4,000, 000,000
annually from this one cause Of iIli-
teracy. The actual figures are un-
ouestionably much higher. Taking
figures I get show that during the
whole history OF immigration only 3f
per cent or the immigrants to this
country have become citizens and IL
per cent have taken out their hrst
papers. In the past fifteen or twenty
years the great bulk or our immigra-
ton has been from the south and
east Of Europe, where the people
are notoriously illiterate in their
own language even. and the great
question: IS whether or not we are
going TO be able 10 create IN this
country an efficient citizenship out
OF this mass OF illiteracy we have
Those are conditions that militats
very seriously against our producing,
in the first place, a citizenship at all.
and in the second place. which Is
more important still. IN producing
an efficient American citizenship.
ITO blot out this illiteracy ne
must. Of course. make use OF al
the agencies we can. which will in
clude various forms OF instruction,
such as the kaleidoscope, the moving
picture. the night schools. factory
schools and home schools, and We
must educate our immigrants IN
proper home life, community hfe'
etc"
What Japan Does
Ger. Glenn called the attention
Of the committee 70 what Japan -
doing along these lines.
The Japanese statistics. which I
have looked up" said he. show that
SIS per cent Of their males are regis
tered Tor schools and s5 per cent OK
their females. and that they nave
an attendance OF 90 per cent OF the
enrolment There is no school in
this country that gets anything Ike
that attendance.
we are moro fortunately situated
10 introduce universal physical tram
ing than ever Before in our history. :
added Con. Glenn, because We have
scattered al over this country ma
round number. 5000. 600 men who
have been physically trained. and
.,h, orr fucfr-1c. our Youth DrOnerIN.