The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-03-01
EIGHT MILLION
 ILLITERATE HERE

Eight and a half million persons in the United States over ten years os
 age cannot read a newspaper, bill
 board, car card, sign, booklet or let
 ter in the American language. Five and half million of them cannot
 read anything in any language. These astonishing facts demand the immediate consideration of the na- ton in the opinion of Secretary of the l Interior Lane The war has deman- strated some of the dangers from l large numbers of foreign-born per l sons who have not been assimilatel l or Americanized. It has also brought to light thousands upon thousands ot native-bOrn Americans who cannot read or write
 Senator TLofre Smith has just in- trOduced in the Senate and William B. Bankhead in the House, the Smith-Bankhead Americanizat tion bill, which directs the Secretary of the Interior through the Bureau of Bdu- i caion, to cooperate with the several states in the education of the above
 mentioned peoples and in the prep arauon of teachers for the work. - I and end in 1928.
 1 Co-OpSrate With States 1 state, to secure the money, acts l through it's chief school officer and shall not participate until it has re ] Qutred the instruction of ilIiterate and 1 non-English speaking minors more l than sixteen years of age, in the
 American language, for at least 200 l hours per year.
 l Federal money shall be used only i for salaries or training teachers and i no federal money shall be used for l buildings or equipment or for sup | port of religious or private schools. ! Each state receives money in prJ- 1 portion to the number of her filter i ates and persons unable to speak 1 English as compared to the total | number of such persons in the Unit 1 ed States.
 l These illiterates and aliens out 1 number all the people in Nevada, Wy ! oming, Delaware, Arizona, Idaho, i Missi issippi, Vermont Rhode Island. 1 North Dakota, South Dakota. Ore gon, Maine, Florida, Connecticut and Washington combined. They ex- 1 ceed the total population of the Do l minion of Canada As voters their l ballots will outweigh the influence  | of Greater New York, Philadelphia 1 and Chicago in national affairs The South leads in illiterates, the | North in non-En nglish-speaking. ac- l cording to a statement by the De- | partment of the Interior; IT IA per i cent. of the people of the east-south- i central states are illiterate, but Is. 1 per cent of the people in Passaic, N | J., cannot read, speak or write Eng | fish. Sixteen per cent. of the people | of the south Atlantic states are Hit | crate. and so are 132 per cent of 1 the people of Lawrence and Fall | River. Mass.
 The secretary of the interior graph l ically painted the situation by the na- tionally accusatory questions he ask 1 ed in his recent letter to the Presi- l dent:
 Secretary Lanes Query. What should be said of a world 1 leading democracy wherein 10 per cent. of the adult population cannot | read the laws which they are pre- l sumed to know?
 What should be said of a democ- l racy which sends an army to preach | democracy wherein there was draft | ed out of the first 100000 men a i total of 200, 900 men who could not read their orders or understand them when delivered, or read the letters 1 sent them from home?
 | What should be said of a democ-
 Tracy which calls upon its citizens to 1 consider the wisdom of forming a l league of nations, of passing judg- | ment upon code which will insure | the freedom of the seas, or of sac rifcing the daily stint of wheat, or l meat for the benefit of the Rouman-
 fans or the Jugo-Slavs, when IS per 1 cent. of the coming citizens of that i democracy do not go to school?
 What should be said of democ- 1 racy which permits tens of thousands of its native-born children to be ! taught American history in a for eign language-the Declaration of i Independence and Linco1n's Gettys- 1 burg speech in German and other 1 tongues?
 What should be said of a democ- l rary which permits men and women to work in masses where they seldom l or never hear a word of English i spoken 2"
 An effort is being made to have l every user of the printed word, writ 1 CT, manufacturer, merchant and ad- | vertising man imme diately express 1 his opinion of the importance and i mmediacy of this legislation to Con- ! gress, as the passage of the Smith, Bankhead Americanization bill de- 1 bends entirely upon whether the
 committees are sure that the senti
 ment of the people throughout the
 United States is back of the meas ure.
 ALMANAC FOR SUNDAY