The Mena weekly star. (Mena, Ark.) 1904-1977, 1920-07-01
KILLED
By
Ignorance"
A Story from Polk County's History
as Viewed by an Outsider and Its
Relation to Certain Educational
Shortcomings.

know it was loaded 1t was case VI
inability to read, and his ignorance
made him the victim of radical teach
ings to such an extent that he resisted
the draft and was guilty of killing an
officer sent to get him and others.
Thus Alison Secor, editor OF sue
cessful Farming one of the most
widely read farm journals OF the ma
tion begins in the May number MS
striking article on the relation OF the
underpaid school teacher to illiteracy
in the United States.
Editor Secor culls from the pages OF
Polk county's history an account OF
happenings still fresh in memories OF
MANY of our citizens and comments
thereon as follows:
eff / had known how to read would
not have believed as | did" said Ben
Cauphron. one of the Arkansas gang
who organized little civil war to re-
sist the draft in 1918. Il listened to
what radical Socialists told me about
the war, and / believed Them" he
said. Nobody ever came into the
mountains to tell US what the war
was about. | could not read the pa
pers and | believed that the war was
unjust, and | made up my mind to die
rather than be forced into the army.
'If | had known how to read |
would not have believed as | did. The
chaplain has explained the war to me
since | came to prison and ! think
differently about it now. | would
like to give to the people of the state
a message of warning against believ-
ing what radical men tell them. l
hope that no other man may do what
/ have done because he did not know
what was the truth"
Mike Daffron was another of the
Arkansas mountaineers executed for
killing an officer. This is what he
said:
"If / could read and write would
never have come to this. | and the
Others who defied the draft law be-
lieved what radical speakers told us
because we had no chance to hear the
other side. ] do not ask to live but |
ask those who live after me to see
that every boy learns to read and
write"
The state of Arkansas ought to feel
this condemnation. Nor does the state
of Arkansas stand alone in guilt.
There are eight and half million
persons over ten years of age in the
/ United States who cannot read page
of print, billboard, a circus poster,
sign or anything printed or written
in English language. There are five
and half million who cannot read in
any language. Think of it, more peo-
pie in our midst who cannot read
English than live in the states of
North and South Dakota, Wyoming
Oregon, Nevada, Arizona. Idaho,
Washington, Mississippi, Delaware,
Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut,
Maine and Florida. This is greater
than the population of Canada.
This is the guilt of the United
States, and every state in the union is
guilty, not that these men were exc
cuted for killing officers of the law.
but we all are guilty for allowing
such large percentage of our popu-
lation to grow up unable to read
English, and to be fed on radical
I speeches with no one to refute the
statements of the radicals. If these
millions cannot read, then they must
be able to learn both sides of debata-
Bile questions thru public speeches.
We must take steps at once to make
it possible for every person to read
and write. There are bills before Con-
gress with that purpose Incorporated.
Governor Smith of New York has
said
Neglect the schoolhouses and you
provide fertile field for the spread
of the doctrines of the disconnected.
who, without proper understanding
of the benefits and blessings of our
free country, cry out from the street
corners of our important cities for the
downfall of our state and the dissolu-
ton of our Union"
Editorial Note-Good roads. The
Star firmly believes are one Of the
three greatest civilizing forces. Good
roads, by providing an easier accesi-
bllity to education and knowledge and
making the journey towards truth
less burdensome, would do much to-
wards remedying this direful condi-
ton Of which the Iowa editor writes.
Good roads viii not only mean better
home life for the rural dwellers, but
will result in his securing better
educational facilities.)
The article in Successful Farm
ing" continues further:
The most notable New Years res
olution ever passed wah that of the
forty-two men who gathered in a
small, half-finished, hay matched
meeting house in the village of Ded-
ham, Massachusetts colony, 1914, and
resolved to establish a free public
school, the first one in America. Four
years later they built schoolhouse
But after two hundred and seventy
five years of free schools we find men
executed for violence due to ignorance
OF the law and ignorance of the very
purposes of the war because they
could not read. We find localities
where there are no schools, and many
where the sehoolhouses are as poor as
that first one in Dedham. We find
teachers bravely fighting ignorance
and being paid less than common
/ day laborer gets in the streets: less
than the section man gets for work
| ing on the railroad that runs past thu
school; less than the carpenter thai
builds the schoolhouse; less than {
mason that laid the chimney or plas.
1 tered the walls.
II the teaching profession does moi
command the respect of the patron:
OF our public schools sufficient to paN
living wage then we face a perma
nent teacher shortage which canno
be made up even by consolidating
many little one-room schools into on
large school. Teachers demand re
spect as well as living salary.
| Tho unu ont of &kt-