The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-10-04

finding the best means of continuing it with a view of making it a permanent part of the army's service to the na- ton. Eventually he hit upon the plan of furthering this end by organizing a re- cruit educational center to which recruits who could not read or write and those who did not know English might be sent for instruction--a plan that means so much to men grown to manhood unlet- tered and unlearned. who had rather face life's battle with this terrible handi- cap than 20 to school with children. The war department approved Colonel Lentz' plan, and under the authority of the emergency act of 1917, which was still in force, it established a recruit educational center at Camp Upton, N. Y., on May l, 1919
 The purpose of recruit educational cen
 ters, to which all illiterates and non- English speaking men who enlist are sent before being assigned to duty with troops, was and still is, to teach the recruit to
 read, write speak and understand the Er glish language and to inculcate, to- gether with the basic prerequisite of true Americanism. a wholesome familiarity with American traditions and ideals and the fundamental principles of American citizenship.
 NATIVE BORN AMERICANS During the summer of 1919 a few native-s
  tage of the instruction at the new school, 1 for as yet the general public knew little about it's work The first graduates of the school, however-first fruits of this unique experiment in practical American l zation-were destined to awaken the country to a realization of what the army was actually doing to solve the prob- 1 lem of assimilating the foreign elements ] in our population, q problem which had 1 been looming larger and larger in Amer ! ica's national life since the outbreak Of l the war, and at the same time offering ! to Americans the opportunity for educa> ton which they had either lacked or neglected as boys
 i This movement among native-born Americans to take advantage of the op- portunites offered by the army in the recruit educational schools, brought about through publicity and the work of the recruiting service, has extended to every state in the union, and has con- tinued with such strength that it has radically changed the original character of the student body at Camp Upton, the first school of this kind established. Whereas the single company of which this school consisted during it's first four months was made up exclusively of for eign-born. almost half of the HOO men now enrolled are naNve-born Americans. The anniversary of the foundation of the first recruit educational center at Camp Upton suggested a comparison of its flourishing condition with the feeling of uncertainty with which it was launched upon it's career. The original student body had increased sixteen fold. from a company to a regiment. The army was not only taking the first practical step toward Amercanizing America, but it was offering the opportunity of life time to native-born Americans who had grown to manhood unable to even read or write their names. At the time of the establishment of the first school, the sys- tenn was regarded as an experiment; to- 1 day it's future assured, as is exemplified 1 by the war department in establishing , such schools at six other military cen 1 ters.
 l But the army does not end its work with recruit educational schools. It off,
 fers to the men who serv in it's ranks