The daily Alaska citizen., 1920-01-29
AMERICAN ILL1TERATE


 a measure that has long been neededln this country and its passage by the house Is greatly to be desired Altho it has been known for years that llhtcracy has pre- vailed to surprising extent dn thls coun- trv. 1t took the facts brot out Tn the draft to carry home the situation to the general public and wake it up to the realization of the danger of allowing such a condition to continue unremedied.
 The census of 1910 showed that Hitter acv was not confined to any one race, class or section Five and one-half millions of illiterates were shown to be in the United States by the census Out of the total nearly three and one-quarter millions were whites and more than a million and one half were native born whites. In 1910 Massachusetts had almost 5000 more illit- crate men of voting age than Arkansas; Michigan had.almost 3,000 more than West Virginia; Maryland more than Florida; Ohio more than twice as many as New Mexico and Arizona combined. Boston had more illterateS that Baltimore Pittsburgh more than New Orleans Fall River more than Birmingham. Providence nearly twice as many as Nashville and the city of Washington. 1000 more than the city of Memphis
 Dr. Philander P. ClaXton, commission CT of education, in his analysis of the Hitter acv figures of the country said:
 Tt is significant that of the 1 534 PIP native born white illiterates reported in the 1910 census, about S7.5 per cent were in the open country and small towns, and only l9l 300 or l2.5 per cent were in cities hay ing population of 2,50O and over Of the 2227,731 illiterate negroes, 1,S3445S OrI o23 per cent were in the country, and only 393,273, or TIT per cent, were in the cities
 The waste in human resources thru such lllteracy has been enormous Only country comparable to the United States could have stood up under the burden. All standards of efficiency have been retarded by It. Ignorance not only has retarded pro- ductlon but 1t has been largely responsible tor huge junk pile of broken lives and de- stroyed machines that has cost the Nation incalculably.
 In his last annual report Secretary Lane makes strong plea for remedial Legislation. Under the caption Save and Develop Americans" he says:
 "When the whole story is told of American achievement and the nictnro ;s painted of our material resources, we come back to the plain but all significant fact that far beyond all our possessions in land and coal and waters and oil and indns+,;os, IS the American man. To him, to his spirit ana to hlS character, to his skill and tO his intelligence IS due all the credit for inc land Tn which we live. And that resource we are neglectlng. He may be the best natnred and the best clothed and the best housed of all men on this great globe. He may have a freedom to speak and to worship and to exercise his judgment over the af- fairs of the nation. And yet he is the most neglected of our resources becanso be does not know how rich he is how rich beyond all other men he is. Not rich in money I do not speak of that but rich in the endov- ment of powers and possibilities no other man ever was given.
 Twenty-Five per cent of the 1,6OO,OOO between 2l and 31 years of age who were first drafted into our army could not road nor write our language and tens of thou- sands could not speak it nor understand if