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

tive Slavic or Latin tongue his desire to
 serve in Uncle Sam's army got no fur
 ther. The latter was courteously made to
 understand that he could not enlist un-
 less he knew the English language. The
 native-born American who had spoken
 English all his life, whose ancestors per-
 haps had spoken 1t all their lives-lives
 spent in hewing this nation out of the
 primeval wilderness-fared little better,
 unless in addition to speaking English he
 could also read it. He might get past
 the recruiting sergeant, but he never
 reached the physical examination.
 A federal law which provides that in time of peace no person texcept an ln-
 dian) who cannot speak, read and write
 the English language, shall be enlisted,
 stood squarely across the path of men
 of these types who wished to enlist. As
 military material they were considered
 impossible.
 Under the stress of war, however, Con-
 gross let down the bars. The emergency
 act, passed in the summer Of l9lI, sus-
 pended the operation of the former law
 during the period of the emergency. AS
 a result of this thousands of men-natiVe-
 bern Americans and foreigners alike who could neither read nor write English
 enlisted, and tens of thousands were in
 ducted into the service under the pro-
 visions of the selective draft. .rrse portion of these men, moreover, coulu not even speak English, and what was even more serious from the standpoint of military efficiency. many Of them could not understand it.
 TRAINING CAMPS Confronted by a problem comparable only with that of the allied commanders on the Balkan front who were striving to make headway against Bulgars and Turks with motley army of Italians. Greeks, Frenchmen, Serbians and Monte- negrins American officers in the training camps did what they could to instruct their men and to utilize their services on the drill field and elsewhere. When the time for departure overseas arrived, how ever most of these illiterates and non sreaking English foreigners were left be- hind in the endorsements. They were considered unfit for front line duty sim ply because they could not understand orders.
 These men, veritable army in them selves so far as mere numbers were concerned, continued to accumulate in the training camps doing such duty as they could, until Lieut.. Col Bernard Lentz of the general staff II. S. A, devised the plan of segregating and organizing them into development battalions, in which they could be taught to read and write and learn the language. build up their physiaues and at the same time render valuable SefNlce Wlthoul interfering WitH the progress of their more fortunate fel- low soldiers.
 Accordingly such development bat talions were organized throughout the 1 country During the period of hostili- ties their members not only received in- l structions in English, but they also became potent factor in relieving other | troops of many routine duties, thus speed l ing up the training and transportation 1 of the army which effectually extin- guished the last flickering hopes of Ger man victory in France.
 PRACTICAL RESULTS i Soon after the armistice these develop ment battalions were disbanded The men were mustered out of the service, and so this promising experiment in Americanization came to an abrupt halt. It had shown such practical results.
 however, that Colonel Lentz set about