Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1920-10-16

hours of lis day and
our responsibilities have
not ceased until We have made of him not only a
first-class soldier but a bigb-spirited we'll edu-
Gated American citizen"
All this is encouraging; every thinking man
KNOWS that one of the most serious questions In
our national life is illiteracy in its various forms
and with its various qualifications When the
characterization bill was before the last session of
congress 1t was shown that twenty-four and nne-
eleyenths per cent of our soldiers could not read
write or speak the English language. 1t was
further stated that there are over 100000 people
In this country over ten years of age who
neither read write nor speak the English language
and that at least So per cent of them are native
born. This is good many people. Senator Ken
yon helped us realize this vast army of iiterates
by saying one day.
Mr. President If the iterates and the foreign
born who can not speak language should be
reviewed from stand in front of the White
House. marching by two abreast, and marching 25
miles a day, 1t would take two months of solid
marching for them to pass the reviewing stand"
This fact Is particularly important just now
because someone has said:
"Discontent is mumbling and violence is ranting
on all sides. America is trial before 10000
soap boxes chaos is everywhere seeking recruits
from the ranks of misunderstanding and illiteracy
1lliteracy is pickand shovel estate life sentence
to mentality Democracy may not have fixed
classes and survive An outbreak of hoof-and-
mouth disease would compel instant remedial laws
and funds to contain the menace within bounds
1t is even more incumbent upon us to defend
healthy citizenship against civic incapables If a
hundred million of us stand together we must
think together and that without foreign accent"
Former Secretary of the Interior Franklin X
Lane put the thing In nutshell when he said:
IAN uniformed democracy is not democracy"
This uniformed democracy is to be pitied The
thousands of misguided men today in America
are in sense to be pitied. AS Senator Kenyon
said:
"They do not know the purposes of America
for they have had no opportunity to learn They
do not know that this is in fact the land of the
poor boy that men have given their lives that
the doors Of opportunity might ever be open to
the children OF tomorrow; that the opportunities
for their children are the best of any nation ON
EARTH Our country is to blame because the chance
has not been presented for them to know Manv
of them are eager to know America for them
selves and for their children. If they cannot
read speak understand the American lam
guage, how can they know the wonderful stories
of opportunity in this country? How can they
understand the heights to which their children
may attain In this land of freedom?"
Boys of foreign birth have gone out to fight for
the nation just loyalty as those who were
born in this country. The long rolls of honor of
those who have been left on the fields of France
contain the names of nearly every nationality on
earth. There is good material here for American
ZauOn Inc MEETING POT cannot Doll unless there
is fuel under it, and that fuel is education"
So what the United States army is doing is lust
so much fuel under the melting pot
Take. a trip down to Camp Grant for instance
where few years ago the national army was in
the process of hasty manufacture. Here recently
to be found general staff officers by the doz-
en- Major General Crowder there So Mas
Secretary of War Baker
The latter hand to address q sort of
normal school graduating class, which for one
month had been meeting TO prepare for the work
of educating the soldier There were over 1000
of them, as well
This fall they will be distributed among our
army camps, and the modern regular will go TO
school. Enstments for either one or three
years. Each II months officials expect to turn
back into civil life 100000 mltarily and vocation.
ally educated men.