Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-02-17
GOVERNMENT GOLD
WASHINGTON. D. c.. Feb. 18TH
BY Frederic J. HaSkin

the hardest places in the civilized
world in which to get a good education, in
the opinion of committee of the house
which has been Investigating the question.
A fourth of the men of fighting age in the
United States are illtera3es, many children
never get adequate schooling, most of the
teachers are incompetent There are mil
lions of immigrants - the country who can
neither speak or reat English and many ne
gro children never see the inside of a school
room. Thousands of schools are closed be-
cause no teacher be obtained for the
miserable salaries offered
This disturbing picture of education in
America is contained in the report of the
house committee on education the Towner
bill, and abundant prool of its truth is con-
tanned in the hearings which were held in
connection with the bill.
This report is surely enc of the most start
ling indictments of our civilization which
has ever issued from Capitol Hill. Repre-
sentatives and senators are always investi-
eating something and reporting about it, but
usually their findings are not too critical
pessimistic Like all gCod Americans, they
have generally proceeded on the assumption
that, whatever little shortcomings it might
have, this nation is nevertheless the finest
and most enlightened on the face of the
earth.
But since the war a new spirit seems to be
abroad in the country. Frequently you en-
counter Americans who seem to think that
the American horn has been blown long
enough They seem to think that boasting
is no longer in order. They are inclined
rather to make critical estimate of the
country to take account of its faults and to
find those ~aults grievous. number of
books have been written since the war which
practically reverse the traditional attitude Of
the American toward his country. Instead of
calling it the greatest EARTH these writer's
point out that it is tagging behind all other
civilizations in many of the activities which
make civiliz1tion-in literature, in art, in
education in respect for individual rights, in
the intelligent enjoyment of life.
The Tail End of Civilization
Now this critical spirit seems to have got
ten into the congressman, or at least into the
committee Oh education.
'"These statistics put us in the ninth place
among the nations it says, in regard to our
status in educationy with most of the civiliz-
ed world ahead of u.s.
Nor do the congressman blink the signif-
canoe of he facts which they unearth. They
recognize that democracy is an absurdity
unless the voters are intelligent enough to
know what they are voting about. What,
then, of democracy in which a large frac-
ton of the population is illiterate and still
larger one densely ignorant?
''In free country it's safety is jeopard1z-
ed" the report modestly admits, when its
voters cannot .ead the ballots they cast and
only know how to vote as they e told"
Here briefly are some of the facts which
brought the congressman to this frame OF
mind:
According to the census of 1910 there
were in this country 100000 persons 10
years or older who could not read or write,
and the committee does not believe that con-
dtions have improved since then. In add1-
ton to these there were 100000 persons
who could not read or write English, making
a total of 100000 in the land OF the free
who were no more qualified to exercise the
right of the franchise than so many Austria
liam bushmen The surgeon generals re-
port showed that of the men called to serv-
ice between the age Cf FL and 81, nearly 70
per cent were practically illiterate. This
means that a fourth of the young manhood
of the country which is it's main reliance IN
peace and in war, is to all intents and pur-
poses in state Of barbarism. Former Sec
rotary of the Interior Lane estimates that the
annual cost Of illiteracy to the United states
is $S25, 100000. The director Of the bureau
of mines states that if all of the miners could
read and speak English a thousand lives
year would be saved
Hliteracy Nation Wide
The committee emphatically refutes the
idea that illiteracy is confined to the soutn,
and to out-of-t he-way sections. It shows that
while Georgia has $4,000 illiterates, New
York has 46O, 900, and that Pennsylvania has
more of them than Alabama. Neither does
the idea hold good that the illiterates are
chiefly negroes. Thee are a million more
white illiterates than colored.
Of the $4,000, 900 foreign-born in the
United States, the committee says that s.
900 900 cannot read or write English, and
that 100000 cannot read or write any Ian
guage.
The committee says that getting an educa-
ton in the United States is largely matter
of luck, that the opportunity is not equal.
Elm the south large proportion of the
negro children never see the inside of a
schoolhouse," it asserts. ''In the north there
is hardly a city that has adequate school ia
cilities FIR all it's Children
The committee finds that in physical edu-
cation our schools heve failed even worse
than in mental education.
+The provost marshal generals report re-
vealed the startling fact that more than one
third of the men exami1- ed for military serv-
ice the late war were disqualified by rea-
son of physical disability it reports. "It
also stated that 80 per cent OF these young
men could have qualified had they been
taught the simp4 est rules of hygiene and
health. 1t was ignorance, gross ignorance,
that in the vast majority of cases was the
cause Of their incompetence"
REMARKABLE REMARKS
EFrThe cause for wondt lies not in the few