Arizona republican., 1921-02-16
spect for individual rights, in the intel lgent enjoyment of life.
 The Tail End of Civilization


 Now this critical spirit seems to have gotten into the congressman, or at least into, the committee on education.
 These statistics put us in the ninth place among the nations" it says. in regard to our status in education with most of the civilized world ahead of us.''
 Nor do the congressman blink the significance of the facts which they unearth. They recognize that a de- mocracy is an absurdity unless the voters are intelligent enough to know what they are voting about. What. then, of a democracy in which large fraction of the population is illiterare and still larger one densely ignorant? !? In free country it's safety is jeo- pardized,' the report modestly admits. when its voters cannot read the bal lots they cast and only know to vote as they are told"
 Here briefly are some of the facts which brought the congressman to this frame of mind;
 According to the census of 1910 there l 10 years of age or older who could not read or write. and the committee does not believe that conditions have inn 1 proved since then In addition to these there were 3.50o,e00 persons who could not read or write English. making d total of s,00o,o00 in the land of the free who were no more qualified to exercise l the right of the franchise than so many Australian bushmen. The surgeon generals report showed that of tho men called to service between the age: of 21 and 31, nearly 25 per cent were practically illiterate. This means thal a fourth of the young manhood of tn, country, which is it's main reliance II peace and in war. is to all intents ane -fx. in St1t .kF 4ur-yt<x <xsses l Former Secretary of the Interior L.an, estimates that the annual cost of il. literacy to the United States is $S25,- 1 000,0 ,00e. The director of the bureau O mines states that if all of the miner, could read and speak English a 1.00l lives year would be saved.
 ilIiteracy Nation Wide l The committee emphatically refutei the idea that illiteracy is confined t the South, and to out -of-the-way sec tions. It shows that while Georgia ha. S9.00o illiterates, New York has 460, 900 and that Pennsylvania has more 0 them than Alabama. Neither does tn, idea hold good that the illiterates ar lchiefly negroes There are a million more white iiliterates than colored Of the 15.000,000 foreign born in tn United States, the committee says tha 5000, 900 cannot read or write English and that 2,00e,0o0 cannot read or writ any language
 The committee says that getting al education in the United States is large ly a matter of luck, that the oppor tunity is not equal.
 Tn the South a large proportion 0 the negro children never see the insid of a schoolhouse." it asserts. s'In tn
 North there is hardly a city that ha adequate school facilities for all it children.
 1 it ys1a leducation our schools have failed eve worse than in mental education
 sThe provost marshal generals re port revealed the startling fact tha , more than third of the men ex
 amined for military service in the Tat
 war were disqualified by reason ( physical disability it reports. Tt als
 stated that 90 per cent of these youn l men could have qualified had they bee
 taught the simplest rules of hygien and health. 1t was ignorance, gros
 ignorance. that in the vast majority (
 cases was the cause of their ineom petence.''
 : The committee finds that America | teachers are utterly incompetent, ths | 100, GOO of them are less than 20 year 1 old, that 30.000 of them have no educa | ton beyond the eighth grade that 200
 900 of them have less than a hig 5 school education, and that 300,000 l them nave no profeSSlonai tralnin F whatever It finds that the averag : salary paid teachers in this country 'e 7 less than the wages paid scrubwome : or ditchdiggers.'
 The measure by which the congress $ men hope to amehorate these eond : tions creates department of educatio with q cabinet officer at it's head. g lappropriates s10o.o00.o00 of federi : money to be given the states on II n condition that they raise an eau; 1 amount This money is to be used V overcoming illiteracy. in 'Americanii : ing" immigrants, in paying better sa r aries to teachers, in promoting physic = 1 education, in training teachers. TT I administration of the funds is to be = the hands of the states. Much defel e ence is paid to right of the states Q manage their own affairs They al n merely to be offered encouragement 2 guidance and money.
 Ii Of Mexicos total mineral produ = ton. exclusive of oil, s9o 0O0 000 on T a third has been exported and on
 tvvO-fifths worked