Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-06-21
Georgia S Notable Advance
~, Reducing H]'teracy

n YOTHING Georgia has achieved in the
M last decade rebounds more highly to
her credit than her progress in the re-
duction of iIliteracy. Regrettable as 1t is
that in her population of fewer than three
million souls there are some three hundred
and twenty-nine thousand persons OF schooI
age and older who cannot read the language
in which the laws are written, the quicken
ing thought of the times made current and
the goodliest treasures of the past preserved,
still is it not keenly gratifying that the
percentage Of these has decreased from
twenty and seven-tenths in 1910 to fifteen
and three-tenths in 1920?
This, although it includes negroes, is con-
siderably less than the percentage OF litter
acy for whites alone as recently as the year
1890. At the close of the War Between the
States, as DR.. M. l.. Britain interestingly
points out, Georgia had nearly a million il
literates and not even the rudiments of a
public school system. In 1910 twenty-seven
per cent of the white population and ninety
five per cent Of the colored were illiterate.
By 1880 the figures had fallen to twenty
two per cent white and eighty per cent col
ored; by 1890 to eighteen per cent white and
sixty-two ,er cent Colored; by 1900 to eleven
and five-tenths per cent white and fifty per
cent colored; by 1910 to seven and eight
tenths white and thirty-six and five-tenths
colored; the latest Federal census shows only
four per cent white illiterates and only thir-
teen and three-tenths per cent colored. All
things considered, the record is a shining
tribute to the Commonwealth intelligence
and sense of duty; it is doubtful that any
people, confronted with problem so burden
some and SO complex would have done better.
Let us not forget, however, that our pres
ent illiteracy percentage OF fifteen and three
tenths is just fifteen and three-tenths too high
The nations economic loss through illiteracy
is estimated to be eight hundred and twenty
five million dollars annually, of which Geor-
gia, we may be sure. sustalns her full pro-
portion. Agriculture can1ot prosper as it
should industry cannot attain its due measure
Of efficiency and profitableness, citizenship
will not be what it ought, nor any field of the
great common interests what they might, I'M
til the heavy and darkening handicaks Of il
literacy are struck off altogether. Georgia
should find this task and duty far less diff
ficult, now that she has a compulsory eduCa-
ton law and a Statewide system of local
taxation for the maintenance of schools. The
law will count for little, of course, unless
there are funds to make its enforcement pos
sible and practicable; children cannot be con-
strained to attend schools which do not exist, |
or in which they can find no seat. Morally |
and by all considerations of public interest, |
every county is bound to provide adequate |
school Facilities for every child within its
borders.
The newly adopted local tax system, to- |
gether with the liberal allowances from the !
State treasury, makes this altogether feast |
bic. There is no failure to get money to |
DullQ court houses ana Jd1lS ana TO keep the
machinery of government running; there can |
be no excuse for not getting money to vouch- |
safe the child's sacred right to education. We
provide great sums to punish the criminal; |
would it not be we'll to provide more for edu- |
cation to prevent crime? We protest against
laws that discourage enterprise or impede
prosperity; would it not be wise to protest
against conditions that fetter enterprise and
prosperity at their very source in the human
mind and spirit?
Illiteracy, be it said is not problem
peculiar to this and other Southern States
While Georgia has upwards of three hun
dred thousand illiterates, New York has four
hundred thousand; while Alabama has more
than three hundred thousand, so also has
Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts ''there
she stands"-has more tnan one hundred
thousand. The United States army draft
board found that approximately twenty-five
per cent of the men called to the colors dur
ing the late war were illiterates. A national
problem it is, this inability of millions to
pedence, the language of the ballot of the
daily newspaper, of the Bible.
But that with which Georgia is most vital
ly concerned is her own responsibility Her
achievements in the last decade and in the
four preceding, scored in the frown of heavy
Odds bid her go forward with cheer and re-
doubled endeavor. Long before 1880 arrives
there should be not one 11literate left within
her fertile bounds; ano there will not be if
each community in the years ahead proves
as clear in vision and as faithful in effort as
has the Commonwealth in general in the
murk1er and more difficult times gone by.
W;nnocBe'S Ho.,o4