Evening star., 1921-06-12

sons over fourteen years OF age, cd
$7.5oo.o0o for Americanization, go
s2o.ooo.0o for physical education, (4)
$15,000.000 for preparation of public
school teachers-s5o. .0oo, 600 for equal
izing educational opportunities in the
states.
Properly Federal Functions.
All of these items are looked upon
as properly federal functions, be.
cause: % the basis of popular gov
ernment is general intelligence which
is inconsistent with adult illiteracy.
CD citizenship is distinctly a federal
rather than a state function, and
Americanization of our vast foreign
population is essentially federal. CThe
draft records revealed 81 per cent of
our applicants physically defective, IS
per cent of which. according to Gen.
Wood. could have been removed il
taken between the ages of six and
eighteen.)
There is decided difference OF
opinion as to whether the Smith
Towner bill interferes with private or
parochial schools, and every member
! OIL Congress has received voluminous
protests upon this ground. Chairman
Fess claims that the bill has been
carefully framed to guard against
such interference and against federal
control of education in the states 1t
also guards against misuse of funds
by limiting them to specific PURPOSES
to prevent waste by states or locali-
,nS II
raised by the states as a condition for
the federal aid
Department OF Education.
The movement for department Of
education, although il has bobbed Nd
with renewed strength. is not new
Lihe the movement for equal suffrage
ana prohibition il started more than
fifty years ago. The National Educa-
ton Association. voicing the senti-
nents of the educators of The nation.
as far back as 1868. went on record
in favor Of d department of education.
with secretary in the Presidents
cabinet, and IL has been Reimbursed
over and over again down to the pres
ent time. Leading women's. civic, pa
triotic and social welfare organiza-
tons have supported the drive.
Recently national committee for
a department OF education was or
sanized under the chairmanship of A
Lincoln Filene Of Boston This COM
mittee includes Cleveland II. Dodge.
Frank A. Vanderlip. Rabbi Wise, Rev.
| Frank Crane. Edward Box, George
Wharton Pepper. William c. Redfield.
| Mrs. Thomas A. Edison. Miss Mary
Garrett Hay, Mrs. Clifford Pinchot and
| others.
Separate bills on physical education
and Anericanization are now awaiting
action in Congress
Rehabilitation Work.
There is another line of education
that Is purely federal-the rehabili-
tation work. When the government
enacted the war risk insurance act it
contained in three major items
| Q) compensation. 90 allowances and
allotments and go insurance. A
| fourth major item was added-the re-
ilabilitation or reirlining of the man
who returned disabled above a spe-
cific disability.
There are now being re-educated a
vast army of young men in fulfin-
ment of the purpose, not only to
| heal their physical wounds through
+, the aid of the hospitals, but to
place them on their feet to face the
world as self-supporting and inde-
pendent citizens. SO far as education
can insure it The organization of
this work is as wide as the nation.
1t is conducted by one central Office
| located in Washington. which oper-
ates through districts covering every
part of the country
! Training Disabled Soldiers.
Army reports show more than 20O,-
600 men discharged with some form of
disability. OF this number 1145s4
were designated as eligible for train
ing with pay for allowance. and SO,-
015 have been been designated as
eligible for training without pay al
lowance. OF this number there were
in training April l, 1921, with pay al
lowance, S1,4S1, and without pay al
lowance, 10.49S. On March 81 the re-
port showed 3.125 men who had COM
pleted training and 1870 as having
discontinued. 1t estimated that 80
per cent Of the latter had entered en-
ployment as the result of training;
723 have died while taking training.
The first 1000 men who have been
rehabilitated went into 153 different
kinds of employment at an average
annual wage of s1.463.33. where the
wages of the same men before the
war was s1.o72.71. Two thousand
schools and 500 plants are being used
for this training. Up to March 81
there had been expended for this
purpose sS9.521, ,414.24. Since June,
1918. s6S.000,000 Of this sum has been
for allowances The overhead has
been about IA per cent on an aver
age.
Supplementing this act placing in
a position of self-helpfulness. inde-
pendence and self-respect, the enlist
ed men of America who returned in
a disabled condition from their serv-
ice, Congress also extended the re-
habilitation work to the disabled in
industry The service is to be carried
on in cooperation with the various
states upon the basis of equal appro-
priation by the states for the same
purpose.
FARM COMMITTEE NAMED.