Arizona republican., 1922-05-05
EXTENSIVE PROGRAM
PLANNED FOR STATE
ILLITERACY MEETING

An extensive program Is now pe-
ing prepared by Miss Elsie Ioles'
state school superintendent, Tor an
zona's first state-w wide iillteracy con :
ference which will be held in the hlgh
school auditorium on TUESDAY, May . >.
The conference was called at th1s
time by Miss Toles so that DR.. j. ).
,risert United States commissioner
IF education. who is an authority on
illiteracv and who will visit Phoenix
on Nav q and 10, could be present
and assist the educators in their Ell
forts to lower the percentage OF INT
eracy in the state. "a
The conference will open at 10
o,cloctr in the morning and Will con-
finue throughout the day. lnVlta-
tions sent out over the state 10 the
various civic organizations, Amerl-
canization committees and those IN
ferested in American1zatIon work py
Miss Toles to attend the conference
have brought many responses accept
ing and indications are that. the con
ference will be a great success. Inc
general public also is invited 10 az
tend the sessions and 1t is hopeu that
= large number of persons Who are
i,,terested in the work will take ad-
vantage of the opportunity TO attehu
the conference.
In addition to an address by DR. j.
T Tigert on illiteracy problems, ad-
dresses also will be given by A. II.
Mcclure of Yuma: G. u. Rose, CITY
school SUPERINTENDENT of Tucson; Dr
y q. Lockwood. acting president OF
Ibe university of Arizona; all OF
x,hon attended the illiteracy confer
ence of the western states which was
held in San Francisco in February OF
This wear. These men will give re-
ports on this conference. 1t Is eA-
pected that others also VIII speah az
the conference. John X. Muraock'
Of the Tempe Normal school, chalI-
man of the state Amerlcanizatlull
committee, will assist Miss Ioies N
holding the illiteracy conference here.
According to the latest government
data on ilHteracy in the United
States Arizona has the highest per-
eentage of illiterates OF all Oh tue
states. However the percentage OF
5lliteracv among the native porn
whites in the state is only 1.3 per
cent and after eliminating the lndlah
nopulation whose education is gov
ernment responsibility, the llllteracy
problem in Arizona is one OF Amerl-
eanization work among the non
English speaking population.
The schools of the state have been
taking care of the children and the
various Americanization committees
in the state have been making braNe
efforts to eradicate ilhteracy among
the adults but their work needs the
assistance of the other organizations
to accomplish the most. 1t is hopeu
that the conference to be held mere
will bring forth this assistance.
q f1ry
state according to the government
figures is 1913 per cent, and the total
number of illiterates in the state 10
wears old and over, is 39,131. In l9lO
fhe total number of illiterates was
e. 95s. and the percentage 20.9.
According to statistics there are
233 native white illiterateS; 1871
foreign born white illiterates, ana
ssg negroes, in the state. The num-
her of ilIiterate males OF voting age
is 15as47 and the number of illiterate
females of the same age. is l4,le9.
The rural illiterates number 35,oo9
and the urban, 6.0I2. The number OF
illiterates in the state listed by eoun-
ties is as follows: Mohaye, 4oa;
Graham, Ats; Santa Cruz, Lbs
Yavapai, 1925: Greenlee, 1928; PlnaI
1868: ella, 1870; Coehise, 3,2S2;
Pima, 1857: Navajo, 4,461; Apache'
5,243 and Maricopa, 1870.
Tucson, according to the statistics,
has 1.175 illiterates, Phoenix, $40;
Douglas, 610; Bisbee, 427; Prescott,
los: Yuma, S93: Globe, 209; Nogales,
23S: Miami. $50: Clifton. 311; Je-
rome, 1856; Mesa. 1856, and Glendale,
134.
The Indian population Of the state
are not listed in the above tabula-
tlons. All other nationalities in the
state are included in the tabulations
however.