Evening star., 1927-11-19
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

Now has not DR.. John J. Tigert,
United States Commissioner of Educa-
ton, "let the cat out of the bag" or
upset the-well, upset the conceit of
New Workers,
He deliberately told those New
Workers. that they didn't know
BEANS" as compared with the en-
lightened mountaineers of the South?
At a conference in New York City,
last Wednesday, he reiterated that
strange statement, while confessing
that he had already been roasted"
for venturing to make it. He declared
that there is more illiteracy in New
York City than among the ''moun-
tain whites" of the South-the pore
white trash" That is why apoplexy
has suddenly become epidemic in the
Nations metropolis. Next thing we
hear, that Tiger-t will be talking
that way in Boston-Boston itself!
He's not even afraid to beard DR..
Winship or DIR. Eliot right in their
very dens.
But then, remember, DIR. Tigert is
from the South, and so he may be pref
udiced. Only last week I fell into
the trap of accepting a boast from
one of the Southern States. 30 the
effect that it had been so active in
reducing illiteracy therein, since the
war, that now, instead of % per cent
of it's people being unable to stand the
Alpha test, which had played havoc at
the time of the army draft, the per-
centage had been reduced to Is. I'm
thinkingly 1 fell into that trap of ac-
cepting that reduction, although, on
second thought, l should have recalled
that one company of white soldiers
from that State had been tried in
1917, and showed that 62 per cent
could not pass the test of literacy-
could not read a newspaper nor write
a letter.
Besides, there has been no official
census nor inquiry made since 1920
as to literacy, anywhere; so who
vouches for the accuracy of that al
legged reduction, in the last five or
seven years. from 25 tor 62) per cent
in one State down to Is per cent?
Personnel.
The United States census records
Only 6 per cent illterates, but the
joker in that record is that that means
that only out of every 100 people
confessed land no enumerator ever
made any test at alp that they could
not sign their own name nor read
Cat" and know what animal it was.
What is an illiterate? The Army
drafttest was based on ability to read
a short paragraph in a newspaper or
book, and write a short letter to the
home folks explaining that the writer
was sick and hoping that the recipient
was enjoying the same blessings. And
a quarter OF the American people were
thus found too utterly ignorant to be
of any use chasing the Kaiser. They
could not read orders nor send back a
report when they caught him.
SO the American national defense
was reduced as effectually by illiteracy
as if the enemy had captured quar-
ter of our territory. q quarter of our
Navy and Army and quarter of our
ammunition and transportation and
rations before we had fired gun. We
managed to organize an Army of about
1000 900 men, by eliminating that
quarter of ignorant men; otherwise
that Army would have been 1888, 1888.
Besides, all business activity, all
trades and all industry are affected
lust the same as the Army. The cost.
liest luxury of this most enlightened
Nation is it's utter Ignorance; so testify
teachers and statesmen and Army eX-
perts.
According to the Bureau of Indus
trial Research, when the Army sought
10000 specialists in some TIA different
occupations, 1t had 250, 900 applications
of men who claimed to know their
trades. OF these, per cent were ex-
perts. "a per cent were classed as
"journeymen" (men who journey from
one discharge to another because of in
competency, 40 per cent were appren-
tees and the last 80 per cent were
punk
The Government wanted chemists
chemists of So varieties of efficiency.
1t almost found "a7 varieties of
pickles." for, out of 100000 applicants,
only 1S1 qualified.
The United States-this most beau
tiful and most prosperous Nation in
the world, this haven of all ambition,
this land of free schools and compul
sorry schooling-has the highest pro-
portion of illiterates, even by the joker
records of the census. of any ''enlight-
ened' nation in the world. The whole
world, including Darkest Africa, aver
ages about so per cent illiterates-
the same aAons State showed in 1917.