Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1930-03-06
NATION, STATE and
COUNTY IN CAMPAIGN
AGAINST ILLITERACY

gone out from here, signed by Ray
Ly Wilbur, Secretary of the Interior
and Chairman of the National Ad-
visory Committee on Illiteracy, ask
ing County Superintendent of Edu-
cation, Miss Ethel Singleton, Of Sher-
idan County, to become a part Of the
intensive campaign that is to be
waged by nation. state and county,
to the end that illiteracy may be driv-
en- from the land. In this letter Sec
rotary Wilbur says:
"As chairman Of the National Ad-
visory Committee On Illiteracy, APP
pointed with the approval of Presi-
dent Hoover, ! am. writing to ask
you to give your most earnest efforts
and Influence toward a nationwide
campaign to reduce illiteracy TO a
minimum before the compilation of
the Census of 1880.
Your Governor and State Super
i~ntendent of Education have appoint
ed a Committee on Iliteracy for your
state. This Committee, l hope, will
act with and be a part of our Nation
al Advisory Committee. l am sure
that from the position you hold you
will do everything in your power to
help your state Committee carry out
any plan or progam that may be for
mulated.
"One of the purposes of the Com
mittee is to collect, centralize, and
combine the best methods used by the
various states in their illiteracy
campaigns. TheSub-C Committee on
Techniques. after very careful con-
sideration, has compiled a Manual on
organization, procedure, and teach
ing ! am enclosing this and hope
you will give it your careful atten-
ton.
"Please call upon us at any time
for such assistance or advice as we
may be able to give. We, in turn, ex-
pect to call upon you for needed infor-
nation and would be very glad to re-
ceive any suggestions you have to Of
fer"
In further outlining the il~literacy
situation, Secretary Wilbur said:
1--WE are SO proud of the great Am
erican public school system that we
sometimes forget that several mil
lions of our grown men and women
in the United States can neither read
nor write. 1t is a high percentage
for a civilized country, and means
that n of every fourteen people
Of voting age cannot read such q
warming sign as Danger, Live Wire.
"The aim of the National Advisory
Committee on Illiteracy is to dis
cover and put into effect measures
that will give at least a minimum
training to all of our illiterate fell
low citizens. This need not be very
difficult. 1t requires, Though, action
in every part of the United States.
Every time we teach an adult to read
or write, we have assisted in the
training of the children of the future.
For the children who are not sent to
school largely come from homes
where one or both Of the parents can
neither read nor write Simple pro-
cedures of training have been devel-
oped, and with the help Of the school
teacher, the school department, and
various movements can be brought
about before the next census. If not
now, certainly after that census is
taken we should have full infOrma-
ton as to the number of i~lliterates,
their location, and be able to remove
this blemish from American life"
The Committee holds that litter
acy is n of the chief causes OF
poverty, and poverty in turn perpet-
uous illiteracy. The eradication OF
poverty will 60 hand in hand with
the eradication of illiteracy. In num-
Der, the i~lliterates of the present
time exceed the population Of the
Colonials when Washington led their
liberation from foreign rule. These
slaves Of ignorance outnumber the